Ellar Coltrane (Texas, 31 years old) was six years old when he started filming Boyhood (Moments of a Life), a movie that premiered in 2014 after a shoot that lasted 12 years. For his leading role in this film, he won the award for best young performer at the Critics’ Choice Awards. But, although he was a child actor, Coltrane did not suffer the consequences of gaining fame too early, since the movie was released when he had just reached adulthood. Now, 12 years after the premiere, he has other interests: he is a volunteer firefighter and is training as an emergency medical technician.
His last appearance in film was in 2021, when he starred in the independent movie The Last Day of the Smiths. And although he is not completely closed off to occasionally participating in independent films, Coltrane no longer aspires to become a movie star. “I’ve moved on,” he said in an interview with Variety published this Tuesday.On the occasion of the 12th anniversary celebration, last July 11, he wanted to revisit the most memorable moments of Boyhood with the entertainment industry specialized publication.
As a child, he wanted to pursue acting, so he enrolled in Theater classes at a school in his hometown Austin and there he met Richard Linklater, the director of the film. “My parents are artists, so I think they definitely supported me and understood the idea of me dedicating myself to the performing arts, but it wasn’t something they planned or pressured me into. It just happened,” he tells the publication. “I remember they told me who Richard was to them, being artists in Austin. They knew a lot of people who had participated in Slacker and he was a true local hero. I remember they said to me: ‘This is great, it’s different from the other auditions you’ve been to.’ I don’t know how many follow-up auditions there were, but there were several, and at that time there was no script, so it wasn’t a traditional audition where you read a passage. I think he was just trying to get to know me better,” he details about the selection process for Boyhood, a film that earned Patricia Arquette the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
After being chosen, Coltrane knew it was a long project, but he did not realize he would be filming throughout his entire childhood. “I was a smart kid. I understood everything a six-year-old can understand. I knew I would come back every year, but there was no way I could comprehend what 12 years meant, or what that really represents in my life,” he says in the interview. “It was much later, when I was 17 or 18 years old, that I began to understand how important it was in my life. It was fun. It was like a summer camp. I never felt it as a burden,” he recalls.
Although he did not experience the benefits of gaining notoriety at an early age —nor did he suffer those consequences that many Disney children have reported as adults, for example— he did experience some difficult moments during the filming of the movie: “What impacted me the most was the violence at the table with the character Marco [Perella]. I remember that moment with the dinner plate and how scary it was. Although I knew it was acting, and everyone laughed between takes.” “A lot was done, probably for our benefit, so the kids would try to relieve the tension, and I think we didn’t do many takes of that scene.”
The actor watched the film again for the first time in years, accompanied by Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater, and Patricia Arquette, at the special screening for the 12th anniversary held on July 18 in Austin. From July 31 and throughout August, the film will be shown again in more than 100 cinemas across the United States and Canada. And, at some of these sessions, the cast will be answering questions live. “There were many things that impacted me and now impact me differently. That scene definitely affected me more than ever, and I was much more aware of myself as a vulnerable child experiencing something so traumatic. Even within the artifice of the film, it’s still scary,” he confesses.
Coltrane never enjoyed fame, at least not during the times he had to attend parties and deal with the press after the premiere. But, without a doubt, he remembers his experience on set with great affection. He now lives “in the middle of nowhere” and works as a laborer. He has acted in a couple of short films, but he is “quite far from cinema,” he says. However, he does not completely rule out continuing to work on small projects. “I do very well collaborating with a director who has a project he is passionate about. When I manage to connect with an artist’s mindset and work closely with him to discover how to express what he is trying to convey, I think I can do an excellent job. But just showing up on a big set with a million producers as an actor, I don’t know how to do that. I was never trained as an actor. Richard and Ethan [Hawke] trained me as a collaborator and part of the film’s machinery. So I hope to participate in more small and independent projects, driven by my passion, because I have a lot to offer,” he assures.
