On Sunday, Lucas Hedges will follow in the footsteps of many great actors before him. Not because he's nominated for an Oscar—which he is—but because the 20-year-old is planning to take his mom as his date to Hollywood's biggest award show. It's an award show that Hedges is familiar with because his dad, director and screenwriter Peter Hedges, attended himself after being nominated for adapting About a Boy in 2002.
"I'm obviously excited about going," Hedges says, calling from New York where he's currently starring in off-Broadway play, Yen. "I grew up with an Oscar party every year at our house. We had a major celebration for the people we believed deserved to win. It was always an exciting night. So it feels like a fairy tale."
Hedges' performance in Kenneth Lonergan's drama Manchester by the Sea earned praise from critics long before the film earned any awards nominations. But the young actor, who got his start as an extra in his dad's film Dan in Real Life, was considered a long shot for the Best Supporting Actor category. He's a dark horse pick alongside storied actors like Mahershala Ali, up for Moonlight, and Jeff Bridges, who's nominated for Hell or High Water. But Hedges isn't really worried about winning. He's more focused on how much he was able to grow and learn as an actor making this movie.
The film (which arrives on Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand today) follows a Boston handyman named Lee Chandler, played by Casey Affleck, who is forced to return to his hometown to help his teenage nephew cope with grief after the loss of his brother. There, Lee's past uncovers itself and it becomes clear that there's no one way to handle tragedy. In Hedges' hands, Lee's nephew Patrick becomes very real, revealing in his performance what it means to lose your father and face an unknown future. But the movie is not just about the big, dramatic moments—it also looks at smaller, intimate moments, like a teen boy sneaking sexual encounters with his female classmate. Patrick is sad and uncertain, but he's also still a teenager. In these scenes, because of Lonergan's specific vision for the film, there was no space for improvisation. The actors followed the lines exactly, allowing their on-the-spot emotional reactions to be the surprising element of each scene.
"It was probably the best teenage role I've ever read," Hedges says. "And on top of that, the scenes were so masterfully crafted. Some of them were tragically awkward. There's something so poignant about how there are so many awkward moments. So many filmmakers shy away from that awkward truth, and Kenny made an effort to highlight those moments in his storytelling." He adds, "There are a lot of writers who don't have a keen ear for truthful dialogue, and Kenny is one of the only living American writers who can give life to that."
Hedges made his first real film debut in Wes Anderson's Moonlight Kingdom in 2012, and later appeared in Michael Cuesta's Kill The Messenger and Jason Reitman's Labor Day. As an underage actor, he's been turned off by a lot of scripts, which he feels can't quite get the vernacular of a teen boy right. So when Lonergan's script for Manchester by the Sea found its way into his hands he was immediately onboard.
"Like with theater, everything you need is in the script," Hedges says. "If you need anything you look at the script. It answers any questions. That's how Kenny writes movies. It's all very specifically laid out for a reason." It makes sense, of course, as Lonergan himself began his career as a playwright. But like most of Longeran's works, Manchester delves into the uneasy and uncomfortable qualities of human nature: grief, despair, and the awkward tendency to wring humor from life's lowest moments. "What I learned from the movie is that I know absolutely nothing about grief," says Hedges. "Every situation is its own situation, and every moment is its own moment. The only way to play a scene is to go in with an open mind and the knowledge that the character doesn't know how to manage the tragedy either."
This sort of openness felt new for Hedges as an actor. "I used to map it all out in my head ahead of time," he says. "But in reality the only way you can shortchange yourself as an actor is to map it out because that cuts you off from your scene partner and any potential truth you might discover in the moment or anything spontaneous that might occur."
Affleck's serious attention to Lee's story helped Hedges, as well. Affleck, who is also nominated for an Oscar (and is favored to win), gave himself over to the character on set. "He really wanted to tell this story right," Hedges recounts. "He taught me how to dedicate yourself to a role, which was really a meaningful experience to have."
Whether or not Hedges wins his Oscar on Sunday, the actor knows that the course of his acting career is now different. That's not necessarily because he's being offered tons of projects. It's more about the fact that Hedges knows for sure how much he loves working. In fact, he's been so busy with his current play he can barely come up with a list of things he likes to do besides acting. (Eventually, Hedges ticks off gardening, reading, meditating, and playing baseball.) He plans to prepare a speech for the Oscars, just in case, because he doesn't want to feel nervous throughout the ceremony. But mostly Hedges just wants to be onstage or in front of a camera, constantly evolving and growing.
"I know that I want to consistently return to doing plays," he says. "That's one of the most important things, because I think it's the best place for me to learn how to act. The course of my career is entirely dependent on the roles that are presented to me. It all depends on the material. I'm going to always go with the good stuff, and I don't know what the good stuff is yet because it hasn't presented itself. So I'm open to whatever. I can tell you that after doing this play, which is a really demanding play, that I just want to keep challenging myself."
And if he gets rewarded it for it, his mom will be there to cheer him on.
