'Boyhood' Child Actor Now Saves Lives as a Volunteer Firefighter

Boyhood star Ellar Coltrane opened up about building a life away from Hollywood's spotlight.

During a recent interview with Variety, the former child actor said he actively made the decision to step away from the glamor world for an interesting reason.

Coltrane, 31, told the outlet, "I live in the middle of nowhere, and I’m pretty far away from film."

"I’ve moved on. I do manual labor, and I’m a volunteer firefighter, and I’m working on my EMT license right now," he added.

He explained his drastic change of careers, saying, "When it released, when I became famous and was going around doing a million Q&A’s and parties, I didn’t enjoy that part so much."

Although he insisted that he "never wavered in production. I loved it. It was a really wonderful experience for me."

However, that didn't stop him from making a few youthful mistakes while filming during his teen years.

"I showed up to set probably when I was 17, very high on marijuana one time, and was extremely anxious and self-conscious, and that scene is terrible," he said, before adding, "Needless to say, that scene did not make it into the final cut. I never did that again."

Filmmaker Richard Linklater approached 6-year-old Coltrane to star in the coming-of-age drama in 2002.

Instead of moving on and casting different actors as the elementary school-going Mason grew older in the film, the director decided to capture 12 years of the original child star's life for his masterpiece movie, following his journey from a little boy to a teenager and, finally, a college student.

The shooting finally wrapped up in 2013, and throughout that decade, the cast reunited for short periods to bring more authenticity and nuance to their characters and the story.

The film starred Ethan Hawke as Mason's father and Patricia Arquette as his mother. Meanwhile, Linklater's daughter Lorelei brought the character of his sister to life.

The film's release in 2014 brought the young actor overnight fame, and he appeared in a few big productions afteward, including The Circle and The Good Lord Bird.

Although he doesn't want to step into the glaring spotlight again at this age, he revealed that he is open to participating in smaller, independent productions if the right story comes along.

"Interacting with film people again, I am missing being on set, missing collaborating," he said.

He acknowledged that "just showing up on a big set with a million producers as an actor, I don’t know how to do that. I was never really trained as an actor."

"I was trained by Richard and Ethan as a collaborator and part of the machine of the film," he continued.

"So I’m hoping for more small, independent passion projects that I can be a part of," Coltrane revealed, before adding, "Because I have a lot to offer."