“Boyhood” is undoubtedly one of Richard Linklater’s most ambitious and personal films. For this feature film, the filming of which was spread over more than a decade, the filmmaker entrusted a role to his daughter Lorelei, who wanted to throw in the towel after three years.
Boyhood : the beauty of passing time
director of the trilogy Beforeof rock academy or evenA Scanner DarklyRichard Linklater sets up an exceptional device to shoot Boyhood. For 12 years, from 2002 to 2013the filmmaker brings his actors together for a few days each year to film the youth of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) alongside his mother Olivia (Patricia Arquette) and his sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater).
Ethan Hawke embodies an absent father who reappears in the lives of his children to try to reconnect with them. This family goes from one city to another in Texas, the feature film recounting the beauty of passing time by showing their innocuous but particularly touching moments of life.
For this project, Richard Linklater is partly inspired by his own life, and in particular the separation of his parents. Like his main character, the filmmaker is also from Texas. He also gave Mason his passion for the arts.
Lorelei Linklater almost threw in the towel
Boyhood is therefore one of the most unique and personal films of its author. Richard Linklater works with some of his favorite collaborators, including Ethan Hawke, cinematographers Lee Daniel and Shane F. Kelly and editor Sandra Adair. He also entrusts the role of Samantha to his daughter Lorelei. The latter had already made an appearance in wakinglifeanother feature film by his father.
When Richard Linklater prepares Boyhoodhis eight-year-old daughter tells him of her desire to play in the drama, as he tells in the press kit :
At the time, she sang and danced all the time. She was outgoing and she absolutely wanted to be Samantha. In addition, for me, it was simple, I had it on hand and knew its availability.
But after three years, Lorelei Linklater expresses her weariness and asks his father to kill his character to leave the film, which he refuses. The filmmaker explains:
One day she didn’t want to dress the way I wanted and she asked me if I could kill her character. Lorelei is very different from Samantha. Participating in this project had different meanings at different times. But the artist in her appreciated the scope of what she was going through, even if sometimes it seemed difficult to her.
A hard movie to watch
The actress therefore ends the filming and is happy to have persisted in view of the final result. But when Lorelei Linklater watches the feature film for the first time, seeing yourself evolve is hard to watch. During an interview given to Dazed in 2014, she said:
It was really hard to watch. I watched it at home with my boyfriend. He was a screener. The film was not completely finished. I cried almost the whole movie. It was complicated, I was not satisfied with my appearance. (…) I said to myself: ‘Oh my God! Was I that ugly when I was a kid?’
The actress then specifies that she then saw the film again, that her gaze softened and that she is proud of Boyhood.
