If boys will be boys, Boyhood is meant to encapsulate the shared experience of growing up. Richard Linklater's latest film, produced over a period of 12 years, stars Ellar Coltrane at six years old. By the end of the film, Ellar is 19.
In those 12 years, Mason (Coltrane) gets his first kiss, goes camping, and gets a girlfriend. He deals with his divorced parents. He experiences life events that many of us can certainly identify with, especially the leading actor himself.
"There are a lot of moments [in the film] that sort of in an alternate reality sort of way definitely mirrored my own experiences," Coltrane tells Opening Ceremony over the phone. "[Mason] had a very different childhood but he still goes through so many of the same things."
Near the end of filming, Coltrane's experiences were funneling into Mason's. And in some cases, Mason's were funneling into Coltrane's: "The last scene with Patricia [Arquette, his onscreen mom], where she’s crying as I’m going off to college, I didn’t have that exact experience, but it came at a time when I was trying to rekindle my relationship with my parents," Coltrane says. "And that moment just rang very true and really helped me to see my own mom in a sympathetic way."
Boyhood, however, doesn't just deal with life-changing moments but also modest rites of passage—baseball games, first parties, Victoria's Secret catalogs—and the real dramas of failed relationships, broken families, and making ends meet.
"Our human experience is special and it doesn’t have to be some hyper-reality," Arquette says. "The weird thing is I feel like we don’t really have any movies about human beings. We have monster movies, or we have radically dramatic movies about drug addicts, police sting operations, CIA, robots coming in. And there are human elements in it, but a real human story, we don’t really have a lot of that."
Arquette's co-star couldn't agree more. "We’re conditioned by Hollywood blockbuster movies to expect these super-dramatic moments that are supposed to be really meaningful, with the trumpets blaring to say this is a big deal that’s supposed to define your whole life," Coltrane says. "Life isn’t like that. We expect these big moments to define us, and in the end, they don’t. It’s everything in between that really makes you the person you are."
Whether it's 12 or 120 years from now, the little moments are the same for most: "Disappointing relationships, trying to provide better for your kids, trying to find out who you are as a person, who your friends are, those things would remain," Arquette says.
And the experience after spending over a decade on a film (in this case, more than half of Coltrane's life)? That part hits closer to home for the star.
"The very last moment in the film, I'm out in the desert talking about the present moment, and it’s amazing because that moment that Mason is going through on camera, trying to appreciate that moment of his life and what he’s going through, I was experiencing a very similar thing but in relation to the film," Coltrane says. "I realized it was wrapping up and coming to an end, and I was struggling to appreciate that moment of finishing this massive life project. Where the film ends, every day I get further away from it, but where it ends is exactly where I was, leading into my [real] life."
Boyhood opens in select theaters
In those 12 years, Mason (Coltrane) gets his first kiss, goes camping, and gets a girlfriend. He deals with his divorced parents. He experiences life events that many of us can certainly identify with, especially the leading actor himself.
"There are a lot of moments [in the film] that sort of in an alternate reality sort of way definitely mirrored my own experiences," Coltrane tells Opening Ceremony over the phone. "[Mason] had a very different childhood but he still goes through so many of the same things."
Near the end of filming, Coltrane's experiences were funneling into Mason's. And in some cases, Mason's were funneling into Coltrane's: "The last scene with Patricia [Arquette, his onscreen mom], where she’s crying as I’m going off to college, I didn’t have that exact experience, but it came at a time when I was trying to rekindle my relationship with my parents," Coltrane says. "And that moment just rang very true and really helped me to see my own mom in a sympathetic way."
Boyhood, however, doesn't just deal with life-changing moments but also modest rites of passage—baseball games, first parties, Victoria's Secret catalogs—and the real dramas of failed relationships, broken families, and making ends meet.
"Our human experience is special and it doesn’t have to be some hyper-reality," Arquette says. "The weird thing is I feel like we don’t really have any movies about human beings. We have monster movies, or we have radically dramatic movies about drug addicts, police sting operations, CIA, robots coming in. And there are human elements in it, but a real human story, we don’t really have a lot of that."
Arquette's co-star couldn't agree more. "We’re conditioned by Hollywood blockbuster movies to expect these super-dramatic moments that are supposed to be really meaningful, with the trumpets blaring to say this is a big deal that’s supposed to define your whole life," Coltrane says. "Life isn’t like that. We expect these big moments to define us, and in the end, they don’t. It’s everything in between that really makes you the person you are."
Whether it's 12 or 120 years from now, the little moments are the same for most: "Disappointing relationships, trying to provide better for your kids, trying to find out who you are as a person, who your friends are, those things would remain," Arquette says.
And the experience after spending over a decade on a film (in this case, more than half of Coltrane's life)? That part hits closer to home for the star.
"The very last moment in the film, I'm out in the desert talking about the present moment, and it’s amazing because that moment that Mason is going through on camera, trying to appreciate that moment of his life and what he’s going through, I was experiencing a very similar thing but in relation to the film," Coltrane says. "I realized it was wrapping up and coming to an end, and I was struggling to appreciate that moment of finishing this massive life project. Where the film ends, every day I get further away from it, but where it ends is exactly where I was, leading into my [real] life."
Boyhood opens in select theaters