Actor, ‘Tron: Legacy,’ ‘Country Strong’

Hedlund says there wasn’t much of an occasion for science fiction growing up on a farm in Minnesota. “Tron on the farm? No. But if you ask me about Episode 37 of Roseanne, I got you,” he says. Only 10 days after moving to Hollywood after high school, Hedlund won the role of Patroclus in Troy, then landed a part in the feature-film version of Friday Night Lights. Eight years after leaving small-town life in his rearview mirror, Hedlund is headlining Disney’s Tron: Legacy as Sam Flynn, the son of gaming genius Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) who vanishes through a portal into another world. Also in December, Hedlund appears alongside Gwyneth Paltrow as an aspiring country songwriter (doing all his own singing) in the indie drama Country Strong. “I really couldn’t play guitar or sing at that point,” Hedlund says, laughing, of jam sessions with Bridges. “I also found out that I couldn’t harmonize, either.”

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Young actor Garrett Hedlund stars as Sam Flynn in Walt Disney Pictures’ new high-tech 3D adventure “TRON: Legacy.”

At 18, Hedlund made an auspicious motion-picture debut in the pivotal role of Patrocius, the young cousin of Achilles (Brad Pitt) in Wolfgang Petersen’s “Troy.” He talks about “TRON: Legacy” in the following interview:

Q: What is the human story at the center of “TRON: Legacy”?

Garrett Hedlund: At the core of it, it’s a father and son story. My character, Sam, has been without his father for 20 years, and he finally gets to find out where he’s been. Although Alan Bradley, his father’s partner, has been there for Sam, he’s always wanted to know what became of Kevin Flynn. And in “TRON: Legacy,” he finally gets to do that.

Q: How has the overall world changed inside “TRON” ?

Hedlund: The world of the original “TRON” was fascinating, but what they’ve added to the world in “TRON: Legacy” is a grander sense of geography. There are lightning storms and the weather, and there are also the cliffs and the mountains. Add to that the off-grid terrain where a lot of these vehicles can’t perform, and it’s an incredible sight to fathom.

Q: Talk about the light cycle.

Hedlund: The new bike is incredibly flashy and cool, and it’s much more dangerous. It’s faster and it doesn’t have to move in 90 degree angles. It has a lot more tricks.

Q: What did you do to prepare for the role of Sam?

Hedlund: The benefit I had on this film was going through an intense amount of training, not just for the physical benefits, but overall, for the character. I had training in Capoeira and parkour, and motorcycle training. But basically, when I step into playing that character, all of those skills have to be ‘new,’ from day one. The first moment Sam gets into this world, he doesn’t suddenly know how to do all of this stuff. There have to be the slight mistakes that he overcomes, and learning from that. Like the disk game sequence—there is something very unfamiliar with everything that he has to do, from the rules to the skills. He’s got to observe and the wheels have to be constantly turning in order for him to excel. When he sees another program ‘de-res,’ he thinks, ‘Well, I can’t let that happen.’ He has to find it within himself to become that hero. He has to have the strength and the defensive skills to keep proceeding from one level to the next.

Q: What was the hardest part of shooting?

Hedlund: You know, everybody always likes to talk about how difficult it is working with blue or green screen, dealing with just the imagination. But this film actually, to our benefit, there were a lot of grand sets, so we didn’t have to pretend so much. We had a lot of the physical things, such as the disks and the swords. When it was blue and green screen, we had great direction from Joseph Kosinski, the wonderful director, because he knew exactly what he wanted to do with what we were just approaching. When we were reading it from the text, we may have had a foggy notion, imagining what it could be, but he was always ten steps ahead of us. It was a game of trust, and we were never let down.

Q: What is your memory of the original TRON?

Hedlund: My memory of the original starts off with a very energetic and youthful Jeff Bridges, smiling and laughing. He had this crazy youthful side to him, in comparison to how we see him now, as the wise, older and incredible actor that he is. In the very first “TRON,” he’s a mad wiz with all this new technology that deals with the creation of video games. He’s also been perfecting a shiva laser, which ultimately ends up sucking him into the computer in the same fashion that Sam is in the beginning of “TRON: Legacy.”

Q: What about the original film inspires such a following?

Hedlund: I think from the original it was Jeff’s character Kevin Flynn getting pulled into the game grid and going on all of these adventures—it was incredible to imagine. Having to fight his way from one level to the next to complete the objective and find his way back out…it really was unlike anything else.

Six years after his screen debut in Troy, the 26 year old Garrett Hedlund has nabbed the kind of career any young gun in Hollywood would kill for. This month he stars with Jeff Bridges in the sci-fi blockbuster Tron: Legacy, while in Country Strong he playes a c&w songwriter who inspires the comeback of a fading singer (Paltrow).
In the meantime, he’s off filming Walter Salles’ much anticipated adaption of On The Road, having landed the charismatic Neal Cassady part. Where most young actors idolize Jack Kerouac, Hedlund is playing the guy whom Kerouac idolized.

So much success might be enough to turn a young man’s head, but when we meet at his favourite Echo Park coffee shop, what strikes me is Hedlund’s enthusiastic sweetness. “I’m driven by extremity,” he says with a small grin of his wide-ranging roles. “I like throwing myself toward everything i fear most and seeing if i come out the other side of the twister unscathed.”

A big, rawboned Midwestener with a slightly husky baritone, Hedlund effortlessly radiates what Country Strong’s writer-director, Shana Fester, calls a “masculine aura.” Unlike most young actors, she says, he doesn’t have to pretend to be a real man: He is one.

No city boy, Hedlund grew up outside a small Minnesota town, his horizons defined by the local Polaris plant where his father, mother, and brother worked.

“I think he is going to be a huge movie star,” his co-star Paltrow observes. “He reminds me of the very lovely Brad Pitt. He has this country, earthy grit about him, juxtaposed with this incredible sensitivity. It is a very sexy combination.”

What initially attracted you to the role of Sam Flynn?

Hedlund: I think it was the VFX footage. I met with the director, Joseph Kosinsky, and Sean Bailey (producer) early on, and they showed the VFX footage, and I think that was right around the time they were showing it at Comic-Con that year. I think a lot was banking on that. I don’t think they went into writing a script until the reaction at Comic-Con. I think I went into the room unsure, and I walked out incredibly driven to be a part of that, because you know, I know this could probably be overused, but it was nothing that I’d never seen before. I just wanted to be a part of it. So, they had me come in and read, and then I did a test with Olivia [Wilde] at Disney and I was fortunate to be cast in it, and get to take this great ride with these incredible people.

So you hadn’t really read a script yet, at that point? You know, as an actor, were you a little concerned about that, or you were just confident that this was going to be great?

Hedlund: Yeah you’re concerned, but more curious you know? Because you’ve seen what the VFX footage looked like and I thought, “all right so where are they going to take this?” Also, Joseph Kosinski was directing and Disney was behind the story. It was also very story driven. If you don’t have the characters there and the compassion and the empathy towards these characters, and if you’re not rooting for them, then who gives a crap about the FX? And so really that’s where it was. There was a lot of consulting going on, and just a lot of advancing the story and seeing how you could always add something new to add another layer.

You mentioned that this is a big film for your career. Are you prepared for what’s to come after?

Hedlund: After I finished filming I didn’t really think of the future, or what’s to be or what’s to come. That for me is a waste of time. I mean it’s fine to put energy into preparation, but for me, I was working really hard on the country film that I did right after this, and prepping, doing the guitar for six-months to play a country singer because it was so much different than this. Sam Flynn is a very adventurous, rebellious kind of guy. He’s an individual and also very secluded, he lives a life pretty isolated. He’s been sort of haunted by the disappearance of his father.

Well it’s a cult classic, and you’re carrying a lot of this film. Did you feel any pressure?

Hedlund: No pressure. I’m always one that feels like if you apply pressure to yourself you’re only going to take away from what could be something great and brave. So it’s never a thing about pressure, but much more a thing of determination. For me, I want to do a good job more for myself than for an audience. I want to believe myself first and foremost before asking somebody’s opinion. If I felt truth than I don’t care what anybody else thinks. I knew it was going to be a long shoot, and all day and everyday, and I was determined to add to scenes what wasn’t on the page, and bring that to life. And also determined to restore energy and determination to make it through this whole process.

What did you think of the first Tron?

Hedlund: I get a kick out of it man! For me, I get a kick out of Jeff. A young Jeff! And I always kind of imagine what I would be like at that age or something. Seeing him, knowing him at the age he’s at now, but then almost wishing I knew that Jeff a little bit more. He probably went to the bar a little bit more! [laughs]

He’s a cool dude!

Hedlund: Yeah, he’s hilarious in those scenes. And the funny thing is, Olivia and I watched the original version in between some takes once in a while, and realized kind of how fun that film actually was. We knew we wanted to maintain that. We kind of forgot that a little bit, and knew that we wanted to make sure to keep the humor and fun within this.

Everybody stepped it up a notch on this film—from the actors to the FX. Did you do a lot of training in order to get buff for the suit?

Hedlund: Yeah, I think training is always hard for me. But I grew up wrestling, so I always had intense coaches in my life. I’ve always been faced with having to perform better under difficult situations being harped at by some sort of factory-working coach who’s had a long day like the rest of us. The training was difficult, but it’s acquiring the abilities, like for Parkour and Capoeira that takes some agility, and time. I also had to get my motorcycle license, for cruising the Ducati 1000. I think training is great. It’s the benefit of kind of doing this thing once in a while that you realize you’ve acquired these tools and you can sort of put them in your pocket, and take them out if you ever care to do so in the future at some point

Did you practice throwing those discs?

Hedlund: I actually went to the park a few times and threw some frisbees, but I knew the disc wasn’t going to be a Frisbee or anything like it. But no, I had a blast doing that stuff, and there were some funny occurrences, because most of that stuff was all improv. All of that disc stuff, they would just have a camera here, and me there, and the special FX guy, or the prop guy would be tossing me another disc and I would jump around. I would say a little something, then I would maybe do a shoulder roll and get up and throw the disc. I was able to be wild with no rules, and attempt whatever. It those kind of little gems that are great for the special FX guys to play with.

Are you a video-game fan?

Hedlund: I haven’t been for long time, but I mean, I grew up on the Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt like everybody else. But on the farm, if we were caught inside during the day we were in trouble, because there are always chores to be done!

What was it like working with Jeff Bridges?

Hedlund: He was fantastic. He’s the dream father. I think as a person he’s so genuine and filled with joy. He sets a huge standard on how to always work harder on every next project, and I feel that every project I work from now on I want work harder than I have ever worked before. He puts so much work into everything, and he’s such an inspired person, and inspired about art, and life. He’s inspiring with philosophy and spirituality. It was just kind of the dream job, and he’s such a great person, you know you can’t really resist that company.

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