Wyatt Russell Taps Into His Hollywood DNA and Makes a Splash

Blessed with royal Hollywood DNA — his parents are Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, after all — Wyatt Russell was well-positioned for movie stardom. But after roles alongside his father in “Soldier” and “Escape From LA,” he wiped the stardust from his tender eyes and by 15 began mastering the skills to become a professional hockey player. Then injuries derailed his dreams, and he found himself back in front of the camera.

Now he is rather perfectly cast in “Lodge 49,” a modern-day fable set in Long Beach, California, from the writer Jim Gavin (“Middle Men”), which debuts Aug. 6 on AMC. Russell plays Dud, a sunshine-y former surfer who lost his mojo after a snakebite in Nicaragua and his father, the owner of a pool-supply store, vanished in the Pacific — leaving a limping Dud and his sardonic twin sister, Liz (Sonya Cassidy), in debt and untethered.

Then kismet happens. After Dud discovers a ring from the Ancient and Benevolent Order of the Lynx on the beach, his car runs out of gas in front of the fraternal order’s decrepit lodge. He naturally views this as a sign. Longing for the companionship offered by the order, and mesmerized by its legend of alchemy, he embarks on a quest for the idyllic life he lost, guided by Ernie (Brent Jennings), a middle-age plumbing salesman who holds the position of Luminous Knight within the fictional order.

“There’s nothing seemingly sexy about that world,” said Russell, who last year appeared opposite Anna Kendrick in “Table 19” and Elizabeth Olsen in “Ingrid Goes West.” “But what I love about it is that life is magical if you choose to look at it that way. And Dud has that in spades, and continues to give that to others, with his spirit and his energy and his will to find the light in the dark.”

In a phone interview from the family compound in Snowmass, Colorado, Russell, 32, who also shares a Los Angeles home with his girlfriend, Meredith Hagner (“Search Party”), chatted about his hockey days, his return to acting and the role he might grow his beard for.

Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

A: Dud is pure in the way that everything he does is seemingly for an altruistic reason. He’s just trying to find the answers to the questions in life that are unanswerable. And the way he does that is when he sees an open door, he’ll just walk through it. He doesn’t sit there and think, “Door No. 3 seems pretty cool and if I just wait a little bit …” It’s like, “No, door No. 1 is open. I’ll just go through it and see what’s there.” He can see the magic in the little things, and I think that’s what drives Dud to keep going.

A: He’s the chosen one insofar as what [the order’s founder] Harwood Fritz Merrill set the lodge up to be, which was a place for people to connect, to share their problems, to share their victories, to share in life together. And the true mystery of the lodge lies within the people.

A: March 2010. I broke my hip and tore my whole right side apart in November 2009. I was still in Europe playing professional hockey. That was my life, and I thought maybe I’ll rehab my hip, and there was a contract in Norway that I was so pumped about. And so I sort of lied to myself and said, “Oh, I’ll get better and my hip will repair.” And then I got the word that, “You’ll need surgery, and if you have the surgery there’s a 50/50 chance that you’ll be able to put the workload in to be able to play an entire season.” I started thinking about it and just said, “It’s time to move on with my life.”

A: It definitely wasn’t inevitable because my chosen path was different, and I succeeded enough at it to where it was a viable career option. When the decision was made for me, I didn’t want to waste any time languishing in depression. I literally called my agent on the day I got back from playing hockey and he sent me on a couple auditions. And I got my first audition and thought, “Hey, this is pretty cool. I can do this.” And then I went about a year and a half without getting any work and thought, “OK, this isn’t as easy as I thought.”

A: I’m unbelievably excited to work with Joe Wright (“Darkest Hour”) and all the other people that are in that. I made a joke the other day. I was like, “I think every PA on the movie has an Academy Award.” I’m walking in there going, “What do you want me to do?” I feel underqualified but I’ll take it.

A: Two soldiers on D-Day drop behind enemy lines, and they end up finding some pretty weird stuff in this village that leads to them seeing what we would consider, I guess, a Nazi supersoldier.

A: “Jeremiah Johnson” is probably my favorite movie of all time, and I’d love to play a mountain man. Or I’d love to play a cowboy — everybody would love to. I don’t know if I have a dream role, or if I do, I’ll just keep it secret. And if I get it, you’ll be the first to know. I’ll call you and be like, “Yeah, that was the one.”