Lucas Hedges Tells GQ About His Iconic Roles

Yeah, this should be...

This should be called the moments when Lucas

was around iconic performances.

(upbeat music)

Dan In Real Life.

This is probably my least iconic character of all.

It's a movie my dad wrote and directed,

and I actually remember auditioning for him

in our living room,

in the middle of every take being like

'oh, shit, I need to go again, I need to go again,'

and he was like 'you're doing great.'

He was holding a home video camera.

I didn't end up getting cast in that role.

I got cast as an extra who rides down a hallway with Heelys

and says hi to the main character, and that got cut.

But I'm in the last scene of the movie

and I look directly into the camera,

and it was the only take that worked, so they had to use it.

So, in that respect, it is iconic, I guess.

I broke the fourth wall as an extra.

My dad did tell me he wanted to name the character Brad,

but it never made it to IMDB.

Moonrise Kingdom.

I did a school play,

and the casting director saw me in it

and asked me to audition for that movie,

and I ended up getting it, and I remember Wes...

It was one of the only jobs that I've been told in person

that I got the role,

and he told me in front of me and my mom.

He called both of us into the room, and it was like,

it was the happiest day of my life.

And then the next day,

I told everyone at my school that I was gonna be in a movie.

But yeah, it's a very specific, very interesting world,

and there were no trailers, we just waited in tents,

we weren't allowed to talk to the main characters.

Sam and Suzy, Jared and Kara,

we weren't allowed to talk to them.

We tried to get them to come to Fast and Furious,

I think, Five with us.

It was back when they were in four our five,

and Wes put the kibosh on it.

He was like, not happening today

'cause he wanted to create a disconnect between us,

which existed between them in the movie.

Yeah, it really felt like we went into the woods to make it,

and I don't know, when I look back on it,

it feels more like...

I'm not even sure if it was real, in a way.

It's one of those sort of fleeting memories

that I can't even entirely grasp.

It doesn't feel tangible, but also,

The Redford's based on Robert Redford.

There's some sort of...

They based my look off of him in Barefoot in the Park.

Me and the other actors, we would get together to watch...

we would watch all of Ed Norton's movies

while we were making this movie,

and we watched Primal Fear and American History X

and Fight Night.

A lot of those are really explicit for 13 year olds.

We ended up asking him all about it, and he was like,

I don't think you guys should've seen those movies.

But it was, yeah, it was really exciting.

And Bill, of course, was so generous and kind,

and his son was on the movie,

so we got to spend time with him.

(engine running)

I remember feeling so scared of how fast I was going,

but after every take they were like, can he go faster?

It looks like he's moving so slowly.

But I was terrified.

The Grand Budapest Hotel.

That one I remember.

I was in Romania at the time,

and I got an email from Wes being like,

hey, do you wanna come on and do a part on this?

And I wrote him back the longest email being like, dude,

thank you so much, this means the world to me,

this is the greatest thing ever.

And he was like, yeah, we're so happy to have you.

It's really just a bit part, but please, we're so excited.

And I was like, oh, don't worry.

It's still so amazing, and anyway,

I went up and stayed there for the week

for like 30 minutes of shooting.

It was such a small chunk,

but they had a set that was

the size of this whole bowling alley for this one shot

with mountains in the background that were all scenic design

and snow and it was so beautiful.

By the way, we're inside of a bowling alley right now.

The Slap.

I got to work with Peter Sarsgaard

who's just so generous and amazing to me

and really made me feel comfortable in one of...

in a moment when I was most terrified.

It was my biggest role at the time, and I was so so scared.

There's this one moment on set

when I have this whole monologue at the end of my episode,

and I was so nervous about it.

I'm in the courtroom, it's my character's moment,

and the writer and the director had written me about it,

they were prepping me for it.

They made it clear that I had to get it right.

It was like, this is moment, and after I did it,

I was like okay, I think it went really well.

And then Brian Cox, Thandie Newton,

Zachary Quinto, Peter Sarsgaard,

Tommy Sadoski were all sitting in the front row

and all started clapping, and it was...

I don't know, it was the happiest moment of my career

at that moment.

My mom was recording it from a monitor.

It was really really happy.

It was written by a wonderful wonderful

writer and playwright named John Robin Bates, Robby Bates.

Actually, it's one of the reasons

why I ended up doing Manchester by the Sea

is because him and Kenny came up together

in the same theater company.

I asked him to write me a letter of recommendation to Kenny,

so we got off on a good foot.

Manchester by the Sea.

The movie itself and the experience itself

was the farthest thing from depressing.

It was like Kenny and Casey are...

All they did was make jokes.

It's kind of amazing because I think that is

reflects pretty well, at least my part of the movie,

it's people who are dealing with something

that's really tragic and traumatic,

but there's always humor in it,

and the movie does that really well.

I think it finds humor

in the awkwardness of tragedy and trauma,

but Kenny and Casey,

I found myself just really with front row seats

to a comedy show.

And when Matthew Broderick was on for a few days,

they just laughed and laughed and laughed.

I really felt like I had been called up.

I was a freshman and on JV baseball

and I was called up to the varsity team,

and there were these older baseball players

who I was just so happy to be on the same team of.

Then...

But are, who's...

Are they gonna be my guardians or are you gonna...

They're gonna adopt you.

We filmed that scene at like four in the morning,

so it was like everything is really hazy.

I remember struggling at first,

and it took a little while for me

to find my way into that head space, and sadly,

it was one of the scenes where it was like,

the second I started to feel like I was disappointing,

and they didn't make me feel this way,

but the second I started feeling like I as disappointing

and holding people behind, that was where it all came from.

It wasn't one of the scenes where it was like, oh,

I got this from the start.

That one was tough.

They had put all of my heaviest emotional scenes

three days in a row, and it was the third day,

so it felt like, it felt a little dry at first,

but it worked out.

My publicist called me, she's here,

and I was convinced I wasn't gonna get nominated,

so I was like I'm just gonna sleep in

and put my phone on airplane mode.

And I woke up at 8:01 or something and was like,

ah, you know what, I'll check.

Literally five seconds after I'd turned my phone off

airplane mode, I get a call from her.

She was like guess who just got nominated

for an Academy Award?

And I sprung up, ran downstairs.

My mom was watching it on TV

and my dad ran out of the shower, and it was really...

Yeah, it was total cliche, but really exciting,

really really exciting.

I don't know, I was just really happy, I was just happy.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

I was in the middle of my,

or just finished my first year at acting school,

and we studying this thing called The Gister Method,

which is a method that was taught and founded

by a man named Earl Gister who taught at Yale MFA.

And I remember going to first day of rehearsals with Francis

and being like, look, I'm really lost.

I'm in school right now, we're working on The Gister Method.

I was like do you know what that is?

And she was like, yeah,

when I was in school we just called it Earl's class

because that was her teacher.

And I was like, wow,

and she was like do you wanna do some of it right now?

I found myself going from The Gister Method class

to working with Francis,

one of the greatest actresses alive,

somebody who learned it firsthand and was teaching it to me,

in a way, in a Martin McDonagh film.

It was, yeah, it was sort of...

It made it clear to me.

I was like okay, maybe I don't need to be,

maybe I don't need to go back to school.

I've been a huge fan of Sam's my whole life.

He has this one...

I'm gonna shout out one of his most underrated performances

in a movie called The Winning Season.

Brilliant, brilliant performance,

and I remember seeing that and being amazed by him

when I was 12 years old.

Woody, of course, I grew up watching,

and Peter Dinklage is actually

lives down the street from me,

and my dad taught him in college.

My dad was his theater teacher.

So, there was some overlap there.

I mean, those are some real iconic dudes.

Lady Bird.

That was just fun.

That was, like, Greta always had music playing,

she made me a playlist, she made everyone a playlist.

Timmy had one, Saoirse had one, Beany had one.

So, we all had playlists,

and from the moment I got on that movie,

I knew we were making something that felt timeless,

and it felt like...

It's a very different movie,

but in the same way that people talk about Mean Girls

or a movie that survives its time,

I felt like we were making that.

Every day felt just like,

we'd get on set and it was like oh my God, that happened,

that happened, that happened, and Greta was like...

We'd be in the middle of a scene

and I could hear her laughing off camera,

and there was an immediacy to the love I felt on that set

that I don't feel on most sets.

Typically, it takes until it comes out

to know that we're making something special,

but on that one, we knew from the first day.

Timmy, Saoirse, and Beany are all...

I mean, Saoirse's already has been around for so long,

but Timmy and Beany,

I felt like I was seeing two great young actors

before their moment.

It was even more special

than working with a veteran great actor, in a way.

It felt like I was a part of history,

getting to see them at that moment.

Boy Erased.

Boy Erased is the first time I wasn't playing

somebody's son or a supporting role.

It was number one on the call sheet.

I felt the weight of that story on my back

in a way that was both really motivating

and really really terrifying,

particularly because it's a true story

about a man I love and respect named Garrard Conley

who wrote a book called Boy Erased.

That was the reason why I wanted to do the movie

is 'cause I loved the book so much.

So, it felt, it felt, to me,

like it had all the makings of something

that could go really right or terribly wrong,

which seemed to be a perfect reason to do something.

And Joel, of course,

is an amazing actor who I've known for a long time

and somebody I really wanted to work with.

He directed it and was acting in it, and so,

it really was...

Yeah, it was a really new experience.

It's like a new...

I left that movie being like okay.

I felt like I came of age, in a way, doing that movie.

I wanted to play the character because it seemed, to me,

like he'd overcome more in his life.

Over the course of the span of the movie,

he'd overcome more than I may ever have to face.

So, I wanted to learn from his life

and learn from his mistakes and his triumphs,

life and learn from his mistakes and his triumphs,

and it was really really, like a lot a lot a lot of fear,

so much fear over the course of that movie.

The character lives in a lot of fear,

but the moments of breakthrough were really transcendent

and triumphant for that reason.

Mid90s.

I wanted to work with Jonah, absolutely,

and he wrote a script I really related to

and really wanted to be a part of and felt, to me, like a...

It felt like another world,

and one of the things that excites me most about film

is that I get to go into distinct worlds

and have these little adventures.

And you watch the trailer for this movie

and it is a distinct world.

(hip hop music)

It's the mid 90s.

I wear the dopest 90s clothing in that movie,

the baggiest pants, Phat Farm pants,

and really baggy jerseys,

and I got two hoop earringa and dyed hair and Timberlands,

and I just walk around LA in my uniform, in my costume,

for the two weeks leading up to it,

and people treated me so differently.

I remember I'd go to get food and people would be like,

did you see the game last night?

I'd be like nah,

but I was like nobody's ever said that to me

in my entire life.

You catch the game?

I was like, what do people see right now when they see me?

And I registered a lot of fear in people's eyes.

I think there was something intimidating about me, maybe.

I felt like I was in really great hands with Jonah,

and he knew what he was doing.

It felt like a story that really mattered to him,

so that was another one that was like

every day on set it was like, okay,

we're making a movie right now.

In a similar way to Lady Bird with Greta, it was like, okay,

I can't wait to be of service to him

and hopefully become a part of his life because of it.

Honey Boy.

This is the iconic character right here,

this is the iconic character.

I mean, nobody more iconic

and interesting than Shia LaBeouf, in my opinion.

He wrote a movie.

It's very much based on his relationship with his father,

and the second I saw his name attached, I was like, okay,

I'm reading this tonight, and it blew me away.

It felt more specific and personal and intimate

than any script I'd ever read, which most,

a lot of scripts can feel very formulaic and sterile.

I feel like okay, now is when the plot moves forward,

but this was, like,

it was weird and interesting and crazy

and politically incorrect in a way

that it felt like it was depicting

people in this part of LA in the 90s, too, in the 2000s,

and I got to play somebody...

Take as much inspiration or as little inspiration

from who I believe to be

one of the most interesting people alive

and do it across from him and have him as a resource

whenever I needed.

He's the hardest working actor I've ever worked with,

which made me want to step my game up.

And I ended up going out to LA two months in advance

because I was like this dude's been prepping this role

his whole life.

So, if I don't at least give myself two months,

then I'm gonna look like an idiot next to him.

So, I worked really hard and I hope it works.

Ben is Back.

This one comes out in December,

and I never thought I'd ever want to work with my dad

after how terribly he treated me during Dan in Real Life,

cut me out.

No, the thought of it always seemed

really uncomfortable for me

and felt like it would make me feel self-conscious.

I didn't audition for this one,

so he didn't make me read in the living room,

but I read the script and it was one of the best parts

I'd ever read for somebody my age.

It felt different from anything I'd ever played,

and it was right after Boy Erased.

It felt like a total 180.

Julia's, like, she's a mom first,

and she had me and my dad out

to her place in California for a week.

And it's clear to me that she...

The love she has for her kids

is the strongest thing in her life by far,

so to play her son and to deal with that energy

is really really special because I was her universe,

I was her whole world, her whole universe,

and it's nice to act across somebody

who really cares about you.

And she's so good, too, like so talented.

All the things that I was worried about,

in terms of being directed by my dad,

ended up playing more into my favor.

It's kind of like when I was doing Boy Erased

and I would feel lost,

I would call my dad and be like I need help,

and on this one, he was my director.

So, I had access to the man who could put me at ease

and also could talk to me about things from my own life

that would set me off emotionally

in a way that he could support me

in a way that not most directors can.