Ellar Coltrane: 'Boyhood saved relationship with mum'
Ellar Coltrane, the star of Richard Linklater's acclaimed new drama Boyhood, is convinced the film saved his fraught relationship with his mother.
Coltrane was plucked from obscurity at the age of six by director Linklater and filmed over the course of 12 years for the new movie.
During that time, Linklater would frequently question the young
star about his personal life and incorporate it into the film,
which did not have a script or a clear plot outline.
The final product mirrors much of Coltrane's own life and seeing it
in movie form has helped him accept his tough upbringing with a
mother who took an unconventional approach to parenting.
He tells Britain's Mail on Sunday, "I did have a somewhat unusual
childhood... much more unusual than (his character) Mason's. Almost
everyone I know comes from a broken home, and it's something you
have to come to terms with.
"A lot of people whose parents are divorced end up resenting their
parents for it, and one of the most powerful things for me in this
film is seeing how vulnerable the parents are and how hard they're
trying to do it right, even though they're deeply flawed.
"I hope this film can help other people of my age to appreciate
their parents for who they are - even though they're broken people
just like everyone else."
He admits working with his onscreen mother Patricia Arquette also
helped: "I had a rough relationship with my mother. But Patricia
helped me overcome that. There were scenes that put things in
perspective for me in a large way."