2r22014 Priming - Richard Linklater - review Magazine » ew RICHARD LINKLATER LAUNCH GALLERY + phew interviewmagazinecomfim/rcharétnater prin w2r22014 Priming Richard Linklater - review Magazine ANYTHING THAT CONFIRMS FOR ME TIIE TRANSITORY NATURE OF REALITY ISN'T BAD. ITS A GOOD LESSON IN HUMAN HUBRIS, RICHARD LINKLATER ‘When, in 1989, then-28-year-old Richard Linklater rounded up a bunch of friends and ne'erdo-wells in his hometown of Austin, Texas, to film a lo-fi, shagay-dog odyssey of a movie, he didn't have a title, didn't have what a studio exee might calla story, and had only’ $23,000. But Slacker, as his breakthrough digging the scene and waxing poetic about life, outer space, and conspiracy theories—struck a nerve, When it premiered at the Sundance Film. Festival in 1991 (two years ater Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape and a year hefore Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs), it ‘caught one of those huge, zeitgeis-y updeafts of acim and floated off to the arie of cult status, In retrospect, Slaoker's success now looks foundational, helping to usher in the mid-'90s heyday of American independent einem: ature came tobe called, which followed various characters as they wander around Austin—just generally snd pave the way for a major American artist. ‘With his rather Fellni-esque approach to plating (as in, casual), as well as using Tl Maestro’ trick of making his hometown the main character, Linklater broke form with contemporary Hollywood filmmaking and found his voice—a lot of voice. The chatty ebullience of Slacker would come to be a hallmark fr the writer-director of logorrheic trilogy Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013). But unlike Tarantino's dialog, which sizes withthe sound of alt fuse, Linklster’s conversations are just that—Ioose-limbed, unkempt attempts at communication. His stories and his characters are never strapped down tothe rails of the plot, but wildly ambulatory, discursive, and dreaming aloud. Working with regular retinue of actors (frequently induding fellow Texas native Ethan Hawke), Linkate's films play in a recognizable reality of nuances, often in hyperawareness of the passage of time. His follow-up to Slacker, 1993's Dazed and Confused, has become a classic ofthe high-schoolflick genre, not for any adolescent Sturm und Drang, but for its enduringly quotable lines and its verisimilitude to actual high school behavior. In Dazed, as in high schools everywhere, dudes drive around; there is kegger; people think, people talk; and Ben Aleck wields a frat paddle. It's like life, man, And life is Linklater's main topic, Whether it isin courtship (the Before trilogy), in childhood (School of Rock, 2008), or in adolescence (Dazed, Slacker), Linklater's movies follow characters on the cusp of becoming, and spend most of their time pondering the big {imponderables, His latest, Boyhood, out this July, proceeds with his customary joie de vivre, but unfolds over the course of 12 years Filmed ‘over afew days a year for more than a decade, and starring Hawke and Patricia Arquette as divorced parents raising two children, played by [lar Coltrane and Linklater's own daughter Lorelel, Boyhood is epic, sprawling, and impressive by any standard. Following Coltrane's character, Mason, from the time he is 6 until his fist day of calloge, the movie isa document of becoming, and a sort of manifesto from the ‘Zen-like director—spanning a decade but always in the now. Legend has it that Linklater “discovered” Dazed’ breakout star Matthew McConaughey back in 1992 in a bar in Austin (because, ofcourse) Alas, ther first conversation is lst to history. But more than 20 years later, the two friends got on the phone in Austin to talk about lessons earned, Johnay Football, and living in the moment. ‘MATTHEW MeCONAU 1EY: Yo, K-A-T! Yo, man, RICHARD LINKLATER: We could be really eryptic and boring. People wouldn't even understand what we're talking about. So I guess we should try to communicate here ‘McCONAUGHEY: Wel, you know what, i's all ight if they have to igure it out. I'm not telling anyone why’ I call you Jal, laughs] Let's talk Boyhood .. It’s great! All your stories ae personal for you in some way—a time, a place, a season, What was personal about this one? Was there anything about your childhood that inspired this film or influenced it? 1.Lean'tor I'd goto LINKLATER: I was hitting 40. Thad been a dad for about seven or eight years, and I wanted to express something about childhood. You know this now: when you have aid, it puts you so much in the present tense with their lives, but you can't help but churn through your own life at that age. T's such an interesting refraction, SoT was inking alot about development and childhood, T wanted to da something from a kid's pint of view, but all he ideas that | wanted to express from my own life were so spread out. 1 couldn't pick one year, one moment. was phew interviewmagazinecomfim/rcharétnater prin2r22014 Priming - Richard Linklater - review Magazine going to maybe write a novel~some litte weird, experimental novel And it hit me, this film idea: What if filmed a litle bit every year and just saw everybody, this family, age? The kids would grow up, the parents would age. Ina way, it's a simple ides, but so daran impractical. -McCONAUGHEY: So did you get together with Ethan [Hawke] and everybody and say, “Hey, guys, here's this idea: we're shooting now, and then I'm going to come find you in two years, and on and on for the next 12 years"? LINKLATER: Everybody got the idea, this desire to bite off the whole thing—to go witha kid from first grade through 12th grade. Iealled up Patricia [Arquette], who I had only met once, and she jumped aboard. Isat down with Ethan and told him what I was thinking, and he ‘wanted to doi. Then I started casting, looking for kids, Lorelei, my daughter, demanded to have the part. had the luxury of, every yea, just ‘tapping in. would hang out with her and Ear, the boy, and just try to pick up where they were at thelr age, what I felt they could do that ‘yar, and then work stories around all hat, But pretty soon Lorelei was the sullen teenager who did nat want to doit anymore. ‘McCONAUGHEY: [laughs] You told me she said, “Write me outta this thing, I'm done LINKLATER: She's ike the person on the TV series who wants off."Can you kil my character?” [laughs] I'm like, "No, That's a litle too dramatic for this movie McCONAUGHEY: You said you couldn't pick out just one moment, and this film is definitely not about moments per se—one chapter goes right into the next without demarcations. You didn't even break it down into sections by age. One chapter goes right into the next. Asa viewer, you have togo, ‘Wait a minute, He looks two years older. His hair looks differen.” You don't have mile markers or year markers—it's seamless, LINKLATER: Twanted. that [ Ieew I was filming a period film even in the present tense. 1¢ waslike, "By the time anyone watches this, this will all be past." L sometimes think that way even in the biggest moments of real life Like, "This will all be a memory, even while you're having it." This is how quick everything is in the past tense. This whole fil fet like that. It was like a memory, even though it was very much of-the-moment wile work the way life does. I just flows from one thing into the next, kind of ke a memory, The dynamic was such ‘we were shooting i. SoT didn't want to put those markers—a year ora date or an age. But fr the most part we filmed a Kittle bit every year, about three days a year -McCONAUGHEY: Your personal point of view is reflected in the last lines ofthe film, "You know how everyone's always saying, ‘Seize the ‘'m kinda thinkin’ i's the other way around. You know, lke, the moment seizes us." And Mason says, "It's like always ‘ight now." And inthe scene atthe sound check, Mason says to his dad, "What's the point?" His dad says, "I sure as shit don't know. Neither does anybody else. We'te al just wingin’ it, you know? The good nevrs is that you're feeling stuff, You gotta hold onto that." I don’t want to be ‘too didactic, but if you're going to say Eastern or Western philosophy, that definitely eans to the East. I know you well enough to know there's lot of that philosophy that is your own personal approach and understanding of life, LINKLATER: Yours too, [ would say Everybody Just wants to appreciate time as i's passing, tobe in the moment, It's the hardest thing to do ‘You're either in the unknoven future the you're working toward, or you'r in the past hat becomes alittle abstract. How to just he in the ‘moment? You'ze one ofthe more in-tle-moment guys I've ever |, Matthew. You're here. Asan actor, you're therein the moment, and you Aare in if too. Boom—here's another moment. On a philosophical, religious spectrum, it sa litle Eastern, Buddhist, but it's a pretty ‘nondenominationsl quest. If almost ike personal therapy—how to get through life, how to appreciate your moments. ‘McCONAUGHEY: I believe there is a science to satisfaction. We get aheed of ourselves, or get behind, and quiekly-the moment after you do something, obviously, t's already been written I's so easy to look back and go, Oh, well, ow I se the scence. 1 can canneet the dats o see hhow [got to here right now." But even as you say that, you're already ina new moment, a nev situation, So it's aways Vie LINKLATER: Tt only makes sense looking backward, It ean only be lived forward but understood backward, T realized along time ago that, ‘even asa kid, i'll about the choices you make, the things you pursue. Inthe end, you're a sum of your choices. Like in high school with ‘Career Day. What do you want tobe? A lawyer? A doctor? A teacher? What school da you go to? Who do you have Kids with? It's like, wow, these are bg things. I wanted to depict the way it hits a young person, how that unfolds. Elar—and this is where the film and life overlap pretty thoroughly—he was a very contemplative, oughtful young man, That was subject matter forthe lm. And by the end, he was like "Wow, I've had this experience. Even though it's fictional this has been my childhood.” [laughs] That's a unique spot for a young man, and phew interviewmagazinecomfim/rcharétnater prin2r22014 Priming - Richard Linklater - review Magazine {or Lorelei too, Not many people have theit whole ives filmed, have this depiction of themselves maturing and going through awkward phases. We were building up toll the very legit questions ike, "What does tall mean?" That's where you get to at 18, Mason's age et the end ‘ofthe movie, You have to think about that stuff and realize thatthe adults around you don't know either, No one presents you the key. WIEN YOU HAVE SUCCESS, YOU ACT LIKE THAT'S JUST HOW ITS SUPPOSED TO BE. IT WORKED; WE WON. IT'S AS IF THE HUMAN MIND IS MORE GEARED TOWARD ‘TROUBLE. IT ASSUMES A CERTAIN SUCCESS, RICHARD LINKLATER McCONAUGHEY: No, And, whether it comes from your father or from other heroes, i's about the message, not the messenger. And the _messengers—oar parents or aur heroes—they didn't have it figured out ether. Most of them didn't even practice what they preached! But that doesn't undermine what they were trying to teach us. That was a realization | eame toin my early twenties, Igo, "Oh, Lean stil find inoentive from that which my father taught me, even though I find out now, after he's gone, that he didn't practice it." [both laugh] LINKLATER: He had this ideal sl, something he felt he knew about life that lhe was going to communicate. But living life is much more ‘complex than that. For me, this movie is about how you take that in as you mature. It's alsa.a depiction of bumbling through parenthood. Who {sever ready for that? You don't know what you're getting into and you feel ke you're making itup as you go. The parents in the movie were young, and you can feel that they were just doing ther best but, man, your kids have no choice but to come aboard fr that trip through the parents lives. McCONAUGHEY: Yes. Watching Boyhood, I hed this underlying tension that something dramatic or tragic was going to happen. But your films never have the big, dramatie movie moments. The mother says, ‘Don't text and drive.” And then he's ooking at the picture on the phone and my movie-watching mind said, “Oh, this is where the ear wreck happens inking, "Oh my God, this kid's going tole is virginity." But, no, that doesnt happen. And remind myself, "This isa Linklater fil." You keep a certain innocence, a charming eye on everyday happenings. It's nat ike you're saying Then the guys are camping out in an unfinished house, and talking about girs, and I'm eal ‘every moment is significant, but all the moments together have significance. LINKLATER: They all add up. I've watched it with an audience a few times now, and you can felit in the audience at that eampout. They've got those blades out and they're throwing and they be blood ." e hitting the sheetrock It's like, "Okay, someone's going to lose a limb, ar there's going to “McCONAUGHEY: Or lose their virginity! That's what I thought it was, LINKLATER: It is funny how we're conditioned ‘McCONAUGHEY: That’ just me. LINKLATER: 1's everybody! Even on Dazed and Confused, where's the car wreck? Where's the teen pregnancy? Is amazing we got that ‘movie made, But when you think back, the essence of your life isthe litle stuff, the litle things you remember. I'm really counting on the ccomulative effect of all his adding up to something, a feeling, an experience, for itto relly mirror the ebb and flow of life. ‘ye never really ‘been that plot, Plas are artifical, Does your life havea plot? IUhas characters, There isa nazralive, There's alt of story, alot of character. But plot? Eh, no. ‘McCONAUGHEY: You have a great relationship with time. Your ranch in Bastrop [Texas] basically burned down—six buildings burned down. But you've got this graceful relationship with your past and your future so that, no matter what happens—whether i's really good or really badT wouldn't know ifyou just won the lottery, had a newbora, won an Oscar, or your ranch just burned down. LINKLATER: [laughs] But ifthe Longhorns lost—that, we would know about, ‘MeCONAUGHEY: You roll with it! And it’s not that you're not caring, but you immediately get on with it. Isa long view. phew interviewmagazinecomfim/rcharétnater prin2r22014 Priming - Richard Linklater - review Magazine LINKLATER: At those moments, when you're kind of pressed, when life just walloped you-I feel this when movies come outfits that eternal Jyghter atthe human situation. “Ob, you've taken those possessions a litle seriously, haven't you? Those are gone nov.” That one building, the stone hut that you 'keé—I remember standing up on that and going, "This willbe here 300 years from now,” six months before it went. 1 ‘was up on the World ‘rade Center about five months before September 1. I remember standing inthe observation room on the roof, looking ‘ut, going, “God, this is ke our pyramid, These will be here 3,000 years from now. This building is so massive.” And then, "Nab." You just don't know, Dont think anything is forever. Anything that confirms for me the transitory nature of reality isn’t had, It's a good lesson in ‘human hubris, ‘McCONAUGHEY: A lot of us misinterpret the affirmation of that transitory nature of life and we become fatalists. We don’ take care of our ‘things because we're like, "Hey, what's it matter? LINKLATER: It all matters. We're hereto give our best effort, right? And to manifest it to the fullest of our abilities, I believe. That's that Zen. ‘thing again—you just cant be too attached to the results—like you winning an Osear for best actor. These moments when you're getting applauded or, conversely, getting shit on [laughs] you have to have a pretty similar atitude or ese it's really unhealthy or you're very vulnerable -McCONAUGHEY: That was pretty much how I felt. Mind you, it was three months [of campaigning], and it was unabashedly a race, a competition, ‘more process-oriented in my life and in my work than T ever had been in my life, not even thinking or caring about the result. Not surprisingly, was happier with my work, and more than ever in my life, people eame to me and sai, "Wow, that resonated with me, Hey, 1 campaign, I chose to embrace it and go, "Let's get in and see what this game is about." But in the last four years, I've been ‘wanna give you a trophy.” [laughs LINKLATER: Wel, what the hel? It confirmed the proces. McCONAUGHEY: So, with your place getting burned down, when aid you first giggle? Or did you havea giggle? LINKLATER: [laughs] Pretty quick. Tt was like, "Oh, what ean you do?" The defauk position shouldbe joy and humor—that should be the setting. But you have to work for that. I's given to you as a young person and it's slowly taken away from you. That's challenge. I fuetuate. Tbe very joyous in what I'm doing one day and then something gets under my skin. think, "This element sucks and I'm just not happy about it." I have another voice in me going, "You're so fucking pety right now." And yet, its areal thing tobe worked out or exorcised in some way. ‘MeCONAUGHEY: { have to call myself on my own bullshit all the time, whether i's on something petty, something vain, or whatever. And L usualy get past ita lot more quickly when I try to have that gigale LINKLATER: IfT read some study about climate change, say—about things that are really lobal-size troubles in our natural workd—it ean get despairing, And then a par of me kicks in and is like, "Well, yesh, but we do have this ability asa species. Things can get better. We're kind of {neredible.”1 Gnd some oplimism and hope in potential ‘McCONAUGHEY:You could get angry about it, too. LINKLATER: There's plenty of anger, if you want to go there. All ofthese emotions are choices in the buffet infront of us, Like, "Hmm, what sounds good today? A lite anger with that politician who is pissing me off." ‘MeCONAUGHEY: You and I a e talked about innate ability before, talent. Do you think hard work and having a dream is enough to succeed? LINKLATER: Sure isn't You see iin sports a lot growing up. Some Kids work really hard, but they're never going tobe at that level. Innate ability means everything, In sports, hey, ifyou ran the fastest 100 meters, you're good att. I's pretty obvious. There are other worlds where it's much more subjective. You could be developing at a different rate than everyone around you. 1's hard to know what anyone bas in therm, Ife very mysterious, but I'm fascinated with it find that, the more T make films, I'm less encouraging to people who want to be writers, phew interviewmagazinecomfim/rcharétnater prin2r22014 Priming - Richard Linklater - review Magazine directors, ators I'm lke, "Well, if you could do something else." I got plenty of discouragement, and I didn't hear it because I was so passionate. I knew I was going to do something in film. If didn't end up a writer and director, I was going torun a thester or distribute films ‘or write about them.—something, Iwas alin. So, if you can discourage someone, you're probably doing them a favor. McCONAUGHEY: Al Mr. Turlington, Mason's photography professor in Boyhood. That was my favorite mentor, He was pushing him but also diseouraging him, LINKLATER: A litle kick in the ass. But there's an element of luck, too, like th athlete who never gets injured, There's so much out there to trip you up, there's got tobe some good olé-fashioned luck and timing I used to believe in some kind of fate, but the older I get the mare I Delieve in randomness and, | don't know, timing. ‘McCONAUGHEY: I've said about you, "Rick's so Buddhist, he doesnt even know it” And I mean that with a wink. But what I mean is you never say the word no, You allow eomplete freedom of form for ereatvity, forthe actor, at least, Yet atthe same time, you're a guy who loves Due ribbons, gold medals, rules and structures of the game. You like your first-place trophy, man. I've always been fascinated with this ‘relationship between the ereatvity ofthe arts and the structure ofthe athlete—because you're not all free-form. LINKLATER: Yeah, it'sa combo of both. Boyhood, for instance, that wasn't just a fec-foral. I knew the last shot of the movie the second we ture, [believe in clear storytelling. I believe in ‘communicating what you're trying to communicate, even if i's just a feeling. Even if I haven't fully defined it, [want you to feel it and maybe also not be able to define it, Within that specifie structure, you know what we're not doing, (laughs] Here's what we're avoiding. Here's the kind of acting, here's the kind of drama, here's the kind of look we're not doing, started shooting it, Itwas very structured, Every movie I do, believe in that archi -McCONAUGHEY: Many, and maybe mest times in my life, T put myself the right position via process of elimination of where and what T didn't want tobe. LINKLATER: My early life, I didn't now what I wanted to be, but [knew what I didn't want tobe. That's why ultimately I wanted to be a ‘filmmaker. You're more motivated by the films you think don't work, by the flms you don’ like, what's tobe avoided: "I dont think that ‘works T don’ think in that genre.” You're defining your own sensibility and what you want to communicate vis+vis what you don't find satisiying. I'VE NEVER REA BEEN THAT PLOT. PLOTS HAVE A PLOT? IT HAS CHARACTERS, THERE IS A NARRATIVE, THERE'S A LOT OF STORY, ALOT OF CHARACTER, AUT PLOT? EH, NO, RICHARD LINKLATER OUR LIFE -McCONAUGHEY:You and Ihave talked sbout how often we humans put oa failures under a microscope, but haw seldom do we dissect our LINKLATER: Wren you have suosess, you act like that's just how it's supposed tobe. It worked; we won. But when you lose it's ike, “Okay, this, that, oF the other could've been." IU'sas ifthe human mind is more geared toward trouble. It assumes a certain sucess. There's a part of ‘our brain that is looking for threats and trouble. t ean get you in trouble, but it also kind of keeps you on your toes. When it works, there's & reason it worked. I's because you systematically approached it in a certain way. That sounds boring but it's just working methodology. McCONAUGHEY: Its a hell of alot more fun to figure out the science of what went right rather than dissect the failure and keep harping on what went wrong LINKLATER: Yeah, that's biter and usually more emotional, Sometimes its not even lagical. I've always fl that, with everything in if, there should be a certain amount of tightmess and loaseness at the same time, Even with your plans, like, "Okay, we going ont tonight! Fine, where are we going? What are we doing? Where does it get lose in there? Where isthe room for the improv within the plan? phew interviewmagazinecomfim/rcharétnater prin2r22014 Priming - Richard Linklater - review Magazine McCONAUGHEY: I cali "conservative early, liberal late." I want to get in early, understand the rules, understand the width of my sandbox. Is there any broken glass inthe sandbox? How wide is it? Where are the boundaries? Okay, now that I know what itis, what the field allows, Jet's get four dimensional Let me blow in the wind. Let me improvise. Now let's LINKLATER: That's the perfect analogy, the sandbox. It's lke, “Ob, this isa studio film. These are their expectations, We've got tohit these notes.” You have to know where you are. You've got to know when you're the pimp and when you're the ho. Ifyou're a ho and you doa pimp ‘move, you get killed, [laughs] McCONAUGHEY: Now let me ask you some real serious ones here at the end, Who are you taking number one inthe NFL draft this year if you're the GM? LINKLATER: For pure aesthetic enjoyment, from a Tesas standpoint, I take Johney Football [Mansiel, from Texas A&M], No one will faulk you. He's the fun choice -McCONAUGHEY: I'm starting to lean that way the more I'm studying this guy, watehing him on [Jon] Graden's QB Camp. He'sa special kid in a different way than Tebow was, This guy, Manziel, really has an ability a a pure pocket passer, Talk ubout innate ability, you either got it ‘or you don't. This guy has it. LINKLATER: That's fun to watch, Take the fans along for that ride for better or for worse. Just do it. Hope you get lucky, too. ‘MeCONAUGHEY: Hope you get in the right system, hope you got guod blocking on your blindside, and hope you don't get injured. Tura the page. LINKLATER: [laughs All those intangible things, particularly inthe quarterback spot—that's the one thing no one's ever figured out. You can't really predict that, Hey, torn the page, man, [ike your attitude toward everything, Matthew it's always fan, ‘McCONAUGHEY: Roll these sprockets, press record—it's lve. I hope you got it on film. LINKLATER: Oh veab, we gotit MATTHEW MeCONAU IBY IS AN ACADEMY AWARD-WINNING ACTOR. HE WILL BE SEEN NEXT IN CH} INTERSTELLAR, OUTIN NOVEMBER. 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