Brian Hiatt
Contact Brian Hiatt on X View all posts by Brian Hiatt March 19, 2026
"It took a while and a lot of encouragement to think my [musical] idea was worthwhile," Hawke says. "Not because it was better, but because it was mine." Pooneh Ghana for Rolling Stone As Stranger Things came to a close, Maya Hawke says she was flat-out “scared” about the future of her career. But it’s already clear that she couldn’t have had less to worry about. Her fantastic fourth album, Maitreya Corso, due May 1, is a major step forward, a quirky, cozily organic, unceasingly melodic collection of Aimee Mann-worthy pop. She also stars alongside Lewis Pullman in the high-concept romantic comedy Wishful Thinking, which just premiered to critical praise at SXSW, and already moved into a new franchise, filming next year’s Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
When Hawke sat down at the Rolling Stone Studio, live at SXSW, she went deep on all of it, plus ambition, creative anxiety, Taylor Swift’s influence, and the voice in her head that’s never satisfied. Some highlights follow; to watch the whole interview, press play above, or go to Rolling Stone‘s YouTube channel.
The album’s title comes from two very different sources — the Beat poet Gregory Corso and the Buddhist concept of Maitreya. “This is the first time I’ve ever spoken about this record to anyone, and I really probably should have made up my mind about what I was gonna say,” she says. “But I come from a lot of different worlds and philosophies. Corso is a reference to Gregory Corso, and Maitreya is a reference to the Bodhisattva — this idea of new beginnings, this combination of the divine spirit and the human spirit. I was looking for a name of a fantasy heroine to go on this journey that I felt like the record was, and that felt right.”
Maya Hawke at the Rolling Stone Studio, Live at SXSW Pooneh Ghana for Rolling Stone Hawke doesn’t hesitate to cite Taylor Swift as an influence. “I think she inspired a generation. She made a generation of young people listen to music and think, ‘Oh wow, my life could matter. My feelings could matter. The details of it could matter.’ And of course it’s a Blakean thing, the minute particulars — the more specific you make something, the more relatable it actually is. But I was hugely influenced by her. I’ve been listening to her music my entire life. You could start any song from any word and I would be able to know where you were and finish it, probably.”
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On the new song “Lioness,” Hawke sings about watching “Sadie talk to God through the lav mic,” and she confirms it’s about her costar Sadie Sink. “I was actually talking about working on Stranger Things,” she reveals. “There was a day where I was really grumpy and not feeling inspired. And I came into set as a background player in a scene she was in, and I remembered how magical acting is. I just watched her pick a spirit out of the universe and make the whole room quiet and speak truth and turn something from a game of playing pretend into something extremely authentic. It was a kick in my butt — bring it every time, every second. Don’t get lazy for one second. When I was at drama school, I used to complain — 80 percent of the day is magic but 20 percent is total bull honky. And then I started working and I was like, oh, whoa, 80-20 is a high percentage of magic. And that was a moment where I was like, you are shrinking the ratio. You are losing touch with the magic. It’s not the art that’s depressed. You are. I think she’s the greatest actress of our generation.”
Hawke got permission from Sink before putting her name in the song — and says she sometimes asks permission even when she doesn’t name-drop. “It’s a weird feeling to be written about,” she says.”I’ve had it in my own life from people that I love who didn’t name-drop me but wrote about me. It can feel exposing and vulnerable. And also, Miley Cyrus said this — feelings enter your body and that’s not who you are. To write a great song, sometimes you wanna zero in on a singular feeling. And really that’s just a moment. If you write a really angry song about somebody you love, you wanna be like, ‘Hey, just so you know — I’m not angry at you. I was angry at you on a day that was really inspiring and created this thing. Do you feel OK about me sharing that with the world?'”
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The first single, “The Devil You Know,” is about the “gremlin” of ambition, and a wake-up call Hawke got when someone asked when success would ever be “enough.” “The only time it would ever feel like enough is if it was too much,” she says. “If it started to impede my ability to be anonymous, to be free. And I don’t want that. The only thing that would satisfy the gremlin in me is the ruination of my freedom. So I’ve gotta go talk to the gremlin and figure out a way to make a deal. That’s the devil in the song. The gremlin who’s like, more. You must do better. This person is more successful than you. You’ve gotta talk to that guy and be like, ‘OK, how can we work something out?’ This jealousy isn’t helping me. It’s not making me a better artist.”
Hawke started as a lyricist and was initially afraid to get into the music side of songwriting, in part because she was intimidated by the extraordinary musicians around her. “I just didn’t think I was any good,” she says. “And this is where great fortune meets its own complications. If I hadn’t met people like that, I probably would’ve made demos in my room and put them on YouTube. But that wasn’t the hand I was dealt. I was dealt a hand where it was like, ‘Hey, come over, I’ve got the greatest guitar player in the world here who wants to write a song with you. ‘That’s a really intimidating environment to be like, ‘But maybe what about this?’ It took a while and a lot of encouragement to think my idea was worthwhile — not because it was better, but because it was mine.”
Hawke says Wishful Thinking — in which a couple’s ups and downs turn out to have magical power over the world around them — appealed to her love of high-concept movies. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve typed ‘movies like The Truman Show‘ into Google,” she says. “I’ve watched them all and I want there to be more. And the message: What you feel inside will radiate outwards. I don’t know how much you can be miserable and angry and make the world better for other people. You’ve gotta figure out your own inner landscape first.”
Signing on to The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping was an easy decision. “Hunger Games is a no-brainer. I wanna be a part of anti-fascist populist art.”
Hawke hadn’t seen Amanda Plummer’s performance as the older version of her Hunger Games character, Wiress, in years, but she remembered every moment — and was shocked to learn it was only seven minutes of screen time. “There are no small parts, there are only small actors — another platitude — but she created such a high bar,” Hawke says. “I was deeply intimidated throughout the whole process. And I thought about it a lot. Where my character exists is before what happens that puts Wiress in the position and the mode that Amanda has her in. So it’s a question of, ‘Where did these characters start?'”
The end of Stranger Things hit Hawke hard. She describes the last two years as a “year of funerals.” “I was so scared,” she says. “I’d finally gotten my sea legs and ditched the new-kid feeling right when it started to end. And then we had a year of funerals — private and public. ‘This is the last this of Stranger Things.’ It was really sad and scary and confusing. Feeling better now. We’re all still friends, and that’s reassuring. I’ve worked since, and that’s comforting. I’ll keep you updated.”
