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Lucas Hedges, The Rising Star Set To Play ​Shia LaBeouf

Lucas Hedges, The Rising Star Set To Play ​Shia LaBeouf

He first hit the silver screen in 2012 in Wes Anderson's ​'Moonrise Kingdom​'

Mike Wood

Mike Wood

Shia LaBeouf has had something of an eclectic career: he's just as likely to turn up in huge budget blockbusters like the Transformers and the Indiana Jones reboot as he is in an arthouse, low budget, no audience movie, not to mention a succession of bizarre performance art projects that have seen him walk around with a paper bag on his head and set up shop in a Los Angeles gallery.

He's a strange type, and, in case you've been living under a rock this last week, his career took an even stranger twist as it was revealed that he is due to play his own father in a biopic of himself, tentatively titled Honey Boy.

You might expect someone to play themselves, all things considered, but that's not really how Shia LaBeouf rolls. Instead, that coveted role will go to Lucas Hedges, just about the hottest actor in Hollywood that you might not have heard of.

PA
PA

His background is Hollywood tinged - his father, Peter Hedges, wrote the screenplays for What's Eating Gilbert Grape and About A Boy - and he was raised in New York City.

He first hit the silver screen in 2012 in Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom - though in a minor role - before embarking on one of those hot streaks that most actors can only dream of.

Hedges his big break in Manchester By The Sea, garnering himself a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 2017 Academy Awards and a whole host of other awards.

On top of that, he featured in two of 2018's biggest critical hits so far, playing Frances McDormand's son in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Saoirse Ronan's first love interest in Lady Bird.

That all sounds very good, but you'd still be forgiven for not remembering Hedges at all.

That's kind of a compliment for the actor: the characters are more than memorable, and his performances are clearly good enough to win awards nominations, but the individual behind them still possesses a level of anonymity that foregrounds his portrayals.

In a lot of ways, it's kind of the opposite of Shia LaBeouf: I can think of plenty of films that he's been in, but in basically all of them he seems to play a variant of Shia LaBeouf. It looks like Hedges is in for his biggest task yet in maintaining his
hot streak in a Shia LaBeouf movie, especially when he's playing opposite the man himself, while in character as LaBeouf.

Before that, however, you can see him in Jonah Hill's first directorial feature, Mid-90s, and Boy Erased, which will also feature Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: TV and Film, US Entertainment, Shia LaBeouf