Ethan Hawke "burned through his savings" by the time he reached 40.
The ‘Boyhood’ star admits the pressure of life following his divorce from Uma Thurman in 2005 left him in a bit of a pickle.
He told Rolling Stone magazine: "All of a sudden you’re staring at a divorce, and child support, and college coming up, and you’ve got new babies and you’ve kind of burned through the savings … It creates a loud noise in your head: ‘Is everybody OK?’
"I basically pressed the panic button. When I was young and everybody wanted me to be a movie star, I was like, ‘Eh, we’ll see.’ But all of a sudden I turned 40, and I just wanted to work. ‘Put me in, coach. I want to play.’"
Meanwhile, the 45-year-old actor – who has Maya, 17, and Levon, 14, from his previous marriage to Uma and Clementine, seven and Indiana, four, with his current wife Ryan Hawke – recently admitted it is tough raising children following a divorce.
He said: "What’s hard for people raising children who have two homes is that you are meant to have the same set of rules, to create consistency.
"We worked out that both houses don’t need to be the same as long as there are rules for the kids in both. The trick is not to pass judgement on the other house’s set of rules. You just have to worry about yours. So we set out the question, what are the rules for this house?"