Lucas Hedges Had to Audition At Least Five Times Before Landing Manchester By the Sea

Persistence is definitely one of Lucas Hedges’ features. The Oscar nominee auditioned five times for the role in the successful Manchester By The Sea. The 20-year-old talked about this process in an interview with W Magazine.

In the interview, Lucas also discussed his acting career and the experience of working with Kenneth Lonergan. He also talked about how he prepared for the role and looking for that mindset that really makes him divorce himself and get into the character’s mind.

via GIPHY

Growing up surrounded by the filming world.

Lucas Hedges acting passion is not a shocker, considering he’s the son of a director and an actress. His father, Peter Hedges, directed What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and his mother, Susan Bruce Titman, is a poet and actress. The acting world was something natural for him and growing up surround by it clearly influenced him to the point it became an obsession, he said “So I grew up obsessed with film and filmmaking. IMDb was my first love, but I never considered that it would be a possibility for me to be an actor.”

Lucas discovered his acting passion when he was a kid and his work has really evolved through the years. Despite having a director father he found his own way in the field, in fact, he told W Magazine that his own father cut him from Dan In The Real Life, featuring Steve Carrell, which was a boomer but he somehow understood the situation. He said “My talking scene was cut, but I’m actually in the last scene of the movie, and I stare directly into the camera at one point. There was no reason for me to be in the movie, to begin with, though; I think he sort of put it in just to be nice to me.”

20-year-old nominee.

Now the boy who didn’t actually see a future for himself in the acting world is nominated for an Oscar. Just like Timothy Hutton, Lucas is nominated at the age of 20-year-olds for Best Supporting Actor. The nomination comes from his huge work in Kenneth Lonergan’s family drama Manchester By The Sea.

Kenneth and Lucas come from a long way back, they met when Lucas was three years old and of course, Lucas has no memory of it because he was just a baby. But Lucas got the role by his own means, ” I auditioned five times, and, maybe six times actually. I auditioned twice with Casey. And the final time, when he offered me the role, I was actually with my dad. So it was sort of like a reunion. I didn’t burst into tears, but my dad did.”

Weird funny talents.

Lucas recalls himself growing up memorized by child actors’ birthdays. This fixation comes from his desire to be an actor and finding people to whom he could relate too in the industry. He said ” Like I memorize all my friends’ birthdays as well. So it wasn’t the only weird talent I had or just weird obsession I guess.”

But he’s a man of many talents including acting and memorizing birthdays, ” Like I can say things—if you give me a word, I can say it backward. I can juggle five balls. I just I memorize birthdays. ”

Almost getting a part and then getting another part.

Lucas got really close to casting in Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, to the point that the role was between him and Thomas Horn, who actually got the role. But not getting that role was the best thing that happened to him, since it led him to Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom.

This all happened because during the audition Scott Rudin, a huge Hollywood producer, noticed him and eventually he got in a We Anderson movie. He said, “So, just like a month or two later I had another job and it was a Wes Anderson movie, so I can’t really complain.”

Getting that Machester accent.

As any actor, Lucas prepared for his role by studying his character and the context. He practiced Boston accent and recordings and immersed himself in the accent.

The actor said he has seen the movie like four times and even when it’s pretty intense and he got really involved with the character he hasn’t really had yet that filming experience that divorces him from himself in the making of the movie.

Instead the movie “It takes me back to a time in my life when I was surrounded by I mean Casey, Kenny, Michelle [Williams]—all people I revere. And we made a movie together. I mean I can’t say that for anything else I’ve been a part of. I’ve never been this big of a part of something that I cared so deeply about.”