This story first appeared in the Jan. 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
In an industry where 12-week commitments are the norm, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke did the unthinkable. They made a 12-year pledge to director Richard Linklater and his vague vision: the story of a broken family to be shot over the span of more than a decade.
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The resulting film marks the year’s most audacious undertaking, in which adolescence and the aging process unfold without makeup, CG tricks or multiple actors playing the same role. “There are no stars; it’s a huge ensemble, and it could fall totally flat on its face,” recalls Hawke of his concerns when Linklater pitched his idea in 2002. But the Austin-based director saw a fellow rule breaker in Hawke, with whom he has collaborated on nine films (eight directed by Linklater, one by Hawke).
Watch more ‘Boyhood’ Director Richard Linklater on Being Inspired by ‘Raging Bull’
By contrast, Arquette was a Linklater newcomer when she signed on (she had played a small role in his Fast Food Nation). And though she and Hawke are being singled out for their performances by everyone from SAG to the Golden Globes, she insists that the maverick sensibility of Boyhood star Ellar Coltrane, now 20, is at the center of the film. “He has a really beautiful, gentle, powerful nature, and I don’t feel like he’s succumbed to any of the ‘normal’ social pressures of who you’re supposed to be,” she says. “He’s very much his own person and confident about who he is.”
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