12 Years In The Making: 15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Boyhood

Summary

• Boyhood was shot over 12 years, with only 45 days of filming, showcasing a groundbreaking approach to storytelling.
• Director Richard Linklater almost gave up on the idea before having a last-minute epiphany that saved Boyhood.
• The studio gave Linklater the budget little by little across the 12-year shoot, as it was too complex to pay upfront.

The Boyhood movie production is one of the most unique approaches to filmmaking in recent memory. Director Richard Linklater had already made a name for himself with movies like Dazed and Confused and The Before Trilogy when he started production on Boyhood, which would really showcase his love for long-form storytelling. The coming-of-age movie follows a young boy named Mason from the age of six to 18 years old as he grows up.

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.

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 passage 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 Supporting Actress.

11 Samantha Is Played By Richard Linklater’s Daughter

Lorelei Linklater Also Wanted Her Character Killed Off

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, Lorelei got sick of the commitment to 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).

Boyhood
ended up grossing over $48 million worldwide when it finally hit theaters

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).

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

Various Actors Drew From Real Experiences

The cast of
Boyhood
played a big role in shaping their characters

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 admitted 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 admitted 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).

5 Richard Linklater Started Filming Without A Complete Script

The Filmmaker Allowed The Actor’s Lives To Help Direct The Story

Though generally not seen as a good way to make movies, it is not unusual for big blockbuster pictures to start filming without a finished script. This is often the result of productions needing to meet strict deadlines in order to be completed by the release date that has already been established. Boyhood obviously didn’t have a release date set in stone 12 years out, but Richard Linklater didn’t iron out the script for Boyhood for a much different reason.

Knowing that the long schedule was going to introduce new elements to the story and cause him to rethink certain things, Linklater decided not to go in with a strict story in mind. Instead, he let the story evolve and the characters grow as the actors got older. In some cases, whatever was going on in the actors’ lives was incorporated into the script. In fact, according to Linklater, some of the scenes were written literally the night before they were shot (via Creative Screenwriting).

4 Mason, Sr. And Samantha’s Awkward Laughing During The Sex Talk Was Genuine

Linklater Felt The Awkward Father-Daughter Moment Felt Real

While they can add authenticity to a movie like this, it can also be awkward

Given the fact that Boyhood didn’t have a script when filming began, there are moments in the movie that are improvised. While they can add authenticity to a movie like this, it can also be awkward. Both happen to be true in one particular scene in Boyhood when Mason Sr. takes his kids bowling and he finds out that his daughter has a boyfriend.

Mason Sr. attempts to have a spontaneous sex talk with his daughter only for it to end with them both laughing awkwardly. According to Ethan Hawke (via What’s Up Hollywood), the laugh was genuine as he and Lorelei Linklater were improvising at the moment and genuinely succumbed to the weirdness of the situation. Richard Linklater decided to leave the scene in the movie as it felt like an authentic father-daughter moment with all the uncomfortable aspects feeling real.

3 The Ending Set Up Another Linklater Movie

Linklater Sees Everybody Wants Some!! As A Continuation Of The Coming-Of-Age Story

Richard Linklater is an incredibly versatile filmmaker, and he proved this by following up the intimate drama of Boyhood with the funny and light-hearted comedy, Everybody Wants Some!! The 1980s-set movie stars the likes of Glen Powell and Wyatt Russell as college baseball players about to start their next school year. While the tone of the two movies is different, Linklater himself sees a connection.

Everybody Wants Some!! is often described as a spiritual sequel to Dazed and Confused, with Linklater similarly taking a look at young people partying and hanging out without much of a plot. However, Linklater suggests the movie is actually a continuation of Boyhood. Where Boyhood ends with Mason at college, starting a new life and a new chapter, Everybody Wants Some!! begins its story at that moment. Linklater explains (via CBC):

“It begins right where
Boyhood
ends — the guy shows up to college. Very different guy, different time, all that. But for me, in my own personal experience, it’s like the next film from
Boyhood
.”

2 Legally, The Actors Could’ve Abandoned The Boyhood Project Halfway Through Shooting

Linklater Relied On The Cast’s Verbal Agreement To Finish The Movie

While getting the studio to agree to help Linklater make a movie they wouldn’t get a profit from for more than a decade, there were more complications facing Boyhood with some potential outcomes that could have easily ended production in its tracks. Despite taking place over 12 years, the filming only required the actors to commit to a week of filming each year, but it also depended on them remaining interested in the project for the entire time. However, there was no way for Richard Linklater to sign them up for the 12-year shoot from the star.

The De Havilland Law stipulates that it’s illegal to contract employees for more than seven years of work. So, there was no legal obligation for the actors in Boyhood to keep coming back to shoot their scenes every year. Linklater held them all to the honor system, and luckily for him, they all remained invested in the project.

1 Ethan Hawke Was Prepared To Finish The Film If Richard Linklater Died

Linklater Was Afraid For The Movie’s Future If He Suddenly Died

Actor Ethan Hawke played a pivotal role in the movie with his performance as Mason Sr., delivering some of the best moments in the movie and earning the actor an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. However, along with helping to shape the story with his own personal details, Hawke was Richard Linklater’s trusted partner in ensuring Boyhood would be finished.

Since making Boyhood was a commitment of over a decade, Linklater couldn’t guarantee that he’d stay alive for the full 12 years and finish the movie. To make sure that the film and the years of work would not simply be thrown away if he died, Linklater made Hawke promise that he would take over as director if he died during production. Luckily, Linklater lived to see the movie finished and succeed on a huge scale.