And life is Linklater’s main topic.

Whether it is
in courtship (the Before trilogy), in childhood
(School of Rock, 2003), 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 a few days a year
for more than a decade, and starring Hawke and
Patricia Arquette as divorced parents raising two
children, played by Ellar Coltrane and Linklater’s
own daughter Lorelei, Boyhood is epic, sprawling,
and impressive by any standard. Following
Coltrane’s character, Mason, from the time he is 6
until his first day of college, the movie is a
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‘s

breakout star Matthew McConaughey back in 1992 in a
bar in Austin (because, of course). Alas, their
first conversation is lost to history. But more
than 20 years later, the two friends got on the
phone in Austin to talk about lessons learned,
Johnny Football, and living in the moment.

MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY: Yo, K-A-T! Yo, man.

RICHARD LINKLATER: We could be really cryptic and
boring. People wouldn’t even understand what we’re
talking about. So I guess we should try to
communicate here.

McCONAUGHEY: Well, you know what, it’s all right if

they have to figure it out. I’m not telling anyone
why I call you K-A-T. I can’t or I’d go to jail.
[laughs] Let’s talk Boyhood … It’s great! All your
stories are 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?

LINKLATER: I was hitting 40. I had been a dad for

about seven or eight years, and I wanted to express
something about childhood. You know this now: when
you have a kid, 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. It’s such
an interesting refraction. So I was thinking a lot
about development and childhood. I wanted to do
something from a kid’s point of view, but all the
ideas that I wanted to express from my own life
were so spread out. I couldn’t pick one year, one
moment. I was going to maybe write a novel—some
little weird, experimental novel. And it hit me,
this film idea: What if I filmed a little bit every
year and just saw everybody, this family, age? The
kids would grow up, the parents would age. In a
way, it’s a simple idea, but so damn 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 with a kid from
first grade through 12th grade. I called up
Patricia [Arquette], who I had only met once, and
she jumped aboard. I sat down with Ethan and told
him what I was thinking, and he wanted to do it.
Then I started casting, looking for kids. Lorelei,
my daughter,