Lucas Hedges Opens Up About Being Compared to Other Leading Men

Lucas Hedges is on the cover of WSJ. Magazine‘s February 2019 Talents & Legends Issue, out now.

Here’s what the 22-year-old actor had to say…

On playing ordinary young
 men navigating strained and tumultuous 
periods of their lives:
 “My brother gives me a lot of s–t for it, actually. He’s like, ‘Most people in the world aren’t going through what your characters are going through.’”

On his childhood: “There was definitely a dream of being with somebody that never came true at that point in my life…it just didn’t feel like an option to actually be transparent with what I was going through. I really was trying to find myself through all these different relationships.”

On being compared to other leading men: “I do think about why there isn’t, like, a River Phoenix or somebody who I experience as being magical and ethereal and culturally historical…I do actually experience that with Timothée [Chalamet].”

On why he doesn’t aspire to heartthrob-dom: “I think I have a realistic sense of myself. The kind of actors I look up to are not the Rob Lowes. That’s not to say I haven’t wanted to be those guys. I know some women who are in love with Paul Dano. Colin Firth, perhaps?”

For more from Lucas, head to WSJ.com.