Let's Talk About 'Boyhood' ... With Richard Linklater and Ellar Coltrane

Editor's note: In this first installment of a special, two-part audio edition of Mashable's "Let's Talk About," we explore the movie Boyhood, which opens in select theaters Friday and expands nationwide next week. While "Let's Talk About" is typically a look back at the weekend's big release, we're making an exception for this exceptional film. (And don't worry about spoilers â€" there's no spoiling this movie.)

This week: Let's talk about Boyhood with special guests Richard Linklater and Ellar Coltrane (next week we'll visit with Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette).

SEE ALSO: Let's Talk About 'Transformers 4' - And What's Really Up With the Dinobots

Boyhood is one of those rare films that's not only high-wire act of experimental artistic achievement, it's also a great movie. To watch it is to experience your own life reflected back at you, no matter your age, your gender, your station or your marital/parental status, in a way you'll be thinking about for weeks.

Critics have struggled to find the words to adequately describe and praise it â€" it's at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes â€" and producer and IFC President Jonathan Sehring, who deserves enormous credit for taking the risk to support its making, admits he feels a "huge responsibility" to navigate Boyhood through awards season. As well he should. Nothing short of artistic justice is on the line.

By now you've heard the story behind Boyhood: Writer/director/mastermind Richard Linklater set out to make a family saga over the span of 12 years, both in real life and on film, focusing on a young boy as he grows up and graduates high school. Whereas Linklater's other time-capsule masterpieces (Dazed and Confused and the Before Sunrise trilogy) were traditionally crafted, Boyhood required a group of actors getting together once a year to film for a few days.

Lorelei Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Ellar Coltrane in a scene from "Boyhood."

So very much could've gone wrong.

Any of the principal actors â€" Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane (the "boy" of Boyhood) and Lorelei Linklater (the director's real-life daughter) â€" could've dropped out or suffered some kind of personal calamity. Sehring could've departed IFC Films, which itself could've collapsed beneath the enormous financial pressure that indies face these days. Coltrane, cast in 2002 at age 7 with precious little acting experience, could have failed to carry the film. Or these elements could've come together, but delivered a muddled narrative.

But none of those things happened.

Last month, Mashable sat down with Linklater, Coltrane, Hawke and Arquette at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills to discuss the making of Boyhood. Below are some audio highlights from conversations with the filmmaker and his young star; next week we'll present our talks with Hawke and Arquette.

Richard Linklater

Richard Linklater attends the "Boyhood" New York premiere at Museum of Modern Art on July 7, 2014.

Image: Dimitrios Kambouris

Mashable: When you set out to do this, how much was planned out? Did you have a complete script?
Linklater:

Mashable: Did you wind up making the movie you set out to make?
Linklater:

Ellar Coltrane in an early scene from "Boyhood."

Mashable: One of the most artful things about the film are its transitions from one year to the next; they're flawless, in that they're barely noticeable.
Linklater:

Mashable: The film is packed with "small" moments that resonate, or that seem universal, no matter how insignificant. How do you pick and choose which anecdotes to use?
Linklater:

Mashable: Alcohol â€" and alcoholism, in varying degrees â€" keeps creeping up in the film. Do you have personal thoughts on drinking that fueled that?
Linklater:

Ellar Coltrane

Image: FilmMagic/Mike Pont

Mashable: What was it like to watch yourself grow up for the first time?
Coltrane:

Ellar Coltrane in the first year of "Boyhood."

Mashable: Do you have any memory at all of those early years of filming?
Coltrane:

Ellar Coltrane in a scene from "Boyhood."

Mashable: Your varying hair lengths and styles are one of the key cues to the passage of time. Were you instructed on what kind of hair to show up with?
Coltrane:

Mashable: There's just a little bit of Mitch Kramer (the main character in Dazed and Confused, played by Wiley Wiggins) in your Boyhood character. That's got to be Richard's influence.
Coltrane:

Mashable: You've been making this film since you've been making memories. Are you going to miss it? Do you feel in some way like you're still making it?
Coltrane:

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