I don't know where to begin with a film of this magnitude.
When I described it to somebody, it's kind of like the quietest, gentlest epic that's
ever made. Would you agree?
Yeah, yeah I think so.
I mean, it has a lot of scope, and it expresses a lot of themes, but it's very understated,
and it's kind of this meandering kind of journey, which is you know, I think much more true
to life than these very defined, you know, dramatic kind of films or you know stories
because you know, life most of the time isn't like that. You know, it's kind of just...
Things just happen.
Yeah, definitely. It's kind of weird being in the same room as you because I want to
call you Mason really. Because it's so... It's one of the most natural films you'll
ever see as well. It does feel like - it's a bit of a cliché - but you do feel like
you're looking into a window into somebody's life. I did read that you found it a kind
of unsettling experience watching the film back.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's become easier. You know, and I've kind of been recently able
to watch it more removed from myself, you know, and not kind of focused on myself,
and what parts of me are in the film and you know the ageing process and all of
that, which is brutal. It's really brutal to watch. It's beautiful. It's beautiful.
It's incredible to have this kind of portrait of myself changing because that's something
that is hard to see. It's hard to see how you've really changed, or how you haven't
changed. It's a lot easier when I can kind of not focus on myself, you know, and focus
on the film as a whole. And they're not even the other characters, but just kind of...
Just time really because I think that's really the main character. It's kind of from my or
from Mason's point of view, but it's really just about, just about life and the passage
of time more than anything.
You guys ready to have some fun?
Alright, don't worry about it.
I wish I could use the bumpers.
You don't want the bumpers. Life doesn't give you bumpers.
It's quite punishing to watch time pass through like that as well because it's so... I was
saying to Richard, it's so subtle, the way you age, the way things move on that you don't
notice it in your own life, but when you see it in a two and a three-quarter hour movie...
It puts it in perspective, yeah. Absolutely. I mean yeah, that's the crazy thing is that
it's in your life. You're just in the thick of it, so there's no, you can't really track
how you're changing as time goes on, but to see it catalogued like that is...
Well that actually comes on interesting too because in the film, when you get older, you
come off Facebook, and I came off Facebook, because I actually didn't like the idea that in
20 years, I would have this sort of storybook. I just don't want to see myself age. I'm happy
to remain ignorant.
Right yeah.
So it's kind of an interesting film to come out at a time where we are plotting every
single day of our lives. There is a photograph being taken that goes up on a social network.
Well, that was actually very real, that was one of the few like things that was taken
directly from me. That rant. The Facebook rant. I'm disgusted by social media, so...
Actually it comes on to thinking of like how much acting you did because I never really
feel like you're acting in it, so how much of it was acting? I mean, when you were really
young, do you even remember having conversations with Richard, or did he just put the camera
on you and let you do your thing?
I mean, it was both. I was definitely acting, and I definitely was always portraying a character,
and you know, as I got older, I was. The reason I think it feels so natural and comes across
that way is just for one, because Rick just has an amazing way of making you feel very
comfortable and at home, and directing you without you really knowing you're being directed.
But also, later on, I was a very large part of crafting the character, so I was just like...
The character isn't me, but we're very intertwined. You know, I always was very aware of who the
character was and what he was going through, and so it was kind of like a second personality
in a way, that I just kind of built over the course of the project.
Have you been drinking?
A little bit.
Oh.
What do you want to be, Mason? What do you want to do?
How did it feel growing up with people like Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette around you?
I mean, it's amazing. They're great mentors, great kind of people to guide me through learning
to act and learning how to mark art, really.
Yeah, and they change throughout the movie too. I know it's called Boyhood, but the beauty
of it is it's really as you say about time. So you get to see how adults grow. The idea
that you just become an adult...
And then you're just there.
That's the biggest myth about life, really. And I also like the fact that they kind of
both act like adolescents, even though they are supposed to be adults.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's a very important part of it, you know. Parents or adults can
connect with those characters and their relationship with their son, but also for people of my
generation watching, I think it really puts things in perspective about just the vulnerability
and the kind of humanity of your parents. It's easy to kind of resent your parents for
being flawed humans, but certainly for me, working on and then watching the film really
put my relationship with my parents in perspective, and that's an important thing to appreciate.
And we're not going to see you on Twitter any time soon because you hate social media?
I do have a Twitter that's out there, but I don't use it. So...
Okay, alright.
I don't like social media.