Garrett Hedlund Interview: ON THE ROAD Update

In this exclusive interview with Collider, actor Garrett Hedlund talked about playing Sam Flynn, the experience of working with someone as talented as Jeff Bridges and how much he already misses being on set for this project. He also revealed that he was involved in the additional footage that was shot after the film was completed, and how he’s playing another dream role in the smaller character drama On the Road, with Sam Riley and Kristen Stewart. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

What was it like to go from something as massive as this to a smaller character piece like On the Road?

HEDLUND: With Tron, we had so many crew members around and a stage full of special effects people that know exactly what has to be done in the situations. You’re on a stage in sets the whole time. For our experience with On the Road, it’s been quite the opposite. It’s been quite a guerilla shoot. At times, there’s just been two handfuls of crew members around us and it’s a very quiet situation. The content that we’re dealing with is all over the board. The Beat Generation is so much more different than the technological world.

Just personally, I’ve been attached to On the Road since 2007 and it was the greatest thing in my life when I got cast in it. I couldn’t believe it. When I was 17 and read the book, I looked it up on IMDb and it said that Francis Ford Coppola was going to direct it. Me just being a kid about to graduate high school, I knew I would never get a shot at it. Now, it’s eight years later and I’m on the set of On the Road. Every day, me and Sam Riley would look at each other and just be like, “We’re fuckin’ filming On the Road.”

Also, the character is such a wild, maniacal, extroverted genius. Kerouac was the cowboy that inspired the whole Beat Generation, and highlighted and put the spotlight on all of these minds that didn’t really know what they were doing at the time, but accomplished something much bigger than what they ever foresaw. I think that’s what Tron is doing, in terms of the technological world. From what the first one had done, this one is taking that torch a little further. Anybody that’s sitting out in the audience that has the aspirations to be in this business and do anything with special effects or computers, it’s going to inspire them to work a little harder to get to where they want to be. Once they get there, they’re going to create that piece of work that’s going to inspire the whole next generation of creators.

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