The 55-year-old actor explained that Stranger Things actress Maya, 27, is more well-known among the classmates of his youngest children Clementine, 17, and Indiana, 14, whom he shares with his wife Ryan Shawhughes.
Discussing the kids visiting the set of his TV series The Lowdown, Ethan told The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Monday: "We shot it down in Tulsa, my wife was a producer on the show, we brought the whole family down.
"The kids went to public school there in Tulsa. The kids came to visit me on set and the director says, 'Is it hard having a famous dad when you're at a new school?'"
The Blue Moon star continued: "They were like, 'It's hard having a famous sister. Nobody cares about my dad... My sister's picture is in the lockers everywhere.'"
Ethan joined millions of fans around the world in watching the series finale of Stranger Things last week as he and his family were "invested" in Maya's swansong in the role of Robin Buckley.
The Oscar-nominated star said: "A lot of people in America were watching Stranger Things, but not everybody was watching their daughter (in Stranger Things) with their siblings to the side. We were invested."
Hawke was full of praise for the conclusion to the Netflix show.
The Great Expectations actor - who has Maya and son Levon, 23, with his ex-wife Uma Thurman - said: "I have to say, hats off. I thought Maya did a great job. I thought the whole show did a great job."
Ethan recently revealed that he knew Maya was going to "be an artist" when she was "about four" years of age.
Speaking to Sydney Sweeney for Variety's Actors on Actors series, he recalled: "I knew that she was gonna be a very good one. That was her safe place - watercolouring, dancing, singing all throughout her childhood.
"Anything that had to do with human communication was something she vibrated to.Â
"I remember some teacher said, 'Maya, are you happy?', (because) they were worried about her. And she said something to the effect of, 'Do you really think that's the question?'"
Ethan added: "I thought, 'I love this kid.' She was about 13. (Maya said) 'I don't think that's a very interesting question. I think there's a lot more interesting questions than whether I'm happy or not. Am I happy? No. But I don't aspire to be happy.'"
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