Former child star of 'Boyhood' reveals very different life after ditching Hollywood to 'live in the middle of nowhere'
Former child star Ellar Coltrane, who shot to fame in Boyhood in 2014, is now living a very different life after quitting Hollywood.
The flick was filmed over a 12 year period from 2002 to 2014, and centred on Mason Evans Jr. (played by Coltrane) and his life growing up in Texas.
Alongside Coltrane, Boyhood starred Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette alongside creator Richard Linklater’s real-life daughter Lorelei.
The movie was a hit with critics and audiences alike.
Advert
It earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and a best supporting actress win for Arquette, as well as a Golden Globe for best motion picture drama. At the time of its release, Coltrane had turned 18, having spent the last 12 years working on the movie.
His performance was praised and it was widely believed that he’d go on to big things in Hollywood.
However, in a recent interview with Variety, Coltrane, now 31, revealed that he’s shunned a life of stardom in favour of living ‘in the middle of nowhere’ with a very different career in front of him.
“I do manual labor, and I’m a volunteer firefighter, and I’m working on my EMT license right now,” he said.
When asked if he would still like to pursue a career in Hollywood he shared: “I’ve moved on.”
However, he did tell the publication that he does still occasionally work on independent films.
"I’ve become kind of integrated with the independent film community in El Paso, which is really wonderful," he said.
"I’m really inspired by the energy there and what my friends are up to. It reminds me of Austin 20 years ago."
Despite not chasing fame now he’s in his 30s, Coltrane said he loved his time working on the movie, but admitted that he didn’t like all that came after it was released.
“I mean, when it released, when I became famous and was going around doing a million Q&A’s and parties, I didn’t enjoy that part so much,” he said.
“But I never wavered in production. I loved it. It was a really wonderful experience for me."
Coltrane did, however, share that taking part in recent screenings of Boyhood at the Austin Film Society and ‘interacting with film people again’ he was ‘missing being on set, missing collaborating’ with those in the industry.
He went on to say that he works well with directors who have a ‘passion project’, like Linklater who poured more than a decade of his life into Boyhood.
Coltrane explained that he ‘never really trained as an actor’ but instead was trained on-set by Linklater and Hawke to be ‘a collaborator and part of the machine of the film’.
“So I’m hoping for more small, independent passion projects that I can be a part of, because I have a lot to offer.”
Claire Reid