Dan Doperalski
With each passing year, Lucas Hedges multiplies his awards season filmography. First there was Manchester by the Sea, for which he was Oscar nominated. Then, last year, much-garlanded turns in Lady Bird and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. This year hes back with no fewer than three films: Joel Edgertons Boy Erased, in which Hedges takes the lead as a teenager coerced into conversion therapy; his father Peter Hedges Ben is Back, in which he plays an addict struggling to reconnect with his mother; and Jonah Hills Mid90s, as Ian, a bullying older brother.
Youve made so many excellent films already, do you just go with your gut when you pick a project?
Well, I just listen for the thing thats actually really exciting, whether that comes in the form of a filmmaker I think is really special, I really just try to pick the projects that Im excited to go to work on. Ive done projects Im not excited about and its just not worth it. Really miserable. So all of these are really just a product of me being like, “Huh, I really would love to spend time with these people on this project.” Its kind of simple in that respect.
It sounds like you dont select films for the potential fame and exposure, like a lot of younger actors might.
Exposure and fame are kind of a tricky thing, because I think everybodys seeking their own version of fame. It just doesnt necessarily come in the package that a lot of people seek. I suppose Im trying to protect my reputation at all costs. I mean it just so happens that Im in pursuit of a different kind of circle that fame is typically packaged in. I very much care about how people perceive me, probably much more than I would like to. But Im not interested in the kind of projects that would typically give a mainstream notoriety. Im trying to impress a different demographic, I suppose. Im just admitting that I do care about those things to a fault.
How did you connect with Garrard Conley and his mom Martha for Boy Erased?
The person I sat down with from the start was Garrard, and I really wanted to see what happened when we met, because I have no interest in telling the story if hes not interested in me telling it. I dont want to impose myself on them and his story, because that would make the whole experience not enjoyable for me. The first time we hung out, he mentioned that he was excited about the ways in which we felt similar, but also excited about the ways we felt different from each other.
Im not playing Abraham Lincoln. I dont need to copy his vocal patterns; I dont need to mimic everything about him. Its a character thats me within the context of his story. Its me with all his given circumstances. And its his story, so in that respect it took the pressure off of me. Not entirely, because I still very much wanted him to see it and think, “Yep they got it; they got it right”.
What sort of feedback have you had on the film from people whove experienced conversion therapy?
By far the biggest blessing of this project has been the responses weve had from people whove been to these programs. It was very exciting for me to work on something that felt much bigger than me, and much bigger than any project that Id ever been a part of. It gave me an opportunity to approach it from a selfless standpoint.
Ive gotten responses from people who have said that theyre estranged from their parents, and now they feel as though if they were to see them, that this movie has given them the words that they didnt have; that they could speak now. That they have the strength to go where the character goes, which to me is like, “Wow, holy sh*t, thats insane.”
What about the personal effect it has had on you, and your decision to discuss your own fluid sexuality?
I mean, I want to be as open of a person as possible but I also want to be open within the realm of… I dont think the world needs to know about my sexuality. You know, I dont think thats something that really matters. But given the context of this film and the kinds of questions Im asked, it felt as though for me to give a very black-and-white answer of just, “Oh Im straight,” didnt seem right.
At this point in my life I never anticipated Id be somebody who would use a project as a platform to be more open about myself to the public. Im more of a private person, and I like to be as open as possible in the small circle that I exist in. And I dont see that as a form of hiding either, I just dont see it as overly demonstrative. Its not like, just because what I do is public means I feel this responsibility to be a public figure or want to do that. But the circumstances of this project I feel demand that of me. And in a way that has been liberating for me.
Youve had Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman both playing your mother recently. What did you take away from those experiences?
I feel as though both of them are great examples of people who work a lot but their lives arent rooted in their work, theyre rooted in their families. And I think that is the soil from which they work. Julia is a mother and she really is there for her kids, and the same is true of Nicole, so I feel like the kind of actor Id like to be is somebody who is able to accept my artistry through a deep place of groundedness in my own life.
You were directed by your dad in Ben is Back. What were the highs and lows of that experience?
I didnt want to work with my dad, just because I thought it would be really uncomfortable, and I had made my mind up about that. But he sent me the script and I was really blown away by it, and I had this feeling after I read it that there was some common thread between this and many of my favorite projects. My favorite movies contain within them contradictions, and when I think about a movie like Get Out, I think it really does a beautiful job of articulating how complex and contradictory the world is today. I felt that there was a confessional in how he wrote this movie, so I wanted to do it.
It was very challenging. I felt kind of an awkwardness and an uncomfortableness from when we were first getting started, and it just required that we get in a rhythm and work and really just dive in to the point where I stopped noticing it. And I feel as though I did, but there are some interesting parallels between the fact that my characters going on a journey with his mother, and going to places he doesnt want to go with her. So I think that the uncomfortable nature of being directed by my dad did nothing but inform the work in a more truthful way.
Youve also made Shia LaBeoufs screenplay about his life, Honey Boy—another case of you playing a younger version of the writer. How was it?
I think Shia is probably one of the most interesting figures in the world today. And I think he is one of the best actors Ive ever seen. I dont even know how to describe him, hes really just so brilliant. And when I read the script it read like something that was necessary for him. It didnt feel like it was a vanity project of any kind. It felt like something that I imagine poured out of him.
I really desperately wanted to work with him, and I wanted to work with the director Alma [Harel], and when we met it felt like one of these moments where I was like, “Wow, Im about to go on a journey that Im really, really supposed to go on.”
One of the things thats really cool about Shia is that he doesnt ask for permission in his art. And Im somebody whos constantly worried about whether or not what Im doing is being received well, so Im constantly almost asking if this choice is the right choice. But to do this movie, I stopped asking and I just did it.
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