Josh Hartnett is opening up about his life.
The 45-year-old Trap actor got candid in a new cover story with Men’s Health, out now.
During the conversation, Josh spoke about his Hollywood heartthrob status in the late ’90s, his new movie Trap, prioritizing his family, rumors about Batman, taking on the roles he wants to take, and much more.
Keep reading to find out more…
On bursting onto the scene—and into Hollywood heartthrob status—in the late ’90s with a series of high-profile roles when he was barely into his 20s:
“I hope I’ve learned a lot since then. It was all just brand-new, very shiny, and very interesting. I look back on it all fondly, but I also see someone just trying to figure it out.”
On why he feels a connection to horror stories:
“It explores sides of human psychology that we don’t readily explore in a lot of other genres. You don’t get to play a character like this in any other genre.”
On Trap, a thriller telling a story from the perspective of a character who’s earned the nickname “the Butcher,” and how he wanted to present a character:
“[He’s someone] who you end up kind of getting to know, and hopefully getting to sort of appreciate and understand….Even though it’s really hard to understand someone like that…. The character has that very human element, that very normal instinct of father protecting daughter. But clearly he doesn’t interact with the other people in the world in the same way that a normal person would. It’s that connection that was really cool and unusual, and I haven’t seen any other characters like that in this genre before.”
On the last decade, a quieter period which found him working on some hidden gems:
“It wasn’t like I was off somewhere, mercurially working on something that was not ever… I wanted them to be successful. They were very worthy films. They had every chance to break through. They just, for whatever reason, didn’t.”
On going after the career he wanted—the best parts in the best movies—not necessarily the ones that everyone else in the industry was going after:
“I never wanted to chase the hottest property and be one of the guys who could have gotten it but didn’t get it, or whatever. I don’t want to be a part of that game.”
On rumors that Christopher Nolan offered him the leading role in his Batman series:
“I wasn’t offered Batman. Let’s just leave that.”
On not being a play-it-safe golden boy, instead taking risks where most ascending leading men would not:
“It’s probably just a reflection of who I am. I’m annoyed by people that play the numbers and game the system and just do the safe thing. Generally, I find that kind of bullsh*t. I’ve always wanted to try to do things that are a little bit more off-center.”
On prioritizing his family:
“Now that I have a family, when I go home at the end of the day, they don’t allow me the time to be self-indulgent and worry about what I did that day as a character, or stay in that mode. There are things I have to do—kids are demanding and they need your time.”
On balancing his career and his life:
“Making art, generally, is very important to me. But without a good stable background of good community and good family, it doesn’t really amount to much. You need the first for the second to work really well.”
On the viral, unpredictable sensation of “Barbenheimer”:
“Nobody could have predicted Barbenheimer. That’s the phenomenon that was so out of left field, and I think both films were a little bit stunned by that…. It was great. I mean, did those two films go together? I guess, but that’s the weirdest combination of all time…. Try to re-create that. You’re not going to be able to.”
Find out the “unhelpful” advice he got from Matt Damon on the Oppenheimer set.
