Richard Linklater on Zac Efron, Child Actors, and His Mysterious 12-Year Drama

Zac and Claire have worked in the business for a long time, and in fact, you've worked with a lot of child actors and a lot of actors who grew up in this industry. Do you see any common thread with those types of people?

Yeah, there's a mentality. You know, it's hard to [be a child actor] and not be conflicted. I know Ethan Hawke was in a movie when he was 13, Explorers, and Ethan really didn't have the mentality at that age. He's more of a conflicted guy, so he went back to school and didn't act until he was 18 or 19. That wasn't what he was really meant to do, whereas other people stayed with it. It's all about where you're at in your stage of development, and Zac is one of the least conflicted guys about his own talent that I've ever met. He had every reason to be intimidated -- he's this kid from California flying to London who doesn't know anybody and he's thrown into an ensemble with these serious, great actors -- and he showed up and became a team leader in his own way. He was set up to be the punk that no one liked, but it was the opposite. He wasn't intimidated -- or if he was, he hid it really well.

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I've also been interested in a movie you've been shooting for a long time...

Ah! The 12-year project, or Growing Up -- whatever we're calling it?

Right, the movie you shoot a little bit of every year with Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, and some child actors. I remember reading about it back in the wilder days of the internet when it seemed like a crazy rumor.

Early on, I wanted to keep it secret, because it's hard to describe. The very first year, someone in the trades heard about it through the agent of one of the actors, I think. It was up there, and I asked them to take it down and they didn't. I do get asked about that every so often. It's such a weird idea -- I wanted to make this film about childhood but I couldn't decide which period to focus on, so I had this idea, "Let's just film it over many years. Has anyone ever done that?" I mean, like, the Up movies do it every 7 years, but that's a documentary, whereas, there's this seamless growing-up thing I'm trying to do. I just filmed another year of it a week ago today.

Have you run into any challenges you weren't anticipating?

Well, every year is its own challenge. But it's fun! It's a living, breathing thing, you know? I cast the main kid as a 6-year-old, and he's now 14.

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Comments

  • Mia says:

    After seeing a screening of this movie, I really think Linklater is too optimistic about Zac Efron. He's not exactly bad, just overwhelmingly bland.
    It's a drag to watch his part of the story without the great Welles impersonation. Especially in scenes with Danes, I even tried to substitute a young Ethan Hawke for his role in my own mind just to get more fun.

  • Mona says:

    I'm looking forward to seeing the movie if and when it comes to Australia. I first saw a clip of the movie at least a year ago. It seems like quite a departure from Zac's other movies. But I know he can act; I saw him in a little known movie called Miracle Run, in which he played a functioning autistic child. He was nominated for some kind of youth award for his role. I think it speaks for his commitment to acting that he is willing to get out of his comfort zone and try something different, something risky, which may not always appeal to his current fan base. Best of luck for the movie to all cast and crew!

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