Lucas Hedges Biography
Date of Birth: 1997
Not many actors can say that they had a chair on a film set with their name on it by the fourth grade. But Lucas Hedges isn't just any actor.
Raised in the Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill neighborhoods of New York City, Lucas is the son of Oscar-nominated screenwriter Peter Hedges (About a Boy).
He got his start in film at an early age. While in the fourth grade and only 10 years old, he appeared in the dramedy Dan in Real Life (2007) with Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche and Dane Cook. His dad wrote the film and had a special actor's chair on set for Lucas, who told the Los Angeles Times in November 2016 that he had a line in the film, but it was cut in the final edit.
Following Dan in Real Life, Lucas won a part in Wes Anderson's Oscar-nominated Moonrise Kingdom (2012) after the casting director for the film saw him in a middle-school play production. The movie is headlined by a cast that includes Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and Bill Murray. In the same year, he also teamed up with Colin Firth and Emily Blunt for the drama Arthur and Mike.
In 2013, Lucas acted in two very different films. He appeared in Jason Reitman's Golden Globe-nominated drama Labor Day with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, and the sci-fi fantasy The Zero Theorem with Christoph Waltz.
Lucas reignited his spark with Wes Anderson when he worked again with the director on the quirky dramedy The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). The film, which won four Oscars and was nominated for an additional five, stars Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody, Jude Law, Edward Norton and Tilda Swinton. Also in 2014, Lucas lent his talents to the biopic Kill the Messenger with Jeremy Renner.
In 2015, he gave television a shot with the series The Slap. He played Ritchie in all eight episodes of the short-lived family drama, which co-starred Brian Cox, Thandie Newton, Uma Thurman and Zachary Quinto. He also acted in the thriller Anesthesia with Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll and Sam Waterston. The film is about the aftermath of a violent mugging incident at a university.
The year 2016 brought Lucas his biggest project to date. He acted alongside Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams and Kyle Chandler in Kenneth Lonergan's drama Manchester by the Sea, which was produced by Matt Damon. In the Boston-set film, he plays Patrick, whose father has died and whose mother is absent from his life. His work in this film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Performance By An Actor in a Supporting Role.
While discussing Manchester by the Sea with the L.A. Times, he addressed the most challenging aspect of portraying Patrick. He said, "The danger was that I would turn him into a caricature of himself. He's very tough, he works on a boat, he's got a Boston accent. It would have been very easy for me to fall into a spoofy kind of performance because I'm not really like him at all on the surface."
Lucas' performance in the film won him rave reviews from critics and filmgoers alike.
In 2017, he appeared in two films. He worked with Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Woody Harrelson, Frances McDormand and John Hawkes in the crime drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, as well as appearing in Greta Gerwig's comedy Ladybird with Saoirse Ronan. Lucas returned to theaters in Mid90s(2018) and in the drama Boy Erased(2018), in which he played the son of Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman.
That same year, moviegoers saw him playing the title role in the drama Ben Is Back (2018), about a teenager struggling with addiction who returns home to his mother, played by Julia Roberts.
Lucas, who previously studied theater at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, told Women's Wear Daily in January 2016 that when he wasn't in class, he and his three best friends either hosted screenings of the Harry Potter films or played music. At the time of the interview, he was teaching himself to play the banjo.
Photo credit: AFF/EMPICS Entertainment/Keystone Press
Filmography:
Boy Erased (2018)
Mid90s (2018)
Lady Bird (2017)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Anesthesia (2015)
Kill the Messenger (2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
The Zero Theorem (2013)
Labor Day (2013)
Arthur and Mike (2012)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Dan in Real Life (2007)