Plot Synopsis

Directed by Ethan Hawke, THE LAST MOVIE STARS is a six-episode documentary series that celebrates the enigmatic personas, incandescent talent, and love story of actors Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Woodward and Newman occupy a unique space in the Hollywood pantheon. Thrilling to watch on screen, they lived intriguing lives beyond the cameras, much of which was kept private by intention, until this documentary. Woodward and Newman seemed to slip the burdens of searing celebrity and blazed a unique trail. Though their intense romantic relationship was a perennial obsession of fans and Hollywood press, they successfully refocused their fame towards their art, racing, social justice, and human rights, and balanced demanding careers with a fulfilling marriage. During the course of their lives together, they also raised hundreds of millions of dollars for causes they believed in, and, were active in civil rights and the environment, inspiring legions of other artists to follow in their footsteps.

Central to THE LAST MOVIE STARS is a long-abandoned project that Newman commissioned from friend and screenwriter Stewart Stern. At Newman's request, Stern interviewed Elia Kazan, Sidney Lumet, Karl Malden, Sidney Pollack, Gore Vidal, Jacqueline Witte, Joanne Woodward, and others for a planned memoir. Newman was also interviewed by Stern. They discussed his youth, his first marriage, his romance and life with Woodward, his personal demons, and the gut-wrenching loss of his son, Scott.

In addition to archival interviews with Woodward and Newman, Hawke enlisted actors Karen Allen, George Clooney, Oscar Isaac, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Zoe Kazan, Laura Linney, Sam Rockwell, and others to voice segments of the original transcribed interviews for THE LAST MOVIE STARS. Hawke also interviewed several of Newman's daughters for insights into their parents. In Hawke's contemporary interviews with Sally Field, Melanie Griffith, and Martin Scorsese, they discuss what made Woodward's and Newman's singular careers, and relationship, so inspiring. The result, delivered in six chapters of varied lengths, is a thoughtful, revealing film of lives well and fully lived.

THE LAST MOVIE STARS debuted at the 2022 SXSW Festival and was supposed to have its world premiere on CNN+, but the streaming service was shut down before releasing THE LAST MOVIE STARS. All six episodes of THE LAST MOVIE STARS dropped on Thursday, July 21, 2022 on HBO Max.