Ellar Coltrane, who shined in Richard Linklater’s masterful Boyhood as a boy growing up from the ages of six to 18, says his next career transformation is becoming an EMT.
Coltrane grew up with Boyhood, with Linklater shooting the film a few days at a time over 12 years. Coltrane was a child actor when it started filming in 2002, and an in-demand young star when it premiered in 2014.
The film debuted at Sundance to massive acclaim, and went on to receive six Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture. Patricia Arquette won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of the mother of Coltrane’s character, Mason Evans Jr.
Coltrane’s performance inspired accolades and awe, and he was courted for more opportunities. But he mostly passed on pursuing them, and likes his privacy. (We sought and received his OK to write this story.)
Coltrane explained at an El Paso panel on acting Saturday that he has avoided the trappings of Hollywood because he doesn’t like auditions, and has never wanted to live in Los Angeles. The panel came after a 12th anniversary screening of Boyhood Friday at the El Paso Film Festival, where Boyhood editor Sandra Adair received the festival’s lifetime achievement award.
Coltrane, an Austin native, now lives in a home he bought during the pandemic in New Mexico, about two hours from El Paso. He serves his small community, which is near Truth or Consequences, as a volunteer in the town’s fire and rescue department as he pursues his EMT license.
His last role in a big production was for the Showtime miniseries The Good Lord Bird, in which he starred alongside Ethan Hawke, who played his father in Boyhood. Coltrane is also a supporter of the El Paso film scene, doing recent voice work in in Zach Passero’s animated feature, The Weird Kidz, and appearing in Carlos M. De La Torre’s short film, “So, Who Was It This Time?”
In 2024, his work as a poet was the subject of a 2024 documentary, Everything Is Stolen, directed by Kevin Ford.
Coltrane has also worked behind the scenes on many films.
“I haven’t been pursuing acting in a traditional sense for a while now,” Coltrane said in the panel Saturday. “I’ve spent more time on set at this point in my life as a set dresser, art director.”
Though his priority now is to get his EMT license in the coming months, he takes a never-say-never approach to acting again.
“I think I’m always going to be open,” he said Saturday.
Boyhood Star Ellar Coltrane on Becoming an EMT, and the ‘Constructed Emergency’ of Film Sets
While he isn’t chasing stardom, he retains a love of film: He told MovieMaker his desire to be an EMT sprang partly from the underrated 1999 Martin Scorsese film Bringing Out the Dead, in which Nicholas Cage stars as a struggling paramedic.
And he noted during the panel that as an EMT, he’ll deal with real emergencies, as opposed to those on a film set.
“I really like being on set,” he said. “And I keep thinking about how a film set is kind of like a constructed emergency, and I really thrive on that — like the crisis of an indie film.”
He also enjoys real-life crisis response, he said.
The panel was organized by the El Paso Film & Creative Industries Commission at Visit El Paso, supported by the El Paso Film Festival. He appeared alongside fellow actors Jon Erik Castro and Maria De Los Angeles, with Jeni Robins moderating.
Coltrane has attended the El Paso Film Festival three times, and also appeared on last year’s acting panel, where he talked about how he didn’t love the press attention he received from Boyhood.
But he retains fond memories of making it, and appeared in July for a 12th anniversary screening of Boyhood at the Austin Film Society, alongside Linklater, Hawke, and Arquette. Twelve might seem like a strange anniversary for other films, but it makes sense for Boyhood because of 12 years it took to make.
Coltrane said Saturday that the stretched-out shooting schedule of the film allowed him to have a pretty normal childhood, for which he is grateful.
“Having spent time with, you know, some of like the Harry Potter kids, and other people who did experience stardom as children, I’m glad that I didn’t have to go through that,” he said.
Main image: Ellar Coltrane on the poster for Boyhood. IFC Films
