Starring Ellar Coltrane as Mason, Linklakter's Boyhood tells a very simple story that explores the reality of leaving childhood behind. The audience experiences the highs and lows of Mason's young life, including an abusive stepfather, getting bullied at school, making new friends, and meeting a girl. While all of that is familiar in a coming-of-age story, Boyhood sets itself apart with a groundbreaking and brilliant approach to telling the story. It invests the audience in Mason's life in a much more intimate way and makes for one of the most interesting behind-the-scenes filmmaking stories.

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15 Boyhood Was Shot Over 12 Years

Boyhood Shot For Several Days Each Year

There are many movies that trace decades in the life of a character, like Forrest Gump or Citizen Kane. However, Boyhood told such a story in a wholly original way. The production of Boyhood lasted 12 years, from May 2002 to August 2013. Although these 12 years comprised roughly 4,000 days, the Boyhood team only shot for a total of 45 days. This is a pretty normal amount of time for a feature film shoot, but it’s usually not spread over more than a decade.

Linklater would bring the actors together for several days of filming each year, allowing for the rare feat of having the same actors play their characters at different ages throughout the movie. Ellar Coltrane, the lead actor, was seven years old when filming began and 19 years old when it was completed.

14 Linklater Almost Gave Up On The Idea Before It Began

The Director's Last-Minute Epiphany Saved Boyhood

After becoming a father, Linklater decided that he had a perspective on childhood that he wanted to tell in a movie. However, when considering how to go about this, he realized that coming-of-age films can only really deal with a limited time in a child's life. Linklater noted that it is impossible to ask a seven-year-old child actor to play their age at the beginning of the movie, and then play a 12-year-old at the end of the movie.

The director felt that every one of a child's school years is fascinating, and he wanted to show it all. However, he felt it was impossible given the restraints of actors. It wasn't until Linklater decided to abandon the idea and write a novel instead that he was struck with the idea. He described sitting down to literally begin writing the novel only for the idea of using the same actors over the course of a decade to suddenly come to him before he wrote a single word (via Vanity Fair).

13 Boyhood Required A Title Change

The Best Picture Winner 12 Years A Slave Led To Linklater Reconsidering The Title

When shooting started, Richard Linklater was calling the movie The Untitled 12 Year Project. The meta title stuck for a while before it was simply shortened to 12 Years. This sense, not only because it relates to the coming-of-age story over this period of time, but also helping to cement the unusual production style which ended up being a big selling point for the movie.

As perfect as the title seemed, the decision was eventually made to change it to Boyhood to avoid any confusion with the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave. In the behind-the-scenes documentary for the movie, Ethan Hawke also revealed that there was an alternate title for the movie, Some Grow Up, Some Age, to highlight the idea that it is a story about the age of time but also the importance of being present in the moment (via YouTube).

12 Patricia Arquette Bonded With Her Movie Children

Arquette Lived With Ellar Coltrane's Family To Form A Familial Connection

With the actors only filming the movie together for roughly a week every year, there was not a lot of time to form a bond. However, Patricia Arquette went out of her way to form a connection with both Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater as a way to make their dynamic as mother and children more effective. In order to do this, Arquette lived with Coltrane's family and took the kids on errands with her.

Arquette's off-screen bonding with the children also made it into the movie itself. There are scenes in which Mason is in his bedroom with paintings on the wall. These were done by Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater alongside Arquette as part of their prep for their roles. Arquette's commitment to the part ended up earning her the Oscar for Best ing Actress.

11 Samantha Is Played By Richard Linklater’s Daughter

Lorelei Linklater Also Wanted Her Character Killed Off

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Mason’s older sister, Samantha, was played by Lorelei Linklater, the daughter of director Richard Linklater because she’d been pestering him to put her in one of his movies for years. It is also likely that the director saw this as a benefit to the long production schedule of the movie as he would have an actor in the main cast who was close to him and could ensure they stayed investing in the project for over a decade. Unfortunately, that proved not to be the case.

After three or four years of shooting, Boyhood and asked her dad to kill off her character. He refused to do that because it would be way too dark and violent for this movie. During the remaining eight or nine years of production, she eventually enjoyed shooting Boyhood again.

10 The Studio Gave Richard Linklater The Budget Little By Little Across The 12-Year Shoot

The $2.4 Million Budget Could Not Be Paid Upfront

While the small movie ended up being a surprise box office hit, dealing with the budgeting for the movie ended up being a complicated process. The budget for Boyhood was $2.4 million, but IFC Films couldn’t legally give it all to Richard Linklater upfront because it would technically contract him to 12 years of work, which is prohibited. So, they gave him $200,000 a year to shoot the new scenes (via Variety).

One year, they forgot to give Linklater the money, and by the time they realized the mistake, it was too late to pay up, because they’d closed their books for the year. Linklater was able to fund that year’s filming himself with insurance money he’d received from his house burning down. Boyhood ended up grossing over $48 million worldwide when it finally hit theaters (via Box Office Mojo).

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9 Mason, Sr. Was Based On Richard Linklater And Ethan Hawke’s Own Fathers

Various Actors Drew From Real Experiences

While Richard Linklater was the writer and director of the project, he followed his usual process of involving the actors in the building of an authentic story. The cast of Boyhood played a big role in shaping their characters and thus the overall story. Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette both went through divorces, remarriages, and the arrival of new children during the course of production, which helped to steer the ship for their characters.

The father figure in the movie, Mason, Sr., was based on Hawke’s and Linklater’s fathers, who were both divorced insurance agents from Texas. Olivia was based partly on Arquette’s mother, who went back to education later in life and became a psychotherapist (via The Daily Beast). Taking aspects from their own lives helped to shape believable characters at the center of the very grounded coming-of-age drama.

8 Patricia Arquette Was Forbidden From Getting Plastic Surgery During The 12-Year Production

Linklater Felt Surgeries Would Distract From The Character's Reality

Since Patricia Arquette had been a mother from a young age, she was Richard Linklater’s first and only choice for the role of Olivia in Boyhood, which was a wise call on the director's part considering all the acclaim and awards the actress won. However, Linklater had certain requests of her that spoke to the unusual production of Boyhood that helped to ensure its authentic feel was maintained over the long shooting schedule.

Arquette said that Linklater told her not to get any plastic surgery during the 12-year production (via The Guardian). His rationale was that a single mother of a middle-class family would not be getting plastic surgery for herself and the change from one scene to another would take the audience out of the moment. While such things are well-known pressures for actors in Hollywood, Arquette agreed with Linklater's reasoning.

7 Boyhood Was A Story About Parenthood As Well

Linklater Was Examining Being A Parent From The Perspective Of The Child And The Parent

Focusing on one child's life over the course of 12 years does make for a fascinating journey in the movie, but Mason isn't the only character who is part of this story. In the behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Boyhood, Richard Linklater itted that he saw the movie as much of a story about parenthood as it was about childhood.

Linklater mentioned that the movie could have easily been named Motherhood and Fatherhood by focusing more on Patricia Arquette or Ethan Hawke's characters. The director itted that being a parent made him want to do the movie and got him thinking about what it is like growing up, but it is clear that he also was examining his own thoughts on being a parent as the mother and father characters go through their own journey.

6 Richard Linklater Envisioned Boyhood As A Bunch Of Short Films Edited Together

The Perspective Of Various Stories Being Told Made The 12-Year Production Easier

While Boyhood tells a very powerful and engrossing story of the journey of one boy, the movie has no clear plot to speak of. Instead, it succeeds as a series of moments in Mason's life that the audience gets to experience alongside him. When making the film, Linklater took a similar perspective in thinking of it as a series of short films stitched together into one long movie.

This was an essential perspective to take when overseeing the complicated production. Since Linklater could not foresee what the next year would bring, it was easier to take the story in individual installments rather than attempt to have the later story worked out. This also helped with the crew on the movie as Shane Kelly had to step in to replace the previous DP during production but was able to view it as stepping in for a new installment rather than taking over a project already in motion (via IndieWire).