The oft-used term “film gods” blessed the Boyhood production in manifold ways, and considering director Richard Linklater and his crew devoted over 12 years of their lives to this epic storyline, a bit of positive karma was thankfully part of that experience. A portion of that goodwill was also generated by America’s national pastime.
Boyhood centers on a boy named Mason (Ellar Coltrane) as he navigates his way through the pains and joys of childhood to eventually become an introspective and insightful teenager. His path is met with its share of heartache, which includes witnessing the failed relationships of his mom (Patricia Arquette) and the Peter Pan complex ridden behavior of his well intentioned dad (Ethan Hawke). Lorelei Linkater, the director’s daughter, plays Mason’s sister Samantha. Clocking in at 164 minutes, Linklater
During Boyhood’s press conference, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater talk about how a bit of luck and good timing aided the production. During one year, Hawke had to catch a plane right after shooting a bowling sequence in Boyhood, and if he missed the flight it would have led to horrible repercussions for another project he was working on.
For Linklater, he was more than thankful when he a Jason Lane homer (while Lane was with the Houston Astros) made it into Boyhood. That father and son baseball bonding moment was turned into a truly exciting turn of events thanks to that fortuitous Astros dinger.
“The biggest luck of all, in a lot of ways, was Lorelei and Ellar,” said Hawke. “Their contribution – we could have never predicted.”
Click on the media bar below to hear Linklater and Ethan Hawke talk about the “film gods” that blessed Boyhood (Arquette is also heard in the clip) .
