Ellar Coltrane

As a child actor, Ellar Coltrane became part of a unique filmmaking experiment where he was filmed in short bursts throughout a twelve-year period, culminating in the acclaimed film "Boyhood" (2014), directed by Richard Linklater. Ellar Coltrane was born Ellar Coltrane Kinney Salmon, and grew up in Linklater's home state of Austin, Texas. Coltrane was chosen from a long list of potential candidates for "Boyhood," and was cast when he was six years old. Linklater also cast Coltrane in a small role in his film "Fast Food Nation" (2006) while "Boyhood" was still in production. "Boyhood" told the story of a child's growing up, raised by his parents, played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, after their divorce. The filming of "Boyhood" took place for several weeks every year for over a decade, but the ultimate shooting schedule over all this time was thirty-nine days. Linklater wrote the script as he went, basing the story on Coltrane's real life development from childhood into young adulthood. The goal was to make a film that worked like time-lapse photography, done more realistically than having Coltrane age through CGI or motion capture special effects. Once all the footage was finally assembled into the finished film, "Boyhood" was a critical hit, and won a number of festival awards as well.