They were married for seven years.

And Ethan Hawke has admitted his life 'fell apart' when he divorced Uma Thurman.

The 47-year-old told GQ that he is now forced to do commercial films to pay her alimony.

Personal life: Ethan Hawke has admitted hi life 'fell apart' after divorce from Uma Thurman.. and now he has to act to pay her alimony

The couple separated in 2003, just a year after Hawke received his first Oscar nomination for Training Day, which he described as 'the best moment of my career'.

'In a lot of ways, it could have been the beginning of something. Like, maybe, maybe, you could be commercially viable,' he recalled.

'But I got divorced and my personal life fell apart.'

He continued: 'When you're depressed, it's really easy to see everything that is fake about other people and life, and I just started seeing all that. How phony celebrity was, how phony everything is. You channel your inner Holden Caulﬁeld, you know?'

Ups and downs: The couple separated in 2003, just a year after Hawke had received his first Oscar nomination for Training Day, which he described as 'the best moment of my career'

The former couple share two children: 16-year-old son Levon, and 20-year-old daughter and upcoming Stranger Things star, Maya.

Hawke insisted in the interview he never wanted — and still doesn't want — to make films just to make money; however he admitted he is now forced to do commercial films to pay alimony.

'My best movies are not the ones that paid me: the Before trilogy, Boyhood, First Reformed, Dead Poets Society,' he said.

'But I'm 47 years old. I pay my alimony with my acting. I pay my kids' health insurance with my acting. I pay everybody's tuition with my acting. I'm helping various charities with my acting.

Footstep following: The former couple share two children, including 20-year-old daughter and upcoming Stranger Things star, Maya

'I've become a professional, and I never wanted to be a professional. I kind of hate professionals.'

Ethan admitted once wondering if he would have a viable career, as the movies that he liked to do — which indeed were either critical of cult successes, or both — did not make an impact financially.

'I'd had kind of a frustrating experience, because despite doing some work like Gattaca, Reality Bites, Before Sunrise—I'd done this kind of indie punk-rock version of Hamlet—so I was doing work that I liked, but nothing I was doing was making any kind of mark in a commercial environment,' he said.

Read more: Ethan's in-depth interview appears in the August edition of GQ, on shelves now

'And to say I cared would be a vast overstatement, because I really didn't care. But I wondered whether there was going to be a place for me.

'It's not like, Oh, now I want to start making zombie movies by the dozen. I didn't want to be a commercial success. That wasn't something I aspired to.

'I wanted to make art that I was proud of and that spoke to me personally. I wanted to be connected to something that I felt was authentic. And I was doing that, but it wasn't working in a commercial way. And that was confusing.'

Despite his early successes, pre-Training Day Hawke was still forced to audition for roles — and even that's when he could get an audition.

'I was in a unique position, which is that I was only 30 years old, and I was washed up,' he recalled.

'All my friends were going to audition for Saving Private Ryan. And I couldn't even get an audition for it, because they knew me and didn't want me. It's like, There's no need for me to audition, because we know him. No, not him.

Family: The former couple also share the now 16-year-old Levon Roan

'And people were reading scenes from A Midnight Clear, which was a movie I had done and apparently Spielberg loved, but he didn't want me to audition,' he added.

'All these other guys were getting out of theater school, like the Ben Afflecks of the world, the Matt Damons of the world. All those guys were finding their voice and coming into their own. And you are on the lunch box from back then and have no place on the new lunch boxes, you know?'

Another disadvantage of being so closely related to his earlier roles was being typecast; by casting directors, and even by potential romantic interests.

'When I did Dead Poets Society, people thought I was a prep-school kid and I got offered other prep-school parts. And then for years, Jesse from Before Sunrise and Troy from Reality Bites were what people thought of when I would meet them,' he recalled.

'But then Training Day comes out, and the perception around me takes on a new energy. And then Boyhood comes out, and all of a sudden you're everybody's f*cking dad.

Bills to pay: 'I'm 47 years old. I pay my alimony with my acting. I pay my kids' health insurance with my acting. I pay everybody's tuition with my acting. I'm helping various charities with my acting,' he said

'But I did also go on a date once, and we were getting along pretty well, but the young woman kept accidentally calling me Troy. And I had to say, "My name is Ethan."

He admitted that the concept of 'not selling out' doesn't exist any more.

'Do you remember when Jim Morrison went apoplectic when, without his permission, the record company used a Doors song for an ad? Apo-f*cking-plectic! And now Dylan's doing ads,' he lamented.

'Big business has so completely eaten everything that the idea of resisting makes people laugh. It's really strange. And that's happened in my generation.

'I can't help but admire the people who haven't sold out. Some part of my heart would wilt if Sean Penn was doing a Rolex ad or Denzel was doing a Beefeater ad or something like that. I love that when I see Denzel in a movie, I don't think of a product.

He claimed he was once told the greats — such as Scorsese, Pacino, Hackman, Hoffman, Nicholson, De Niro — are no longer making the kids of films that made them greats because 'the middle-class lifestyle isn't enough'.

Throwback: Hawke with his two eldest children in 2004

'And ultimately a middle-class lifestyle was always enough for me,' he said. 'Like, I needed to pay my doctors' bills and I needed to get my kids to school—but I don't need three pairs of shoes. One pair of shoes is fine. And I don't need more bedrooms. I don't need bedrooms for fantasy houseguests, you know, that don't arrive.''

'Success becomes a kind of formaldehyde for some people. And they get stuck in it and die there,' he added.

'I think about the way that my daughter looks at acting: She looks at it like it's this noble profession. Like, Imagine if I could be an actor. And you start thinking like that and trying to make decisions to live up to her ethos or the ethos I gave her—and now she's old enough to see the lies in my own behavior.

'So I'm trying to get rid of those lies. And I like that. It helps me not atrophy. It helps me get out of formaldehyde.'

Hawke also shares two children, ten-year-old Clementine and seven-year-old Indiana, with second wife — and former nanny to his first kids — Ryan Shawhughes, whom he married in 2008.