BEVERLY HILLS – First, allow Richard Linklater a soapbox moment in the ongoing “film vs. digital” debate.
“I sign every petition and I am a film guy,” said the “Boyhood” writer/director backstage after winning the award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. “Technology is going to happen. We hope film never goes away. It is a good palette choice. …I have been running a film society in Austin for almost 30 years and we show films the way they were shot, 35 millimeter, prints, very important, the exhibition process. I am as concerned about exhibition process going away as much as film.”
Now then. “Boyhood.” The 12-years-in-the-making film was, to put it mildly, a labor of love – not to mention patience.
“Patience is weird in life,” said Linklater. “You feel urgency to do what you wanted to do and follow your passion, but often things take patience. So don”t get into this business if you don”t have a lot of patience. This was that times 12. What it took away in urgency, it gave us in time, and we used that time for – to dig deeper, to develop these characters. So it was really a big gift. So it worked both ways. It took away on one hand but really gave us something that I don”t think any film has ever given before.”
Luckily, he had a great team of people around him who remained just as committed.
“I owe everything [to] Patricia, Ethan and my daughter,” he said. “They all stayed with us. They didn”t drift away, the whole cast and crew. It is just an amazing intense feeling by the end, it meant so much for all of us.”
And needless to say, he never thought he'd be winning awards when he directed “Slacker” all those years ago.
“I am a little kid from East Texas,” he said. “It is not really my birth right to be anywhere. I am very blessed. What can you say. I have been lucky to get films made and I am here.”