Best of Q: Richard Linklater on his 12-year portrait of Boyhood
Director Richard Linklater on his ground-breaking film, Boyhood: a coming-of-age film that was 12 years in the making.
From the Best of Q, director Richard Linklater joins guest host Piya Chattopadhyay to discuss his ground-breaking film, Boyhood: a coming-of-age film that's been a long time coming -- 12 years, to be exact.
The movie, which opened last summer, is a series of poignant moments shot over the course of one boy's childhood and follows its protagonist, Mason (Ellar Coltrane), from age six to 18. His parents, played by Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke, and his sister, played by Linklater's daughter Lorelei, also age 12 years throughout the course of the movie.
The director says that becoming a parent himself was the launching point for coming up with the idea.
"I started thinking about Boyhood, I think about '99," he says.
"I'd been a parent for about six years and I just started thinking about childhood ... I had all these ideas and feelings, but I couldn't really land on one moment, so I needed this bigger canvas."
Given the scope of the project, Linklater has yet to come to terms with the fact that the ongoing film shoot is finally over.
"I still haven't physically processed that we're not shooting again this year. It's been such a part of our lives. I guess it's over but it doesn't really feel over."
Click here or on the listen button above to hear the full segment (audio runs 0:20:58), and watch the trailer for Boyhood in the window embedded below.
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