Early life

Hedlund was born in Roseau, Minnesota. He is the youngest of three children, with a brother, Nathaniel, and a sister, Amanda. His father is of Swedish descent and his mother is of Norwegian and German ancestry. Hedlund was raised on a remote beef cattle farm near the small town of Wannaska, Minnesota. In the tenth grade, he moved to live with his mother in Arizona, where he saved his waiter’s tips to pay for lessons with acting coach Jean Fowler, with whom he worked on speeches and script material. He subsequently modeled for L.L. Bean and Teen magazine. In 2003, at the age of eighteen, Hedlund moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career.

Career

Hedlund made his feature film debut as Patroclus in the mythological epic adventure war drama Troy with Brad Pitt. The film was released on May 14, 2004. He also co-starred as Don Billingsley in the 2004 sports drama Friday Night Lights with Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Britton and Tim McGraw, in which McGraw played his abusive father.

He co-starred with Mark Wahlberg in the crime drama Four Brothers as Jack Mercer. He co-starred in the fantasy-adventure film Eragon as Murtagh. In 2007, he co-starred in the comedy-drama Georgia Rule with Lindsay Lohan, Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman, directed by Garry Marshall. The film was released May 11, 2007, was panned by critics and failed to surpass box office expectations, only making a lifetime gross of $41 million. That same year, he co-starred in the crime thriller Death Sentence with Kevin Bacon. In 2010, he co-starred with Jeff Bridges in the science fiction/action film Tron: Legacy, a sequel to the 1982 film Tron. The film was released on December 17, 2010.

Hedlund also co-starred with Gwyneth Paltrow, Leighton Meester and his Friday Night Lights co-star, country musician Tim McGraw in the musical drama Country Strong, which was released on December 22, 2010. He recorded several songs for the film including "Chances Are" which appeared on Country Strong: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. His performance was well-received by critics; noting voice similarities between him and Charlie Robison, Roughstock said "the best song on this album belongs to him" and Country Weekly wrote that of all the songs performed by actors in this film, his was "the most convincing". Six other songs including a duet with Meester were featured on a second soundtrack titled Country Strong: More Music from the Motion Picture.

Hedlund was cast as Kaneda Shotaro in the live-action version of Akira, but production of the film was cancelled. He also co-starred as Dean Moriarty in the 2012 adventure drama On the Road with Kristen Stewart, Amy Adams, Steve Buscemi, Terrence Howard, Kirsten Dunst and Viggo Mortensen. The film was directed by Walter Salles and based on Jack Kerouac's novel of same name. Disney stated in December 2012 that Hedlund would reprise his role of Sam Flynn in the sequel to Tron: Legacy.

Hedlund reportedly turned down the roles of Finnick in the sequel to the dystopian science fiction/adventure film The Hunger Games titled Catching Fire and Christian Grey in the film adaptation of E. L. James' best-selling novel Fifty Shades of Grey. In 2014, Hedlund co-starred in the historical drama Unbroken directed by Angelina Jolie.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
2004	Troy	Patroclus	Wolfgang Petersen	Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Male Breakout Movie Star
2004	Friday Night Lights	Don Billingsley	Peter Berg
2005	Four Brothers	Jack Mercer	John Singleton	Nominated—Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble
2006	Eragon	Murtagh	Stefen Fangmeier
2007	Georgia Rule	Harlan	Garry Marshall
2007	Death Sentence	Billy Darley	James Wan
2010	Tron: Legacy	Sam Flynn	Joseph Kosinski	Maui Film Festival Rising Star Award Young Hollywood Award for Actor of the Year Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
2010	Country Strong	Beau Hutton	Shana Feste
2012	On the Road	Dean Moriarty	Walter Salles
2013	Inside Llewyn Davis	Johnny Five	Joel & Ethan Coen
2014	Lullaby	Jonathan	Andrew Levitas
2014	Unbroken	John Fitzgerald	Angelina Jolie
2015	Mojave	Thomas	William Monahan
2015	Pan	James Hook	Joe Wright
2016	Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk	Sgt. Dime	Ang Lee	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	When I Was 17	Himself	Season 2 Episode 45

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Eragon	Murtagh	Voice

Discography

Country Strong: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Track	Song	Writers	Time
4	"Chances Are"	Nathan Chapman, Lori McKenna, Liz Rose	3:25

Country Strong: More Music from the Motion Picture

Track	Song	Writers	Time
1	"Silver Wings"	Merle Haggard	3:21
4	"Hard Out Here"	Hayes Carll	3:09
9	"Turn Loose the Horses"	Hayes Carll	3:05
12	"Give In To Me"	Billy Falcon, Rose Falcon, Elisha Hoffman	3:29
13	"Hide Me Babe"	Hayes Carll	3:08
14	"Timing Is Everything"	Natalie Hemby, Troy Jones	3:24

Chart history

Hedlund's duet with Meester—"Give In to Me"— was the only song to chart as a single, reaching #79 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #96 on the Canadian Hot 100.

Awards and nominations

• On June 7, 2011 Hedlund was named Man of the Year at the Glamour Awards.

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Notes
2004	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Breakout Movie Star	Troy	Nominated
2006	Black Reel Awards	Best Ensemble	Four Brothers	Nominated
2011	Saturn Award	Best Supporting Actor	Tron: Legacy	Nominated
2011	Young Hollywood Award	Actor of the Year		Won
2011	Maui Film Festival	Rising Star		Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]