For the first two days it was like it was Comi-Tron and indeed, Tron: Legacy is a big deal, was a big deal at the convention, and generated even more positive buzz after its 3rd appearance in a row, 5 months before the film finally hits theatres. Jacek and I saw the trailer before Inception and he leaned over to me and whispered – that is going to be SICK in 3D. It’s something about video game memories, they turn even the most unengaged movie-goer into an enthusiasts.
On screen he does nothing for me. Fair enough because Garrett Hedlund shot Tron: Legacy last year. Perhaps if I’d seen him in person last year I would have the same reaction. As it is, when I watch the trailer, I’m not feeling much. Hedlund live however, well, that’s something else, which makes it more inconvenient as far as a fix is concerned, sure, but I actually don’t mind this, the fact that as a real authentic human being he actually pops.
We were at the Tron media event inside an empty retail space they’d converted into video arcade, with a passageway that opened up to a tricked out cave made to look like the nightclub run by Michael Sheen in the movie. They brought in Jeff Bridges first. They brought in Garrett Hedlund last. I was over it at this point. It was early in the morning, I hadn’t eaten, I couldn’t get a wifi signal on my laptop, my blog was behind, I wanted to bang off these interviews and get the f-ck out.
Then he emerged from the tunnel right beside me.
Hedlund is tall for Hollywood. He was taller than everyone in his entourage. That’s the first thing. The second is that he’s leaned out. In person he’s lanky, and his face is much more angled and carved, a sharp nose, sharp jaw, really great gait. I mean, that’s why Brad Pitt is more than his head, right? Hedlund holds his shoulders in a chill mid-slouch without looking like he has bad posture, and the hands, rubbing the back of his neck during interviews when he’s thinking about something, and a great gravelly voice with a sliiigght twang that sounds great when he laughs... it was on.
He’s not pretty either. I wouldn’t say the kid is in any danger of joining the elf boys Crawford, Efron, Pattinson – Hedlund’s mouth can look f-cked up in some shots, there’s a little Jeremy Renner happening with his expressions sometimes, and that works for him too. It’s worked enough to get him from Lindsay Lohan (Georgia Rule) to headlining the revival of a cult hit (Tron), to an independent singing feature (Country Strong) to playing one of the most iconic literary characters of a generation, Dean Moriarty in the film adaptation of Kerouac’s On the Road.
I had a big brother crush on Dean the first time I read On the Road. The second time I read On the Road I thought he just needed me to fix him. We were in love. The third time I thought we’d find each other but only much later in life. The fourth time I called him a loser. The fifth time, just two years ago, I loved him all over again but knew I’d have to leave him in the end. And these are only my projections. There are millions of others who see Dean an entirely different way. Needless to say, someone has a lot of confidence in Hedlund’s acting abilities.
Um, yeah he’s hot, but I don’t know if I’d go that far just yet. Or you could say that Dean, being Dean, isn’t all that complicated to portray anyway...? My friend LB doesn’t think Hedlund is the Dean she pictured. I worry he can’t act it.
But we don’t have to stress about that for a while yet. On the Road has just started shooting. And at Comic-Con Garrett’s focus on was on Tron. Back to the story – he strolled in like he’d just gotten up a few minutes before, smelling faintly of cigarettes and deodorant, and started at the top of the line. We were in the middle, and as he made his way down, I told Audra my producer that I didn’t think I could do it, that she’d have to talk to him because I didn’t want to. Dylan was working the camera and Dylan being Dylan started kissing his teeth and doing that dude dick measuring thing, eventually concluding that he wasn’t all that, which is what he concluded about everyone on our trip who wasn’t Stan Lee or, well, himself.
Anyway, Garrett finally arrived at our spot and I asked him whatever it was that I asked him and he replied with his low voice, rubbing the side of his face as he thought about his answer while making really great eye contact, looking down on my short ass, which is always a turn-on for me when a guy has to title his head steeply, and enough, wayyyy enough, so at the end of the interview, we shook hands and he was smiling and Audra says he was about to add one more comment in my direction, but I had already turned around and shut it down, and he had no choice but to move across the aisle to the next outlet in the queue. It’s better that way.
Later on I saw him smoking at a party deep in conversation with what looked to be an older woman, producer type, and she was much shorter so he would bend his knees and nod into her eyes when he wanted her to know he was listening closely to her point, and then he opened the door for someone carrying several boxes, and offered to help with the boxes and then you almost hope he starts kicking rabbits or something because it’s too much like this, much too much.
Tron: Legacy trailer is below.
Photos from Wenn.com and Flynetonline.com and John Shearer/Jerod Harris/Gettyimages.com
