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Sterlin Harjo reveals how Ethan Hawke took ‘The Lowdown’ on a wild ride

September 23, 2025

Lee Raybon is not a journalist; he’s a self-proclaimed “truthstorian,” fighting the power in Tulsa full force and non-stop. Lee (Ethan Hawke) is like a maniacally motivated and self-righteous version of the Dude from “The Big Lebowski,” a man careening through life with good intentions undermined by bad decisions.

It’s at that hugely entertaining intersection that we meet him in Sterlin Harjo’s new comedic neo-noir “The Lowdown” (on FX on Hulu).

Set in Harjo’s hometown of Tulsa, “The Lowdown” tracks Lee as he tries to parent his teenage daughter, Francis (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), while investigating a suicide that he’s convinced was actually a murder connected to a larger conspiracy he is tracking.

Creator Sterlin Harjo, left, and actor Ethan Hawke attend the premiere of FX's "The Lowdown" at Brooklyn Academy of Music on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP) — Creator Sterlin Harjo, left, and actor Ethan Hawke attend the premiere of FX’s “The Lowdown” at Brooklyn Academy of Music on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

Lee has already made plenty of enemies with his exposés of Tulsa’s corruption, and now he gets himself repeatedly beaten up and threatened, plus thrown in the trunk of a car, where he witnesses a double homicide. He’s also nearly gutted by a couple of caviar counterfeiters that he blunders upon before he charms his way out.

While Hawke, who gives a bonkers but somehow nuanced performance, is on screen – and talking himself into and out of trouble – almost constantly, Harjo has populated the show with memorable secondary characters and a cast that includes Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kyle McLachlan, Tim Blake Nelson, Keith David, Killer Mike, Tracy Letts, Dale Dickey and Peter Dinklage.

Harjo, who burst into prominence with “Reservation Dogs,” was inspired by a real Tulsa public historian and activist, Lee Roy Chapman, for whom he worked before Chapman’s death in 2015.

“He made a difference in my trajectory as a filmmaker,” Harjo said in a recent video interview. “I wanted to capture the spirit of him and his dogged obsession with the truth.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. How much of the character Lee was in your creation, and how much is what Ethan brought to it?

We worked on another project, and then I wrote for him on “Reservation Dogs,” so before I showed him the script I did what I would call an “Ethan Hawke pass” on that character, paying attention to speech patterns and strengths I find in him as a human.

But then Ethan took it and went to another place. When he came in with the energy you see in the show, I just said, “This is going to be a great ride, and my job is to just help steer and be there for him if he needs it.” I’m always watching to make sure he doesn’t go off the rails, but a lot of the decisions he’s making are really inspired and you don’t want to get in the way of that train.

Q. There’s a moment where Lee’s hat blows off and he goes to retrieve it. Do you plan those little moments or go with things as they happen?

That hat fell off in one take, and we loved it, so we kept trying to make it happen in other takes. Later, Francis is wearing it and running, and the hat flies off – that we kept doing over because I loved it so she’d have to loosen her hat and pop it off.

I try to keep things open to let all of these accidents happen. And we try to embrace the mistakes, too. You can get to a more interesting truth that way.

Q. Lee’s obsessed with the truth, but he lies constantly to his friends, his enemies, his daughter and himself.

That someone who will do anything, including not tell the truth to get to the truth, is a paradox that I find interesting.

But Lee is also drawn from my life. I was trying to become a filmmaker and raising a young daughter and wondering if it was worth it, and at what point was it too much and whether I should quit. All those fears play out in Lee, too. But he knows getting to the bottom of this story is important and believes that history will absolve you for fighting for the truth, and hopefully, your daughter will absolve you someday when she realizes what you’re fighting for.

On FX's "The Lowdown," Ethan Hawke plays Lee Raybon. (Photo credit: Shane Brown/FX) — On FX’s “The Lowdown,” Ethan Hawke plays Lee Raybon. (Photo credit: Shane Brown/FX)

Q. This is a love letter to Tulsa and its community, but you also focus so much on the dark side.

If you truly love someone, you’ll tell them the truth, right? There were a lot of years where the Tulsa Race Massacre [of 1921] was swept under the rug. Well, my friend Lee Roy helped bring that story out, and now it’s talked about and it’s made Tulsa a better place. Hiding it made it a very corrupt place and a place that you didn’t feel quite safe in. If you expose it and talk about it you can start healing. So for me, it’s about telling the truth.

Q. Do you consciously try to balance the sociopolitical and darker elements of the show with the lighter parts and the rambunctious comedic scenes?

That tone naturally happens for me because that’s how I am. I can be very goofy and funny and make people laugh, or I can be a brooder in the corner feeling sorry for myself and depressed. Those are my two gears. And it always feels more truthful when my writing is in the middle of those two tones and letting them, not struggle with each other, but dance with each other.

Q. The storyline is propulsive with suspense, action, fights and killings. But then you stop to loiter, to just revel in great conversation, or to veer off to scenes like the one with the Beluga Brothers who kidnap Lee due to a misunderstanding he brings on himself.

I’m drawn to the veering off, and I have people to remind me that I need to stay on track, to rein scenes in and connect them to the overall story. I just collect these stories in my life. A year before we shot, I bought a boat on that lake, and the guy who runs the marina told me about these prehistoric fish and this black market selling of them as caviar to Russia in the ‘70s. I just got obsessed with that story, and usually when something sticks in my head like that, I just go with it

Q. The soundtrack features local musicians like J.J. Cale but also actors with Oklahoma roots – Letts, Tripplehorn, Nelson. What’s the appeal for you?

I think there is a cinematic higher power if you do these things – it infuses the spirit of the project and brings a little more truth to it. They know this world and the tone specific to Oklahoma. Tracy Letts is from a town pronounced Doo-rant, but if you’re not from Oklahoma, you’ll say Durant. That informs everything – even if it doesn’t show up on camera, it’s there. That’s a small distinction, but it’s more truthful.

Sterlin Harjo reveals how Ethan Hawke took ‘The Lowdown’ on a wild ride Orange County Register

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Sterlin Harjo reveals how Ethan Hawke took ‘The Lowdown’ on a wild ride

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