LUCAS HEDGES

It's almost like the psychology of a film is no different from the psychology of a person in that it has to function, it has to breathe, it has to have its releases, it has anxiety.

I grew up in a film-loving family. We watched the Oscars every year. My favorite thing in the whole world was film. The Oscars obviously was the holy grail.

If I did have social media, I would spend way to much time on it. It is way too addictive for me.

The ten-block radius around my house in Brooklyn has been my whole world. When I walk on the street, I feel like I've rediscovered my childhood innocence. I love it because nothing has changed.

I did the plays in middle school. I was cast as a gate in my fourth grade play, and every year I got a bigger role. Then, in 7th grade, I played Smike in 'Nicholas Nickleby,' and the casting director saw me and asked me to audition for a movie. That movie led to me getting 'Moonrise Kingdom.'

In my bedroom, I have my yoga mat and the puppets I've made over the years, and because I'm very into smells, I have some burned sage on my bedside to help clear my head.

I'm not sure I would want to be a filmmaker, because I've seen how many people they have to go through in order to create their own movie. It doesn't seem like something I can imagine putting myself through.

My problem with my parents growing up was not that I was afraid to cry in front of them - they always wanted me to cry because they wanted me to be okay, but it felt kind of icky and gross to cry in front of my parents. So my problem was the polar opposite - I didn't want to cry in front of them because I didn't want to give them the satisfaction.

I would absolutely be interested in doing a Broadway production if it was the right project. But my dream is to be writing pieces of theater for my best friends and putting on plays in New York City and seeing our vision come alive. I just hope to always be creating.

This is my life! I'm not getting a lot of sleep, but I am getting a lot of frequent-flyer miles.

I don't know what's in store for me, but I know that I want to create work, and I want to create an environment where I can bring in my favorite people and collaborate with them, and do something that is so much weirder and so different from what you'd see in commercial film.

It's nauseating for me when I feel like I'm not growing or challenging myself.

Technically, my first paying job was I was an extra in my dad's movie 'Dan in Real Life.'

The great thing about scenes that involve nervous breakdowns - in the little experience I have doing them - is that there's no way to craft it. You just have to do it, and it sort of crafts itself in just being incredibly messy.

My dad's a filmmaker, and my mom's an actress. She was the original understudy, actually, for Harper in 'Angels in America' and did the show for about several months while she was pregnant with my older brother. And so I grew up obsessed with film and filmmaking.

Acting is not about showing what you're feeling. It's about doing something. It's about what you're doing for the other person. Anything other than 'doing' is not grounded in the truth.

I believe that a great character can be made in one scene, or a few moments.

The more you learn to love yourself, the better actor you will be. That's always going to be my training. Every part is, 'How can I learn to love myself more?'

Ultimately, I think what I want from my career is to be able to create work for myself, and there's only so much you can do as an actor in a movie.

If I have a career in theater, and nobody knows who I am, I'm all right with that.

I don't have social media. I don't have Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat.

I am somebody who never came close to a physical altercation, because I was too scared of even getting near one - I'd probably just start crying.

I know that I want to consistently return to doing plays. That's one of the most important things because I think it's the best place for me to learn how to act.

The first thing I ever auditioned for was a movie called 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.' And, this is kind of a secret, but it came down between me and the one other kid for it, but I didn't get it, so.

I have allergic reactions: it triggers my gag reflex when I read unrealistic dialogue from a teenager.