More than a decade after "Boyhood" made him one of the most talked-about young actors in film, Ellar Coltrane is opening up about why he stepped away from Hollywood - and where his life has taken him instead.
Coltrane, now 31, told Variety he currently lives "in the middle of nowhere," far removed from the industry that once put his childhood on screen for the world to watch. "Really, in my life I've moved on," he explained. "I do manual labor, and I'm a volunteer firefighter, and I'm working on my EMT license right now."
Coltrane was six years old when director Richard Linklater cast him as Mason Evans Jr. in "Boyhood," a film shot in short bursts over 12 years so audiences could watch its characters grow up in real time. The result became one of the most acclaimed coming-of-age films in modern cinema, earning Coltrane widespread praise before he'd even finished growing up himself.
Asked directly about that unusual upbringing, Coltrane pointed to it as part of why he was able to walk away with a clear head. He said his long, gradual path through "Boyhood" allowed him to largely "avoid" the pitfalls that often come with being a child star, adding, "I have a lot of compassion for people who really struggle with fame early in life."
He hasn't cut ties with the industry completely - he's appeared in a few independent films since, including "El Fantasma," in which he played Lee Harvey Oswald - and recently reunited with co-stars Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, along with Linklater, at a 12-year anniversary Q&A in Austin. Being back around film people, he admitted, left him "missing being on set, missing collaborating."
