Garrett Hedlund knows the allure of chaos — both onscreen in the television series “Tulsa King” as Mitch, a former bull rider and recovered addict, and offscreen as a restless Minnesotan who made his way to Hollywood and into movies like “Troy,” “Tron: Legacy” and “Friday Night Lights.”
“The silence, peace, serenity, isolation, the chores that pushed you away — it’s everything that eventually pulls you back,” he said in a video call from the Connecticut farm, circa 1738, that he now owns, with its apple orchard, big pond, old barn and wooded trails.
Now that Rhodes, his son with the actress Emma Roberts, is turning 4, “I get to share with him a little slice of the beauty of what I got to be raised with — even though at the time I didn’t see it as the beauty my father saw it as,” Hedlund said before expressing gratitude for his Gibson guitar, the music of Blaze Foley and Moleskin notebooks.
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
My Son
Me and his mother, we co-parent, and I feel we co-parent quite wonderfully in this job. It’s not always the easiest. There’s a lot of sacrifices, but our sacrifices tend to be out of love for him. There’s rarely a day that goes by that one of us isn’t completely 100 percent there for him and with him.
My 27-Inch Gibson L1
I found it at a guitar shop in Birmingham, Ala. I was just looking for a travel guitar, and then I saw this 27 L1 hanging on the wall, and I fell in love instantly. Then this owner said goodbye in his own personal way. It was a guitar that he was selling of sentimental value, and I received it in a very parallel manner.
My Passport
I’ve always been an “I can fit my life in a carry-on” kind of guy, and a passport was always a bonus to extend a little bit of reach of freedom and possibility.
‘Awareness’ by Anthony de Mello
I don’t need to really get into it. I’d rather just say that I think it’s a beautiful tool for anybody to take a peek into. It’s one of those that’s always a little back pocket tool to revisit.
‘The Daily Stoic’ by Ryan Holiday
Josh Brolin turned me on to Ryan Holiday’s works about a year ago because I was always quoting Aurelius or Epictetus or Heraclitus or Socrates. It is really about taking some of the wonderful, formidable works of the stoics and making them relatable still to the working man with trials and tribulations.
My Happiness
It involves a slight sort of reorganizing of priorities, I’d say, compared to maybe how I approached things previously in my life. I fashion things after taking care of myself or being great to myself, being great to my son and being great with my passions. And when I’m great to myself, all those other things fall into place really wonderfully.
The Music of Blaze Foley
When I was shooting in the Tatra Mountains of Slovakia back in 2005, a co-star had given me a book by James Kelman, the Scottish author. The title was “You Have to Be Careful in the Land of the Free.” And on the very first page it said, “Blue eyes. She said pretty blue eyes. Said I had pretty blue eyes.” And I said, Who is this wonderful simple poet? Once I heard that record, things sort of changed. Absolutely got a little more wholesome.
Iron & Wine’s ‘Such Great Heights’
Anytime me and my son are falling asleep or driving, Iron & Wine is the place to go. Nothing lets a 3-year-old just look out the windows at the passing trees and the fallen leaves like “Such Great Heights.” It has been a longtime favorite of mine, but you get to sort of re-experience and re-appreciate things once you become a father.
Moleskine Notebooks
I’ve been writing ever since high school. I used to hate English. But one time when I took a personal narrative seriously, my junior high school teacher held me after class. I wrote about a friend of mine passing in a car accident, and he said that he thought it was good and he wanted to talk about it. It’s funny how that moment changed my life.
My 3 a.m. Friends
It’s not because they didn’t go to sleep — it’s because they wake up for the call. To be 40 and to have the majority of your nearest and dearest be ones that, the first thing we’d wake up and share with each other is what we’re grateful for — is a damn special thing. My pals are much more useful these days in terms of survival instead of reaching chaos.
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