Eccentric's Corner: Boyhood Wonder

LaCameraChiara / Shutterstock.com

RICHARD LINKLATER

PROFESSION: Writer-director

CLAIM TO FAME: Groundbreaking independent films like Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and the Before Sunrise trilogy.

We expect the protagonists in a well-made film to mature and change. But Mason, the main character in Richard Linklater's new movie, Boyhood, literally grows up before our eyes.

In a radical approach to narrative filmmaking, Linklater, who is perhaps best known for films that unfold in near-real time, like Dazed and Confused (1993) and Before Sunrise (1995), shot Boyhood in short bursts over 12 years—though with just 39 days of actual filming.

During that time, Mason (Ellar Coltrane, cast at age 6 by Linklater), grows from a dreamy grade-schooler to a confused teen and, ultimately, a hopeful collegian, under the sometimes less-than-watchful eyes of his parents (Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke) and sister (the director's daughter, Lorelei). For the viewer, it's a heady experience that evokes our own childhoods and forces us to contemplate our journeys to adulthood. For Linklater, "It wasn't about the trick. I felt there was a great possibility to actually feel something about life and time and all of our stories."

A lot of people see Boyhood as an experiment in filmmaking. Was this a story you felt you had to tell or a method you had to try?

I think it's both. I've spent my filmmaking life trying to explore the boundaries of narrative and storytelling in my own way. I'm always asking, Why can't a story do that? What are the possibilities of cinematic storytelling? I've thought about this for 30 years—at the time of Boyhood's inception, it had been 18 or 20 years. My Boyhood problem was how to tell a story about childhood when I didn't want just one little moment of it—I wanted to tell a story about all of it. That presents an obvious problem: How do you deal with the restrictions? The idea to get rid of the restrictions by filming a little bit every year probably came about unconsciously by just having thought about the parameters of storytelling in general for so long. No "Aha!" moments come out of nowhere.

There's inherent risk in this film—your star could have walked away at any time, for one thing.

The whole thing was kind of risky but no more than life in general, where in any relationship you form, people can walk away—their life can change, there can be the phone call with the tragic news, anything can happen. I felt this would be a fun ongoing art project that would be worthwhile for everyone involved and fun for the cast and crew to keep coming back to. That's how I see life to some degree—as a big artistic project. So it was easy for artists to come aboard. It was an impractical idea, of course—that's why our budget was so low. But everyone who got involved thought, Oh, what a cool idea, and not, Oh, I might be a different person eight years from now and want to quit. Everyone involved was all in for the 12 years.

We meet the main character as a little boy playing in the dirt. Later, that same boy, that same actor, is a teen asking, "So what's the point?" What are you hoping people take from that?

The way cinema works on people, I felt that if you just put in that time with this family and particularly this kid, you'd be invested. We just naturally do it—it's the way humans perceive stories. We invest in the lead characters. We care about them. When people who knew the structure of the movie asked me, "Yeah, but what goes on in it?" I'd say, "Well, not much." I'd say that jokingly, but it's true—there isn't a lot of plot.

No, it's not a radical story. But there's power in seeing the characters grow as they do.

I wanted the film to unfold the way our lives do. There are little moments of drama, ups and downs, but for the most part we're sort of passing through our time and just trying to do our best, especially as a kid when you're adapting to what's coming at you, which is out of your control to such a large degree. I wanted to mirror the way you feel you mature, age, and grow. I would've felt it was a failure if people saw it in mechanistic terms and thought, "Oh, yeah, that's interesting—you see everyone get older."

In many of your films, there's a resentment between adults and kids. Do you see that as just part of growing up?

I see it from both angles: For the adults involved in this film—Patricia, Ethan, myself—it became a portrait of not only our own childhoods that we remember, but also a reflection of ourselves as parents. But I wanted the kid's perspective: Why are all these adults, these full-grown people, in my face all the time? Why are they so concerned with what I'm doing and judging my every move?

Is that how you felt as a kid?

I just couldn't wait to be free of all these authority figures telling me what to do and judging me and giving me advice. I think there probably is resentment—when older people start resenting young people's freedom, their new sexuality, the freshness of it. I felt it—adults who were bored or not happy in their lives projecting downward on us, trying to squelch whatever fun we were having. I was very aware of that as a kid, so I try to be aware of that as an adult. I don't want to be one of those adults crapping on young people.

How do you cast a six-year-old for a 12-year shoot?

Well, that was the big moment. All the adults, all the artists, were committed and they could have that perspective. But a 6-year-old really can't. I was careful—I knew it wasn't Ellar making the decision, although at that age he wanted to do it. I really examined his family and got to know his parents—they're both artists, and that was key. I felt that it would be a positive thing, not just in Ellar's life but for the rest of the family, that this would be a cool thing and not a burden, and I think it has been.

Did he ever try to back out?

Ellar never wavered. He always seemed to like it every year when we came back together. But that was the path he was on. My daughter, on the other hand, wanted to do it when she was 8, but later, not that much. I held her to it, cruel parent that I am.

Many of your films feature characters consciously trying to figure out the world, and themselves. Is that your theme as a filmmaker?

It's pretty innate in the way I feel about the world. I don't have it figured out, but I'm trying to. The day I think I have it all figured out and try to "impart my knowledge," it will probably not be a very interesting film. I see everyone trying to figure it out all the time, and it's a complete delusion. Human psychology is too complex. Although we want to think we have it all figured out, or somebody else does, it's just never so easy. It's never so simple.

Image: LaCameraChiara / Shutterstock.com