boyhood-posterFilmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is a groundbreaking story about growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen as we watch. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason’s parents and Lorelei Linklater (the writer/director’s daughter) as his sister Samantha, Boyhood charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. This unusual and deeply moving film captures snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between. It is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and a poignant ode to growing up and parenting. It’s impossible not to watch Mason and his family without thinking about our own journeys. I sat down with Ellar Coltrane shortly before Boyhood’s release.

Danny Miller: So how much did you grasp about what you were getting yourself into when you got the part of Mason?

Ellar Coltrane: I couldn’t understand the length of time that we’d be working on the movie, I was just way too young. At that point 12 years was twice the amount of time that I’d been alive! Even now, 12 years is most of my life so it’s still difficult to wrap my head around how long that is.

At the time did you just think, “Yay, I got a fun acting gig?”

Yeah! You know, my parents are both bizarre people — they’re artists and I was raised in a pretty unconventional way. I was used to going about life in different ways so it kind of made sense to me. But to be honest, there’s a lot of what we did in those first years that is difficult for me to remember. That’s what’s so bizarre to me now — all the things that I don’t remember at all, much less what I was thinking about at the time.

Ellar Coltrane, 19, began acting in Richard Linklater’s ‘Boyhood’ at 7, filming each year with Ethan Hawke, Patricia ArquetteDo you remember looking forward to the shoot each year or were there some years where you were like, “Oh no, I have to do that again?”

(Laughs.) It was always a blast. It was such a positive environment and such a great learning experience. I saw myself as an actor very early on so it was really exciting to get to work with these amazing people. I think the scope of what we were doing gradually dawned on me, but you know, it was only recently that it really hit me and I thought, “Wow, what the fuck have I been doing for the past 12 years? This is the weirdest thing ever!”

The whole thing was such a leap of faith for everyone involved. So many things could have happened to kill the project.

Absolutely. That’s what was so cool about it — and you knew the only people who would agree to get involved in such a thing and stick with it had to already be a little crazy — it’s not like anyone was making any money! So everyone there really threw themselves into it and everyone really wanted to be there.

It’s truly amazing, especially since we live in such a world of immediate gratification. Can you imagine someone telling you in 2002 that you’d be doing press for this movie in 2014?

(Laughs.) I know, it’s totally insane. And from the point of view of the people who funded the film — they really had to be lunatics!

Was the film kind of present in your head all year long or just during these short intervals?

Both, I guess. I never saw it as invasive. As I got older, Rick would start talking to me earlier in the year to compare notes about what I was doing and how my year had been.

So things that were actually happening in your life might be incorporated into Mason’s story?

Not directly, really, but in lots of subtle ways, especially the social dynamics of my character.

Would you say, then,  that Mason’s journey in the film somewhat mirrored what you were going through?

Sure. Not exactly “mirrored,” but we definitely took aspects from what I was going through at the time as well as what Rick and Ethan remembered going through. The character is very much an amalgamation of all of our experiences growing up. It’s Rick’s story more than anything — we’re all kind of vessels for that, but even though my childhood was very different from Rick’s, we experienced a lot of the same things emotionally.

Did you have to worry about any physical changes you wanted to make as you got older, like getting a tattoo or something?

Yeah, I did think about it. I asked before I got my ears pierced. But it wasn’t that bad — I mean, it would be cruel to monitor a child’s whole life and tell them that they couldn’t be the person they want to be because it doesn’t fit into the movie you’re trying to make! That’s just not the kind of person Rick is.

boyhood-cast2I talked to Lorelei earlier and it seems like she’s still getting over the trauma of seeing herself in the film. How was it for you to see it for the first time?

Oh, it was brutal! I do think Lorelei struggles a lot more with a certain kind of self-consciousness about it. But she’s incredible, she’s so beautiful in the film — it’s a shame that girls are trained in our culture to be so tough on themselves.

In the end, when you saw the film, was the story very different from what you had imagined?

I didn’t have many expectations. I had never seen any of the footage. Rick didn’t want us to see any of that over the years which I think was very wise. If I had seen the footage it would have completely changed my performance. But watching it now, it’s a very strange experience. The character is very different from me, but there are all these aspects of my personality and my emotions that are directly reflected on the screen. When I watch it, I find myself kind of sucked back into those feelings.

It must almost feel like a form of therapy for you all to watch this film!

Yeah — it’s such an interesting part of existence, the ways people change over time. I’ve kind of been obsessed with that my whole life.

The ways we change, and the ways we don’t change.

Excactly! We’re taught to believe that you reach these milestones and you’re a new person. When you have sex for the first time, when you turn 18 and you’re suddenly supposed to be an adult, all these things. But in many ways I’m really the same person I was 12 years ago. Every time I’ve watched the film it’s after the credits roll when the waterworks begin — it’s very emotional and really tender to see myself like that. We’re taught to be so ashamed of ourselves and hard on ourselves and to question our validity.

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Did you get to a point during the filming where you tried to have more of an impact on Mason?

Definitely, but it was gradual. When I was young, it was more Rick pulling information from me and getting a feel for things he could use to flesh out the character. But as I got older, I became more of a collaborator. Not big plot points, really, Rick already knew the arc he wanted to have, but a lot of little things. It’s funny, but Ethan’s been telling me lately that there were certain years when I was very opinionated about how the scenes should go and what should be happening in the story. That’s news to me, I don’t really remember that at all!

That was probably when you were the age where all kids start questioning authority. Do you feel you were really able to hone your acting skills because of this project?

Oh, absolutely. I never went to any kind of acting school, I just worked with a bunch of really great actors which is really the best way to learn.

Do you remember shooting any scenes that you were sorry didn’t make the final cut?

There was this one scene we did as teenagers when Mason was riding around with his friends on the back of a pickup truck. It was one of the only scenes in which we ad-libbed most of the dialogue and I thought it was really funny. I was sad that it didn’t make it into the film!