Garrett Hedlund

I'm Oliver J. here at the Young Hollywood Studio with the man himself, Garrett Hedlund. How are you?

I'm doing very well, yourself.

You've been busy?

Yeah. Yeah, very busy.

Yeah. So you're actually promoting country strong, um, which you play alongside Gth Paltra and you play a country singer.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I've heard that you had no experience with guitar or singing before that movie. Is that right?

Yeah, I had to take six months of guitar training, you know, four days a week, every day, and Shana and I met every Tuesday and Thursday to just find and you know, that soul of what this character meant, and it was a wonderful adventure. But under the guidance of an incredibly talented, you know, new director.

Yeah. So are we expecting a country album out from you now?

No, I guess what whatever Sony throws out there, it would be fine, but I'm very proud of the songs that we did.

Now the part of the movie that really stood out for me was the fact that you got to have love scenes with Gth Palcho and Leighton Meester. How was that? Um and discuss it. Discuss it. Yeah, let's let's wrap about this. Um, I mean millions of people would kill to be in that situation.

So I was fortunate enough to work with them, but they're both such great actresses.

And And great looking.

And great looking. Yes. And beautiful beautiful people inside and out and it was it was a wonderful experience.

Your story actually into Hollywood is quite amazing because it happened quite quickly, didn't it? For a lot of people they come to LA and with this dream and you know, it takes years.

From Arizona where I was living at the time, I was flying back and forth for two years going to auditions and and um, you know, all my money working at the restaurant went into paying Southwest. And And uh so I was just so eager to get to LA. So finally my senior year, I doubled up credits and moved out halfway through my senior year and once I arrived, uh Troy was the first script that was given.

Not a bad script to start with. You're playing Brad Pitt's cousin.

No. No, not at all.

Yeah. Sure that went down well. What are you doing at the moment? Good little bar line, now I'm playing Brad Pitt's cousin. Great.

I remember being on that one and Brad said, you know, not every film is like this. Yeah. And I was just yeah, all right. Then going on to the film that I did next with Tim McGraw, every actor is right on the set in the cargo van. We got to do two a days of football practice, two hours before and after lunch and I was like he was right.

You obviously had to train quite hard for Tron. Capoeira, combat fighting, all that sort of stuff. How was how was that training?

It was kind of intense. It was long, but it's it's beneficial. I mean, for health and for for life.

You went into, I think I'm right in saying this, but you went into it being big into extreme sports anyway because you're a member of the Beverly Hills Croquet Club, might my correct. Is that right?

I was. I don't think I haven't paid my dues.

Okay. That helped obviously for the Capoeira and combat fighting and stuff like that.

Yeah. If you can't do a double jump through the wicket, you can't do Capoeira.

So Tron premiere last night. Your father was the creator. What am I supposed to do? Sim.

Yeah, I went to the premiere, but I'd just come from San Francisco where for the last six months we've been filming on the road, the Jack Kerouac novel and uh we wrapped the film at 11 and jumped straight on the plane to arrive at Hollywood Boulevard to, yes, all the the Tron lights and and the screams and, you know, it was uh fantastic. But it was, you know, I'm I'm so proud of the film and what Joseph Kazinsky has done on his directorial debut. I mean, I was so proud to be there with him last night and to be with Jeff and Olivia and Michael and it was great to see the family again.

So you're excited about the holidays then?

I'm very excited for the holidays, yeah.

Where will you be?

On my couch.

Nice.

I don't know. I don't have any plans, but I really wouldn't mind just staying home.

Yeah. Yeah. I bet your couch sounds very good right now.

I just want to go home.

Come on, come on, let's have a hug. Come on, let it out. Let it out. On the road, the emotions. Well, thanks for stopping in.

It's my pleasure.

And I hope you make it to your sofa. I'm sure you will. And I'm sure uh you won't get off it for several hours or even days. And uh congratulations on all your success.

Thank you.

Keep being so busy.

Thank you.

Good to see you. All right.