Lucas Hedges does not stop stressing, but it feeds his work

Lucas Hedges has promised not to play "Daniel Day-Lewis" with his acting, but he tends to get closer to his roles. Three films are in the running for the awards season, including lead roles in Joel Edgerton's "Boy Erased" and Peter Hedges's "Ben Is Back" (and yes, his father), as well as an unconditional role in the Jonah Hill's "Mid90s" bully's role, then there's the Broadway show, which hosts eight shows a week. And the other two movies that he just wrapped. Hedges is currently experiencing his most prolific year, although it seems stressful.

"I like to believe that the second where I enter [a role] and the second I start doing research, my subconscious starts working on it and in a way that I can not be aware of, "said Hedges. "I do not see that as a jump from me. And when I see it as a leap for myself, it's actually when I separate from myself, which is the opposite of what I want to do. "

This 21-year-old actor has always maintained a vertiginous pace since his role in Manchester by the Sea, nominated for the Oscars. Last year, he played supporting roles in two nominees for best film ("Lady Bird" and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"), both on the screens after making his stage debut in the off-Broadway piece "Yen". In all roles, Hedges tries to find the personal advantage that will allow him to feel closer to his performance. It is not always easy.

"I tend to stress, as if I was going crazy about something that was small," he said. "I do not know how much my stress actually serves me, but it really motivates me. I do not know if it's the healthiest motivation. I like to think that I can be as productive, if not more productive, if I work in an exciting place. I think it's still the best place to work, but it's not always readily available. "

His latest "place of excitement" is his second prize-winning film, "Boy Erased," in which he plays a slightly fictitious version of the author Garrard Conley, who wrote the memoir on which the movie is based. As a child of preacher Jared Eamons, Hedges is responsible for representing an Arkansas teenager who is locked in a closet and who is terrified of talking to his family, including his father (Russell Crowe ) and her passionate mother (Nicole Kidman). When Jared's secret is revealed in a horrible way, he is sent to a homosexual conversion therapy, where he is subjected to emotionally damaging treatment, all in the hope of returning to a place of acceptance with his family.

"The double-edged sword of a story that has a real meaning for a large group of people is that, on the one hand, it gives me a higher power that I can focus on, I can distract myself and focus on it. to be useful for something, but it also gives me the impression of wearing them on my shoulders, "said Hedges. "The idea of ​​dropping them is terrifying. So, to a certain extent, it brings me up and pushes me at the same time, which I think reflects the story itself. "

"Erased boy"

Characteristics of the focus

He conceded: "It's just that a lot of things are happening in my head at the end of the day."

In particular, Hedges seeks to dispel performance anxiety by carefully researching her roles. For "Boy Erased," he read "The Velvet Rage," devilish documentaries about gay history, and learned more about landmarks such as the Stonewall insurgency and the AIDS crisis. Clearly, Hedges admits that he does not know how much it helped his performance, but it may be enough to put him back into a new frame of mind. "The more I understood the privilege of telling an LGBTQ story, the more I wanted to work on it," he said.

Even for an actor with seemingly natural talents like Hedges, it's a job. Asked about the most difficult scenes to film, he offers a response as specific as charming. "I'm strange, in that those who are probably the most difficult to look at are always the ones I find are the ones who take care of themselves. It's the little ones that are difficult, "he said. "The simplest, where I go back to my room and sit on my bed, it's like that," I do not know how. I feel like a robot right now.

The great joy of watching a performance of Hedges, however, from the braggadorn and grumpy son of "Manchester" to the injured addicton of "Ben Is Back" to his gracious work in "Boy Erased," is that he is never a robot. He is alive, human and observable. And he is honest.

"I think for a moment there, I thought I was the champion before everyone had a great moment, then [Timothee Chalamet] I thought, "Oh, he's so much cooler than me," he said. "I think he's really special. I appreciate all comparison and I also recognize that we are very, very different. And also, there are so many people of our age doing amazing work, who has not been seen yet, and who may never be seen. "

Hedges is not one of the invisible. Next year, he will play in Alma Har's Honey Boy alongside Shia LaBeouf, who also wrote the screenplay for the film while inspiring from his own Hollywood experience (LaBeouf plays his own father in the film, Hedges is the young Shia.) replacing). There is also the musical drama "Waves" by Trey Edward Shults, which marks a departure for the filmmaker "Krisha".

"Ben is back"

"I want to work with people who, I think, are dope, and I think that Alma and Trey absolutely fit into that category," said Hedges. "I love to belong to and explore different worlds, and I think that a filmmaker creates a world and an environment. I like to lose myself in their worlds, so being in their movies is an opportunity to belong to a new place that I find magical. And if you're not a filmmaker, I think it's special, it just means that I do not really want to live in your world. "

Although he admitted that working with Elders Hedges on "Ben Is Back" had created some "teenage mood", he was very attached to all the experience. "I felt like a cliché teenager, I wanted to rebel," he said with a laugh. "But fortunately, I have a very good father. He is a really great person, but also an excellent writer. It is easy to overcome a difficulty with a good person. "

Read more: Review of "Ben Is Back": The excellent performances of Lucas Hedges and Julia Roberts lead to a drama of brutal and sober dependence

Beyond all this, the actor swears that he is trying to keep things a little lighter. Although he stated that Shults' film has "very dark aspects", he also follows his character who falls in love for the first time and captures "the whole gamut of the human experience". The Broadway play, "The Waverly Gallery", in which he plays alongside Elaine May and Michael Cera, also helps him. "I play a character who is going through a difficult time, but who is actually very stable, with loving parents and who, for the most part, make jokes, so it's really good," he said. "I really want to do a comedy. It would be just a good time. "

As for his own aspirations, they do not stress him too much. "I'd like to make a movie someday," said Hedges. "At the moment, the idea of ​​making music videos seems really exciting, but I do not see a film in the immediate future. I mean, I'm 21 years old!

Focus Features will release "Boy Erased" in some venues on November 2nd.

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