Leave it to Patti Smith to tell you that you "have the worst fucking job in the world" in the most charming way possible.

Smith sat down for an interview with Ethan Hawke as part of the Tribeca Film Festival, and she gave it to him straight in their conversation that covered music, film, success and her favorite TV show, Law & Order.

SEE ALSO:Patti Smith urges musicians to pursue social activism

Smith was referring to the grueling schedule of an actor -- 16-hour-days, shooting the same scene over and over, hours in the makeup chair. It's not really her thing. She experimented with stage acting when she was younger, most notably writing and performing in Cowboy Mouthwith ex-boyfriend Sam Shepherd as a "swan song' to their affair, but the repetition bored her. "I have that John Barrymore desire to interrupt everything," Smith joked. 

Smith says that her career is informed by feeling like being herself is the only thing she knows how to do. "I had a boyfriend who dumped me because I wasn't creative enough," she recalled. "His loss."

And Patti Smith is, of course, great at being Patti Smith, so she's doing well by her definition of success, which is, "knowing you've done something really well."

Hawke shared an anecdote from when he was working on The Devil Knows Your Deadwith Philip Seymour Hoffman. Over lunch on set one day, he questioned how someone with a legacy like Al Pacino still cares about winning an Academy Award -- a reasonable inquiry for the majority of the population. 

Mashable Top StoriesStay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news.Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletterBy signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Thanks for signing up!

But Hoffman, who had won the Best Actor Academy Award for Capotetwo years prior, gave Hawke a prestigious reality check. 

"You ever won one?" Hoffman asked Hawke, who has not. "It's confusing. I wouldn't be too hard on him." 

Smith doesn't have her eyes on an Oscar, though, and is content to reserve her on-screen performances for guest spots on her beloved crime dramas. Hawke has a lot of respect for actors on shows likeLaw & Orderwho have difficult roles and little guidance. Daniel Day Lewis got an Oscar forLincoln, Hawke said, but he had all the tools to get to that golden statue. 

"Give me Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner, a part like Lincoln and the best master craftsmen of every profession, and I’ll do a pretty good job, too," Hawke said. "But put me as a guest star on an episode of Matlock, that is hard! We should be giving awards to that guy.”

Smith became obsessed with crime shows while she was on tour and would watch Vincent D'Onofrio of Law & Order: Criminal Intentdubbed in more than a dozen languages, prompting her to finally buy a television. She eventually landed guest roles on two of her favorites, Criminal Intentand The Killingafter they were canceled and, "had nothing to lose."

But for Hawke, part of the thrill of being an artist is feeling like you have everything to lose. He explained that the delicate balance between living life to the extent that you feel the need to document everything and the pull of self-sabotage threatening to destroy everything you create is part of the deal when you have, "the worst fucking job in the world," as Smith said.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

TopicsMusicCelebrities