Austin Way Magazine - GreenGale Publishing - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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You're just trying to make it work. You know what I think is strange? People's response to this movie has been really positive, and it's made me think that this movie is so true to the nuances and weirdness and erratic movements of normal, daily life that people must really like their own lives a lot more than we usually let on. What they're seeing is nothing extraordinary. No, not at all. The biggest, best mystery is this kid Coltrane. He is handling himself so beautifully. When I asked Charlie Sexton about what he thought about the movie, he told me the biggest miracle of the whole movie is that the kid didn't turn out to be a jerk. I think the best thing for Ellar Coltrane has been you and Patricia Arquette, people who started young in the business. He admires you as professionals who kept doing it in a healthy, good way. You never got swallowed up. What else did Charlie have to say for himself? He was just vintage Charlie. He said so many smart things about [the movie]. He loved it, and it's so strange; he has a small part in it, but he said his phone has been ringing off the hook, all the different, weird people from his life, calling him up wanting to talk about the movie. Aw, man, that's just great. This is how organic this film could be: We were just like, "Maybe Charlie's a good roommate for you?" And I told him, "Six years from now, you come back, and we're going to see you in concert," and he was like, "Sounds good, if I'm still alive." [Laughs] It all sounded so far-fetched back then, you know? It's funny how your character ends up an insurance guy. When was it that we realized our dads were both in insurance? We'd already known each other almost a decade. Somehow we hadn't put it together. We were driving through Houston, and you started telling me some more stories about your dad and growing up there and how similar it was to where my father lived in Fort Worth. People assumed we met in Texas. Of course, we really kind of met in Vienna. Not literally, but you know what I mean. Yeah, 20 years ago right now we were there shooting Before Sunrise. Isn't it amazing? I remember someone asked us if were going to work together again. We kind of looked at each other and said, "Well, I hope so." I don't think we could've ever predicted we would've done this much. What's strange is when I think back on that period, I had no warning of how much lay ahead. I didn't think like, oh, we can make eight movies together. I knew that it was kind of a big deal to meet a filmmaker who had an ethos that I believed in. There are not that many filmmakers who are as dedicated to making movies about real people as you are. When people say what a risk it was to say yes to Boyhood, I just kind of laugh, because the goal of my life is to create some- thing with meaningful characters, right? And to get to create a portrait of a father, and really explore fatherhood from all its angles, not just raising some 6 -year-old in some silly narrative, but to actually get to explore being a father over a decade, was such an unbelievable opportunity. Isn't it funny how risk averse people's minds get? When I hear, "Oh, this is a risk," I think, no, this is an opportunity. When do you get a canvas to try and make a film like this? If you look back on your career and say "risk," the biggest risk I ever saw you take, in relation to me, was 20 years ago, coming over to Vienna on a film you felt likely wouldn't work. I remember you saying, "How'd you get this financed? Who is paying for this? [Both laugh] Because this could be terrible if we don't do it right." And we were off to the races then. Look at where your career was at that moment, post-Reality Bites, and you were the go-to guy, getting every script. You came over to work with me to make no money, for a thing you thought might not work unless we threaded the needle just perfectly: That's a risk. I'll give you that. And let's also not forget, everybody in my life told me not to do that. [Both laugh] It was like, "That's not the right move now." People act like we have some big design, even with the Before movies. Kind of the miracle of Boyhood, and where it dif f ered, was that there was a plan. We had planned to do it for 12 years. If you had released Before Sunrise, Sunset, a nd Midnight as o n e mo v ie, it would be pretty cool. And it would be a lot like people responding to Boyhood. But the trick with Before i s, it wasn't p l a n ned. That just kind of happened. Boyhood "This movie is so True To The nuances and weirdness and err aTic movemenTs of normal, daily lives, so people musT really like Their own lives a loT more Than we usually leT on." –Ethan haw k E 110 AUSTINWAY.com