Josh Hartnett was one of the buzziest young stars in Hollywood poised to take on big-budget films, but he left it all behind.
And now, the 42-year-old is revealing the decisions behind his choice to leave the spotlight in a new interview with The Guardian.
The “Pearl Harbor” star shared that he didn’t buy into the idea of being marketed as a brand and that he had hoped he would be able to take on smaller roles, but it ultimately led to bridges being burned.
“They looked at me as someone who had bitten the hand that fed me. It wasn’t that. I wasn’t doing it to be recalcitrant or a rebel. People wanted to create a brand around me that was going to be accessible and well-liked, but I didn’t respond to the idea of playing the same character over and over, so I branched out. I tried to find smaller films I could be part of and, in the process, I burned my bridges at the studios because I wasn’t participating. Our goals weren’t the same,” he said.
One major turning point in his career was when Vanity Fair published a piece back in 2001 called, “The Making of Josh Hartnett,” when he was only 22.
“Oh that was an awful piece. Was there even a quote from me in it, or was it just everyone talking about how hot I was? People got a chip on their shoulder about me after that. They genuinely thought I’d been thrust on them. It was a very weird time,” she said.
The “Black Hawk Down” star went on to clarify in a follow up statement that he had re-read the article and decided it wasn’t actually that bad, he was just overwhelmed by it at the time.
“It’s just that it happened at a time when I wasn’t that famous, and it seemed to already be asking whether I should be or not. I felt like: ‘Oh my God! I’m not the tallest poppy yet – don’t cut me down!’ I was being compared to Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts and that’s insane. It was a set-up-to-fail moment. It was actually an interesting look at the nature of fame. If only it wasn’t about me.”
Since his days as a teen heartthrob, Hartnett has gone on to star in “Paradise Lost,” “Die Hart” and “Penny Dreadful.” He shared that he is enjoying playing more character-focused roles that he has no regrets about his past choices.
“I’m happy to be done with that era and to be making films that are more personal to me. Directors are coming to me to play characters as opposed to versions of a hero I played in a movie once,” he said.
— Stephanie Swaim