He beautifully played a teen coming out for the first time in Lady Bird and is following that up with this year’s Boy Erased, about a gay teen forced into conversion therapy.
But he was also great as a straight teen who famously had “two girlfriends” in his Oscar-nominated Manchester By The Sea role.
So now Lucas Hedges is answering the question a lot of curious fans are starting to ask.
Video: See Lucas In A Very Different Role In Jonah Hill’s Debut mid90s
In a new Vulture profile, the rising star opened up, deliberately but with great trepidation, starting with a story about his youth.
He says he had a crush on a boy at camp and recalls how he felt confiding to his mother something a lot of people said was wrong:
“I felt terrible about it. I remember her being very comforting, and she understood that something was distressing me, and she said, ‘You don’t have to go back to camp today.’ [Pause] I’m sorry, I can’t help but feel a little self-conscious, only because I’m talking to you and the world at the same time.”
He continues:
“I owe it to this part to speak as honestly as possible. In the early stages of my life, some of the people I was most infatuated with were my closest male friends. That was the case through high school, and I think I was always aware that while for the most part I was attracted to women, I existed on a spectrum.”
Lucas recalls learning about that spectrum from a health teacher in sixth grade — and was at first concerned he didn’t feel like he fit all the way into the nice box of “straight”:
“I felt ashamed that I wasn’t 100 percent, because it was clear that one side of sexuality presents issues, and the other doesn’t as much.”
Finally, he explains:
“I recognize myself as existing on that spectrum: Not totally straight, but also not gay and not necessarily bisexual.”
We really appreciate how careful he was with his answer.
Wherever he is or isn’t on the spectrum, Lucas seems like a very sweet guy — and a hell of an actor!
Up next? Playing the heroin addict son of Julia Roberts. So yeah, something tells us he’s going to be an award show staple for the foreseeable future.
100%.
[Image via Derrick Salters/WENN.]
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