During a middle-school play production, Hedges was spotted by the casting director for Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom (2012), who eventually cast him in the film as Redford.
He went on to play small roles in the comedy-drama Arthur Newman (2012), Jason Reitman's romance Labor Day (2013), and Terry Gilliam's science fiction film The Zero Theorem (2013).
In 2014, Hedges had a minor role in Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel and played the son of Jeremy Renner's character in Michael Cuesta's drama Kill the Messenger, which was based on CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking.
The latter led the critic Todd McCarthy to rank him as "very good," and Rodrigo Perez of IndieWire considered him to be the "surprise stand-out of the cast."
In 2015, he was cast in the NBC miniseries The Slap, which was adapted from the Australian series of the same name.

Hedges next joined the cast of Kenneth Lonergan's independent drama Manchester by the Sea (2016).
In it, he played Patrick Chandler, a 16-year-old boy dealing with the recent death of his father, who is left in the care of his unwilling and troubled uncle (played by Casey Affleck).
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph wrote, "Hedges, phenomenal, fights off every cliché of 'troubled' teenagerhood and gives us a gruff, sympathetic boy with a tearaway sex drive."
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian said his performance was "glorious" and added that he "makes a tremendous troubled 16-year-old."
It earned over $78 million against its $9 million budget.
For his work, Hedges won a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer, and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, among others.

The following year, Hedges made his stage debut as the lead in the Trip Cullman-directed off-Broadway play Yen, penned by the playwright Anna Jordan.
The production ran from February 19 to March 4 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.
Taking note of his performance as an aggressive and violent teenager who shares a troubled relationship with his half-brother, Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote that he "delivers an expert anatomy of an adolescent on the edge of explosion".
Hedges was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play and won the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Debut Performance.
Also in 2017, Hedges had supporting roles in two films—Greta Gerwig's directorial debut Lady Bird and Martin McDonagh's crime drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, both of which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The cast of the latter film were awarded with the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast.
During a middle-school play production, Hedges was spotted by the casting director for Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom (2012), who eventually cast him in the film as Redford. He went on to play small roles in the comedy-drama Arthur Newman (2012), Jason Reitman's romance Labor Day (2013), and Terry Gilliam's science fiction film The Zero Theorem (2013). In 2014, Hedges had a minor role in Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel and played the son of Jeremy Renner's character in Michael Cuesta's drama Kill the Messenger, which was based on CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking. The latter led the critic Todd McCarthy to rank him as "very good," and Rodrigo Perez of IndieWire considered him to be the "surprise stand-out of the cast." In 2015, he was cast in the NBC miniseries The Slap, which was adapted from the Australian series of the same name.
Hedges next joined the cast of Kenneth Lonergan's independent drama Manchester by the Sea (2016). In it, he played Patrick Chandler, a 16-year-old boy dealing with the recent death of his father, who is left in the care of his unwilling and troubled uncle (played by Casey Affleck). The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph wrote, "Hedges, phenomenal, fights off every cliché of 'troubled' teenagerhood and gives us a gruff, sympathetic boy with a tearaway sex drive." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian said his performance was "glorious" and added that he "makes a tremendous troubled 16-year-old." It earned over $78 million against its $9 million budget. For his work, Hedges won a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer, and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, among others.
The following year, Hedges made his stage debut as the lead in the Trip Cullman-directed off-Broadway play Yen, penned by the playwright Anna Jordan. The production ran from February 19 to March 4 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Taking note of his performance as an aggressive and violent teenager who shares a troubled relationship with his half-brother, Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote that he "delivers an expert anatomy of an adolescent on the edge of explosion". Hedges was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play and won the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Debut Performance. Also in 2017, Hedges had supporting roles in two films—Greta Gerwig's directorial debut Lady Bird and Martin McDonagh's crime drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, both of which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The cast of the latter film were awarded with the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast.
Lucas Hedges