Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were movie stars for 50 years. A new doc explains how

Ethan Hawke has already had a busy year, with roles in the Marvel/Disney+ series "Moon Knight" plus the movies "The Northman" and "The Black Phone." Later this year he will be in the anticipated "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" and has multiple other projects on the way.

Amidst all that he also made "The Last Movie Stars," a six-part documentary on the lives and careers of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward now streaming on HBO Max. The two were award-winning actors on stage and screen, with successes both on their own and together, and were married for 50 years. Diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2007, Woodward has retreated from public life. Newman died from cancer in 2008.

Late in his life, Newman embarked on something of a personal oral history project for a planned memoir, as screenwriter Stuart Stern interviewed friends and collaborators. Newman eventually turned on the idea and burned the tapes. Hawke, who was brought onto the project by Newman and Woodward's family, was given transcripts of those lost conversations.

Reading from those transcripts is a long list of Hawkes' own friends and contemporaries, with George Clooney as Newman and Laura Linney as Woodward. Zoe Kazan gives particularly stirring readings as Newman's first wife, Jackie Witte; in addition, Sam Rockwell reads Stuart Rosenberg, Josh Hamilton reads