Don’t mess with the Catholics… when you have a priest in the family, it’s pretty much the best thing to ever happen. So it shouldn’t surprise us that Ethan Hawke’s great-grandmother wanted him to be a priest. At the Venice Film Festival this week, he shared that he’d pray to God for him not to get the calling.

“I’ve been surrounded by religion my whole life and it’s a very important dialogue, in my head anyway, so I was very grateful for the opportunity to play this character,” Hawke said, referencing his new drama First Reformed, which was screened at the fest. “The movie definitely walks that razor’s edge between utter despair and completely believing in love. The two are at war throughout the film and they are so at the end to me.”

Don’t get me wrong, we’re happy Ethan chose to act instead, but he would have looked FINE in a priest robe.