Boyhood: Lorelei Linklater in a Therapeutic Interview

I’ve been really excited to talk to Lorelei Linklater since I saw Boyhood at Sundance. The daughter of the director plays the sister to Mason (Ellar Coltrane), a boy we follow from age six to 18, and therefore his family along with him. As a child, Samantha (Linklater) is an amazing little terror, getting her brother in trouble and mouthing off at their mom (Patricia Arquette). Since Boyhood was filmed over 12 years, we get to gradually watch Samantha become a young woman. In person, Linklater was a quiet young woman, but I feel we hit on some really key issues of growing up on camera, and growing up in general.

Related: Boyhood Co-Star Patricia Arquette Talks Momhood

CraveOnline: Was acting something that, when you were younger, you were legitimately interested in?

Lorelei Linklater: Yes, yes. I was very interested in acting as a kid for sure.

You did a little bit in Waking Life, but was your father reluctant to cast you in his movie?

No, I wouldn’t say he was against it. He didn’t super, super encourage me to be in them, but he put me in movies and said if I wanted to act, I should pursue it.

Of all the movies to cast you in, this is a mega project.

Yes, it is. I’m very grateful to have been a part of it.

Did you then start to outgrow the acting bug as the years went on?

Yeah, towards the middle years I didn’t like acting as much. Not that, it just wasn’t what I wanted to do the most, I guess. So I kind of wouldn’t have considered myself an actress [in] the middle years, but technically I was because I was acting. Later on, I took back at it, decided that I actually really like acting. There’s some part of it that really does speak to me. It’s somehow therapeutic in some way.

You were quite a performer as a child.

Yes.

Was the way Samantha was as a child a lot like the way you were?

Yeah, yeah, I guess I was kind of loud and in your face. I loved to perform. I loved attention. I think they might have made her a little more obnoxious than I was, but I don’t know. I was pretty obnoxious as a kid. In some ways, she is a lot like me, but I got more shy later on. A lot more shy, weirdly.

Really? Why do you think that happened?

Well, I guess when I went through puberty I got more self-conscious, more aware of myself and the world, my place in the world. I guess I got kind of beaten down by the world.

Was it a tough life in Austin?

No, no, I wouldn’t say that. I had a nice life. It had its challenges like anybody’s life, I guess.

Sure, high school is tough for everyone.

Yeah, yeah.

Is that what Boyhood shows, how gradually someone can change over the years?

Yeah, I think it does portray that a lot. I think it does show me getting quieter.

It definitely does. That’s one of the things that was so interesting to me. This might be too long ago for you to even remember, but when you’re very little and you jump up and do the “Yes, captain” thing, was that something you made up on the spot? Was it scripted? Did your father direct you to do that?

I think it was similar to stuff I did at that age. I had all sorts of weird stuff with my parents, like weirder than they put in the movie. Weird inside jokes, but yeah, I did do that when I was annoyed with my actual mom. I guess I would do the overly sarcastic yes. I don’t remember if I did that specifically, but yes, a lot of stuff like that.

Did you have siblings growing up?

I have two younger sisters who are 11 years younger than me. So I was an only child for a while.

I could certainly relate when she starts crying and claims Mason hit her. Could you imagine messing with your siblings like that?

Well, if they were closer in age I’m sure. I’m very far apart in age from my actual siblings so we don’t really have that dynamic. But yeah, I know that siblings that are closer in age do generally fight.

Would you see Ellar more often than the once a year you were filming?

Yeah, we were friends. Sometimes we hung out. Mostly it was just on the set, but yeah.

You were so little when it started, at what year did you start to notice there was a real story going on, maybe start to look forward to getting new pages?

Yeah, the last three years or so I was excited to see what the script was for that year. I didn’t know how they were gonna put together all the footage we got into a story. It seemed like a weird combination of things to film, and I didn’t expect it to be like it was. But, I think it was put together in a really interesting way.

What did you expect and what were you surprised came out differently?

A lot of stuff. I’m trying to think of the specifics. It seemed sparse to me in a lot of places. Like, just going straight from our mom talking to one of her students at the Thanksgiving party to being married to him and they’re living together in the same house the next year. Those transitions were really abrupt and I didn’t see them happening like that when we were filming. There’s a lot of stuff that’s very subtle and parts of the story that are not emphasized too much. You have to really pay attention in order to pick up on them so I think my dad left a lot to the imagination of the viewer.

I was really worried about the step-siblings with the abusive father. Did you ever want to see those characters again and make sure they’re okay?

Yeah, I mean, it seems like it would’ve made sense for them to reappear, but they didn’t. I don’t know why. I think my dad actually did have step-siblings that he never saw again.

Your dad shared, or joked, that you wanted Samantha to die. Was that true?

Yes, I did. That year I was very uncomfortable with the project. I think I was starting to get depressed myself in real life. I think that might’ve been part of it. I also was just really uncomfortable with the Harry Potter scene.

What was it about that scene?

It’s hard to explain. I love Harry Potter. I’ve read all the books several times. I loved it as a kid especially, and I don’t know. It was just weird going to that. They did have parties all over the country at bookstores where we would go and wait for the books. I would’ve actually gone to them even if we hadn’t been filming. It just seems so strange that my dad was at this thing with a camera crew filming it. I don’t know. I don’t know if that makes any sense. It was just weird.

It does, but it’s so great when that one girl brings her book up with the biggest smile on her face.

Yeah, my dad always says that’s his favorite extra. Now, that girl’s really excited. It’s pretty funny.

So was it something you might’ve wanted to enjoy for yourself became something you were forced to share before you were ready?

Yeah, I think so.

How would you have killed Samantha off?

Ooh, I don’t know. She gets murdered by a mysterious psychopath that lives on their street. I don’t know.

It has to be something extremely violent?

Yeah, like a murder mystery.

That would have been tragic to me so I’m glad he insisted she lives.

Yes, it would have definitely changed the tone of the movie. He could’ve made it like a murder mystery though, like some “Twin Peaks” shit would’ve been cool.

Were you a “Twin Peaks” fan?

Oh yeah, I loved “Twin Peaks,” love David Lynch.