The question gets asked every few years, usually in a tone that expects bad news. The honest answer is duller and better than that: he is fine, he is 31, and he simply wanted a different life.
What Ellar Coltrane Does Now
He does manual labour. He is a volunteer firefighter. He is working towards an EMT licence. He has appeared in a couple of short films over the years, and that is about the extent of it.
In interviews published this month he told Variety that he lives “in the middle of nowhere” and is “pretty far away from film”.
How Long Boyhood Actually Took
This is the fact the film is famous for, and the numbers are worth having exactly right.
| Filming | A few weeks a year, May 2002 – August 2013 |
| Director | Richard Linklater |
| Coltrane’s age across the shoot | 7 to 19 |
| The character, Mason Evans Jr. | shown from 6 to 18 |
| On-screen parents | Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke |
| Released | 2014 — Best Picture nominee; Arquette won Best Supporting Actress |
Notice the two age rows. Coltrane was consistently about a year older than Mason. A boy was growing up slightly faster than the character he was playing, and the film simply absorbed the difference — which is a fairly good description of what the whole project was doing.
Is Boyhood Back in Cinemas?
Yes. A twelfth-anniversary re-release is playing in more than 100 theatres across the United States and Canada, with special screenings and Q&As rolling out through August.
The Coincidence in the Anniversary
Twelfth anniversaries are not usually celebrated. This one is, and there is a reason it works.
For a film whose only real subject is time passing while you are not looking, that is a better anniversary than a round number would have been.
Why the Question Keeps Coming Back
Boyhood is unusual in that the audience watched a specific real child age in a single sitting. That creates an attachment that ordinary casting does not, and it is why people go looking for him years later in a way they do not for most former child actors.
It also means the honest ending to the story is the one he chose: the boy in the film grew up, and grew into someone who does not want to be looked at.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What happened to the boy from Boyhood?
Ellar Coltrane is 31, does manual labour, is a volunteer firefighter and is working towards an EMT licence. He has said he is “pretty far away from film”.
How long did it take to film Boyhood?
Twelve years — a few weeks each year between May 2002 and August 2013.
How old was Ellar Coltrane in Boyhood?
7 at the start, 19 at the end. His character Mason is shown from 6 to 18.
Is Boyhood back in theaters?
Yes — a twelfth-anniversary re-release in 100+ cinemas across the US and Canada, with Q&As through August.
Did Boyhood win an Oscar?
It was nominated for Best Picture, and Patricia Arquette won Best Supporting Actress.
Ellar Coltrane’s current work, his quoted remarks and his age per interviews published in early August 2026, including Variety, and reporting by Fox News and E! News. Date of birth, filming dates of May 2002 to August 2013, the character’s age range, cast and Academy Award outcome per published records for Boyhood (2014, dir. Richard Linklater). Re-release scale and Q&A schedule per the distributor’s anniversary release announcement. Photo: empty cinema seats by Elijah Flores (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons, cropped — illustrative, not from any Boyhood screening.
