Garrett Hedlund wouldn’t be the first actor to be lugged into an interview by a publicist.
But he’s one of the few to then be plugged in and booted up.
“I’d like to apologize I can’t be there,” he says via Skype from Montreal where on this day he’s still filming On the Road, an adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s novel that co-stars Kristen Stewart.
That commitment kept him from participating in person during interviews for Tron: Legacy, the sequel he stars in with Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde. But that doesn’t mean he can’t promote it (from cyberspace, no less).
In the science-fiction fantasy, opening Friday at 12:01 a.m., he’s Sam Flynn, son of software visionary Kevin Flynn (Bridges), who vanished decades earlier. When he begins to investigate his father’s disappearance, Sam ends up transported into a digital dimension that’s evolved dramatically since 1982′s seminal Tron.
For Hedlund, whose credits include Troy and Friday Night Lights, the movie represents a career breakthrough that brings with it immense pressure. Disney has mortgaged the Mouse House on Tron and much of the franchise’s future rests on his neon-lit shoulders.
“For me it was very, very different. I had never been the one who had to be on set every day, all day,” he says. “(Before) I was always playing a supporting role … This one, the crew, the director, the producer, really become your family because you rely on them to restore your energy, to help you through this. And if you can be enthusiastic, you’re restoring their energy to help them get through this. It’s a teeter-totter.”
Hedlund’s own memories of Tron are limited. No surprise, really, since the 26-year-old wasn’t born when it was released. He eventually saw it in 2003.
“Watching it for the first time, I was amazed by the mind that had created this. ‘What is this guy thinking?’ That’s (Tron director and Tron: Legacy producer) Steven Lisberger. And to see that energetic maniacal Jeff Bridges — my thought was ‘I wish I could have hung out with him.’ He’s this maniacal genius, completely explosive about technology and his creations.”
Little did he suspect a few years later he would be auditioning alongside hundreds of actors to play Bridges’ son.
“Trying to cast the son of Jeff Bridges is such a tricky thing because it’s such a unique blend of qualities that Jeff has,” director Joseph Kosinski says.
“Jeff doesn’t have a son in real life, so there wasn’t anything to compare it to. Garrett just had that combination of laid back confidence, the physicality obviously.”
Says Hedlund, “(Bridges) has always inspired me as an actor. Say a film like The Door in the Floor. I’m just like, man, this guy, he’s the coolest person.”
And there is this bit of serendipity: While Bridges won his Academy Award for portraying a country music crooner in 2009′s Crazy Heart, Hedlund’s next film is Country Strong, in which he plays a rising country star.
It’s a coincidence not lost on Bridges. “We’re both into music. He’s playing a country singer in the movie he’s got coming out. We’d play guitar. And he looks like he could be my kid, too.”
Still, for all this, the reality of Tron didn’t sink in for Hedlund until one pivotal moment. “When you’re getting fitted for the costume,” he says, smiling, “it’s like putting the ring on the finger.”
Related posts:
- Five Things to Know About Tron’s Garrett Hedlund
- Rising Star: Garrett Hedlund
- Garrett Hedlund Gets Physical for Tron Legacy
- Tron Legacy Teaser Teases
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 16th, 2010 at 5:43 am and is filed under Articles, Media, Movies, Tron: Legacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
