Steven Lisberger say Tron creates a world within a world, do you feel your social network is melding into the real world?

Garrett Hedlund: I think my character most definitely does that… you start off with a kid that’s haunted with his father’s disappearance. He’s turned his back on the ENCOM money and lives a much more independent, secluded life, but also in the real world this whole Grid universe is a myth in his mind, a bedtime story basically, but now with the help and influence of Alan Bradley, and the motivation to go on and see, you come to find yourself in this whole world of the unknown.Now you’ve gotta get the wheels turning to start figuring things out and putting the pieces together… now you’re in there and you’ve gotta seek and find… but beside the practical sets we had, you’re in a world that didn’t exist.But Joe Kosinski was so great at providing “pre-vis” clips, so you could see reference shots of what this character was doing. You’d see the action, and get to see what this world is, so now you can go put yourself in that position, on that mark, and look around and explore it all a little bit.

What was the hardest stunt you did?

Garrett Hedlund: I had to do a lot of wirework, where you’re hoisted up in a harness, which really gets you in the [groin] region – you’ve gotta be hanging up there for a while, and you have do the stunt once at 50, then at 75 per cent, then at 100 per cent – then they say at 110 per cent. That means you get no restraining, you’re going at the speed of gravity, however fast that will take you. Taking those impacts, the suits are slightly delicate – you usually have jeans and T-shirt on but now you’re in a self-illuminating suit that is quite glorious, doing all this stuff that involves imagination and agility, training and focus.

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GARRETT Hedlund made his screen debut supporting Brad Pitt and Eric Bana in the blockbuster epic Troy. Now it’s his turn to take centre stage in the eagerly anticipated sci-fi sequel TRON: Legacy. He spoke to Play editor JAMES WIGNEY at Digital Domain, the Los Angeles special effects house that brought the TRON world to life in groundbreaking 3D

This has been a big step up for you in terms of a special effects movie. What challenges does that bring?

For me it’s more of an adventurous approach. Jeff Bridges and I always laugh at how strange this profession is sometimes, because of how we have to be on set playing pretend like we did when we were kids.

I grew up on a farm where I would run through the woods pretending I was being chased. We had gun racks, so I would throw a holster around my waist and have a rifle in my hand and be stomach-crawling through the fields, and birds and branches would be enemies. You are always pretending and making obstacles for yourself to leap over.

When I asked Brian Cox back when I was doing Troy, “You guys were so successful at stage  what makes you drive towards film?” and he said that after a while doing stage he needed something new and that new challenge is now filming something completely out of sequence and making the audience believe it’s in sequence. The challenges for this are looking out and seeing what is basically a blank canvas and showing expressions on your face or reactions to what you are seeing to make the audience believe that when your reactions and the art are combined, the marriage is completely seamless.

What has it been like to work with the great Jeff Bridges?

It’s kind of a dream for me. I had been given scripts that involved him before and there was never really a situation where the stars were aligned. There was even a father-son script a few years ago that I came across and I am so glad that none of them ever came to fruition because this was such a dream job.

I am probably the only guy on this planet who hasn’t watched The Big Lebowski all the way through. I have seen pieces on so many occasions, but to other people it’s the Holy Bible.

But to see somebody who works as hard as he does and puts the amount of preparation into each character as he does is something great. To see someone who has been acting ever since he was 20 or 21 and still working hard on every project is something that I aspire to do.

The way he composes himself on and off set is fantastic. He is just so full of life and inspiration that it’s infectious. It’s hard not to be enamoured of the way his mind works.

Your next role is as a country singer  and Jeff just won an Oscar playing a country singer. Did he help you out with that?

People hadn’t really heard of Crazy Heart before we were filming TRON. Then it became this sweet little gem that was unveiled and became so beneficial for Jeff. I was so proud to see him go on and achieve those accolades.
But for me, when we were in the trailer towards the end of filming, he would be playing me a couple of songs and I really liked them.

There is one he sings in the film called I Don’t Know and he taught me how to play it. But at that time I could hardly play the chords and my transitions were sloppy and I couldn’t sing and play at the same time. I really looked at him during that time and knew that I would be able to achieve it. I had six months of guitar training prior to making the film, going into the studio every two weeks to chart the progression.

I know I am not an old dog, but it’s weird when you can learn new tricks.

In a world of Facebook and MySpace, we seem to be consumed by technology wherever we turn. Is there a wider message in TRON about that?

I think what the technology could do in this film is something I had never foreseen and could hardly fathom.
I am not a huge technological person. I don’t do MySpace or Facebook and I don’t tweet. I am never the first one to get the next gadget that comes out , I am the first one to know I will never have it. So that’s not what particularly drives me, but from having done TRON I think I am apt to get a little more involved in a more technological world.
I think people are going to be blown away with what they see in this film.

Seeing the technology that was involved in making Jeff 30 years younger, is that exciting to you as an actor or is there a real fear it could make you redundant?

What the world has come to and what the industry has come to is a little scary. We are all scanned into a system and on a computer now. They had to scan our bodies and digitally make these suits around every curve of our shapes so it fit like it was skin.

Now if someone chose to, in some sinister future, they could take that image of you and completely do a performance without your involvement.

I feel technology can be a scary thing because it’s progressing so fast that we really have no idea what five years from now will be like.

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Tron Reviews are Coming In!

Highligts of  IGN’s enthusiastic article – Possible Spoilers

Jeff Bridges, who anchors the entire experience by playing both the hero and the villain of the piece, is predictably capable stepping back into the shoes of ENCOM CEO Kevin Flynn, a man who we learn has disappeared on the night he tells his young son Sam that he’s discovered a miracle within his new creation. Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) eventually grows up into a stubborn underachiever who loves to make bold corporate espionage plays against the very company that he stands to inherit.

Bruce Boxleitner (the OG Tron) returns as the now-weary Alan Bradley, a man who’s always remained at Sam’s defiant side in an almost apologetic manner due to Sam’s abandonment. From here, the story kicks off the basic “hero’s quest” as Sam enters the digital world of The Grid that his father created and discovers that Kevin’s been trapped inside his own creation, by his own jealous in-world avatar CLU, for decades.

There’s a very strong, basic father/son reconciliation story being told here that totally works despite the fact that it takes place in a dazzlingly dangerous world of hostile computer programs. Lost writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (who know their “daddy issues” for sure), once again present us with a story that’s really mostly about the characters and their emotional journey than it is the mysterious sci-fi world that they inhabit.

But even though we’re being presented with a surprisingly effective “passing the torch” family saga, there’s simply no escaping the breadth of this new Tron world. Tron: Legacy almost delivers double the dividends considering the fact that the original film was disqualified from Oscar special effects consideration because using computer technology to enhance you movie was considered cheating back then. The new Tron world that director Joseph Kosinski has delivered, which is still mostly filled with negative space, is a frightfully hypnotic.

As Sam, Hedlund was a strong charismatic lead who, along with Olivia Wilde as doe-eyed Quorra, provided a wonderful air of innocence and restlessness to a breathtaking world where human hours pass by as computer years.

Michael Sheen pops up briefly as a flamboyant “Ziggy Stardust” program who runs a sort of cyber-Studio 54, and James Frain appears as CLU’s somewhat bumbling second-in-command.

First time feature director Kosinski delivers thrills and a touch of heartache inside a very impressive palate of colors and noise

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GARRETT Hedlund admits his action figure is “really freaky”.

The Tron: Legacy star says he had been managing to cope with his rise to blockbuster fame before he was presented with a scale model of himself.

“I didn’t even think about the action figures or anything,” says Garrett.

“I have one that they gave me, it’s at home back in L.A, and it’s really freaky.

“I don’t feel it makes me a better person or a worse person. It’s cool, but it does blow your mind a little.”

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In The Mix interviewed Garrett for the upcoming Australia release on 16th December, Tron Legacy.

I don’t know if you’ve seen it yet, but your face is on a lot of posters and stuff. That must be crazy?

“[Laughs] Yeah, it is. But I don’t know, I think if it was somebody else’s film that I would see on billboards when I was just walking around then I’d be really excited for them and think ‘wow, this must be a really cool position to be in, man” but being here and seeing this stuff…I just don’t know how to react to it…so I don’t. I’m not the kind of person who’s like ‘hey, check this out! It’s a poster of me! Right? Eat it!’…for me, it’s cool, but I just try to think about the whole film.”

I guess there would be a lot of that here in L.A., that kind of ‘look at me’ attitude.

“Yeah, there are a lot of people in it for different reasons. I’ve always been very effected by film…I never got to watch much television growing up, we had three channels on the farm so I think all I got to watch was a lot of Roseanne, but film really started to effect me and take me out of my world and put me into another. It was like I got to go on vacation and I would completely dive into it. If it moved me emotionally or cheered me up out of a bad mood it made me realise that it was something I wanted to do for other people. I love sadness; I love sad songs and I love sad films and if there is a film that can effect me that way then, man, I am so satisfied, y’know? I bought a ticket to the right film. I always like playing different characters ‘cause I get bored of myself real quick.”

It must be a real honour to work with someone like Jeff Bridges then, who says he doesn’t even need to make movies anymore.

“Yeah, absolutely.”

When you look at his career, he’s been working consistently for a few decades now. Do you look at him and aspire to have that same longevity?

“That’s exactly what it is, to have that endurance. But it’s also to have the passion and the drive and the inspiration towards doing this the whole way through like he does. With Jeff, even at this point where he’s done so many films, I can see that he works harder than he has before when he does a movie. That’s something I take away from working with him, never ceasing to work harder on what I’m doing than on the project before…always pushing the torch a little bit further. Jeff is so genuine and so full of life and he’s inspired at so many other things whether it’s music or art or spirituality or just good old fashioned jokes. He’s just a great person to be around. It was such an honour.”

Daman Magazine has on their website, a web exclusive that is not featured in their magazine. A quick Q&A:

DA MAN: When you first got to Hollywood, did you take it in stride or did it kind of blow you away?
Garrett Hedlund: I had been flying back and forth from Arizona for auditions for two years, so it was something I had been a little used to.
DA: What sort of experiences do you think prepared you to handle the Hollywood whirlwind?
GH: Growing up on a farm. It gave me all the tools I need for real life.
DA: You have sort of flown under the radar the last couple years, were you working or taking some time off?
GH: I had some time off as I was attached to On the Road and I swore to the director that I wouldn’t do another film until we did it.
DA: Did you get stressed by the demands of celebrity; from Troy as a teenager, then basically two major feature films per year for next few years, concluding with Georgia Rule and Death Sentence in 2007? After those did you just say to yourself, ‘I gotta slow this down’?
GH: I’m happy with the pace of my career.
DA: What has been your proudest moment so far in your movie career?
GH: My role in On the Road that I am currently filming. It has been my dream role.
DA: What has been something you wished you had not done?
GH: No. You wouldn’t be where you are without the past. I would never change anything that got me to where I am today.
DA: What do you hope to achieve in your acting career? Any goals, such as an Oscar?
GH: I don’t really have a master plan. I cant foresee it. I just hope to continue working on films and in roles that I can completely dive into and believe the character.
DA: What does it take to make it to the top and stay there in Hollywood ?
GH: Understanding yourself and knowing what you have to offer.
DA: What do you like to do to relax when you have leisure time?
GH: I enjoy staying home and relaxing on my couch reading or going back to the farm.

For the full magazine feature with several more images, pick up the December 2010/January 2011 issue of DA MAN magazine

In 1982, a director named Steven Lisberger tickled a generation’s imagination with a movie called TRON. Looking back, the predictive power of the movie is astounding. Who could have imagined that 30 years later, we would be living in our own Troniverse, a reality fraught with light speed communiqués, digital farm maintenance, and Facebook integration? We will immediately posit this question to 600 friends with a status update.

We got a few minutes to chat with Garrett Hedlund, who plays Sam Flynn, aka Son of Jeff Bridges in the new TRON sequel. After being sucked into “The Grid” by the same laser that digitized his dad in TRON v. 1.0, Sam finds himself on a mission to rescue his pop, who has been imprisoned in the computer world for twenty years.

What was your initial reaction upon finally seeing the sequel?
Speechless. So thrilled and proud and just excited for everyone to see what [director] Joe Kasinski did, and Digital Domain, and Darren [Gilford] the production designer, all these guys worked so hard, and I’m so proud of every one of them.

How do you create a real character in a digital world?
It starts off in the real world. Sam was so affected by the disappearance of his father, and you got the abandonment issues there. You come from real life on that. It’s key for Sam’s qualities to be real in a technological world, and the story has to be there as well. This being a movie of a son searching for his father, that’s the jugular of this whole thing. Now you’re in this world of the unknown, trying to overcome obstacles and get out.

You do feel the strength of that father/son relationship. What did you and Jeff Bridges do to fall into that dynamic?
We arrived in Vancouver a couple weeks before we started shooting, and we all sat around a round table—me and Jeff and Joe and Olivia [Wilde] and Sean Bailey and Justin Springer and the writers, and we’d go through the script and improvise and rehearse some scenes, see if there was anything we could add or not. And there, we would talk to one another, talk about life, literature, music and spirituality. And Jeff is so inspired by all of these things and so wise on all of them as well. He’s such a unique person. Such a brilliant actor, every day, he was. He never ceased to inspire me.

What was it like working with Joe Kasinski, a first time director?
Joe was incredible. I’m excited for everyone to see what he did with this. It may be his first feature, but he knows his way around the set. Joe Kasinski doesn’t seem like no first time director. In my opinion, he’s the next great visionary of our time.

You trained in capoeria and parkour. What’s it like doing that stuff in a spandex onesie?
It’s different! It’s different than training in basketball shorts and a t-shirt. The training was really special. It was at this facility called 87eleven. I was working for this guy David Leitch, who had coincidentally worked on Troy with me, choreographing the fights. To go through the journey with him, the capoeira and parkour, doing the weight training with [trainer] Logan Hood and the motorcycle—it was fantastic. I’m glad it was them, that group over there is very talented.

Tell me about your experience watching the original 1982 TRON.
I saw it for the first time when I was 18. I got a kick out of the young, energetic Jeff. Having filmed with the present Jeff, I wish I could hang out with the both of them at the same time. I feel like we could have a great deal of laughs.

It’s great what [TRON director] Steven Lisberger created. Who can really predict where we’ll really be in terms of 10, 20, 30 years of technology? It’s crazy.

What’s it like to hold an action figure of yourself?
It’s cool! Yeah. A pal of mine from high school had a baby. My mom gave him a Sam Flynn action figure, and I thought that was really special, that was really neat. Other than that, it’s just a tool for my brother to make fun of me.

Are you filming On the Road right now?
Yeah.

Is it more pressure for you to do a big budget tentpole film like TRON or to tackle a more classic character like Dean Moriarty?
I don’t know. In terms of every film I do, I always try and work harder than I have before, and on this one, it’s been a lot of work. Everyone’s been really delivering, man. It’s such a great experience. Walter Salles is so incredible. I’m very blessed to be a part of it.

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‘Incredible Experience’

‘It’s such a high-tech adventure,’ actor tells MTV News on the film’s blue carpet.

“Tron” was an eye-popping technological extravaganza when it first hurtled into theaters in 1982 with its speeding light cycles and gaming imagery. The film eventually proved to be so influential — spawning video games and a whole “Tron”-obsessed subculture in its wake — that Disney circled back to the project for the 2010 sequel “Tron Legacy.”

For Garrett Hedlund, who plays Sam Flynn, the son of software engineer Kevin (portrayed in both movies by Jeff Bridges), the latest take on the project is still an impressive spectacle that ramps up the potently mind-scrambling imagery. Hedlund revealed his thoughts to MTV News about the seeing the final product for the first time on the blue carpet at the elaborate “Tron Legacy” premiere Saturday.

“I saw it couple weeks ago when I was in Montreal, but only with a couple pals and on a smaller Technicolor screen. But even then it was an incredible experience. It’s such a high-tech adventure,” Hedlund said. “It’s undoubtedly like anything I’ve ever seen before, and I think the loss for words on it is the best part of it and I can’t wait to see it again.”

Even though Hedlund has a role in bringing the digital wizardry of the franchise to a new generation — in addition to getting a high-profile, career-boosting gig from the project — he said he was most excited to see “Tron” filmmaker Steven Lisberger revel in the enduring influence of his groundbreaking movie nearly three decades later.

“That’s where I’m so happy for Steven Lisberger. Something he created around 28 years ago and this wild maniacal story has come to fruition 28 years later in such an unbelievable way,” he said. “To see him walking with his family and enjoying this with all of us and being there when we’re filming with all of us and sort of being the godfather on set, I’m more proud of him in this very moment.”

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Garrett Hedlund is one to watch for the next few years. He’s the lead in the long awaited sequel Tron Legacy, he stars alongside Gwyneth Paltrow in Country Strong, and he plays Dean Moriarty in Walter Selles’ adaptation of On the Road. Hedlund recently revealed that they just finished wrapping production on the film yesterday [December 11] and he spoke about the long, long journey it took to get there.

On the Road took six months to film lasting from July 11 to December 11, and it’s finally done. According to Hedlund, “It was such a journey” and he’s proud to have taken it.

“It was a guerrilla shoot with the most incredible family. Walter Selles directed it and he’s put so much work into this film over the last six or seven years. I’ve been attached since September of ‘07 trying to get this project made. Being on set during the first day like, ‘we’re fucking filming On the Road‘ to today’s the day after we just finished it. It was unfortunate to part with a family you’ve come to love so immensely on this journey.”

Hedlund’s schedule has been packed to the brim over the past year, but the last 24 hours have been the most hectic.

“Yesterday morning I was driving across the Bay Bridge in a Hudson, wrapped at 11, jumped on a plane to get back here [Los Angeles], cut my hair, and went straight to the Tron [Legacy] premiere.”

As you might expect with a title like On the Road, Hedlund spent a lot of the shoot traveling. They went to Montreal, Argentina, New Orleans, Arizona, Mexico, Calgary and they just wrapped in San Francisco.

On the Road is scheduled to hit theaters sometime in 2011.

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Garrett Hedlund made the list of Stars to Watch in 2011, along with Elle Fanning, Andrew Garfield, Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone to name a few. We can definitely see Garrett Hedlund in the next wave of Hollywood heartthrobs. Just look at those piercing baby blues! There’s already plenty of hype about his role in Tron: Legacy, and we can’t wait to see him alongside Gwyneth Paltrow in Country Strong in early January. We expect he’ll get plenty more buzz — and babes — in 2011!

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