Josh Hartnett says he’s no Tom Cruise
Ahead of the release of the M. Night Shyamalan film Trap, US actor Josh Hartnett admits playing an action hero is not as easy as it looks and “not everyone can be Tom Cruise”.
Entertainment
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It’s being called a “Joshaissance” – as movie star Josh Hartnett enjoys a return to the screen, on his own terms.
He starred in Oscar-winning Oppenheimer and a critically-acclaimed episode of Black Mirror, Beyond the Sea, where he played an astronaut alongside Aaron Paul.
Now Hartnett, 46, is tackling what he dubs is his “most unique” role yet, in M. Night Shyamalan’s “wicked fun” film, Trap.
With the plot kept under wraps, Hartnett plays dad Cooper, who takes his teenage daughter – Aussie actor Ariel Donoghue – to a pop concert, only to discover it’s an elaborate trap set up to catch a serial killer. Who, it seems, from the trailer, is him.
Written and directed by Shyamalan and co-starring his daughter Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill, can we expect a big twist?
“I wouldn’t want to ruin it for anybody, but I would say this is new ground,” says Hartnett, speaking to Insider from his home in England.
“This is new ground for Night – it’s not what he’s done in the past, it’s more of a cat-and-mouse story,” he says.
“We play with the concept of what you would expect from your heroes.”
And if you think the premise sounds grim, think again as, it’s a “joyous, fun, romp”, according to Hartnett.
“It’s definitely a comedy, but also a thriller.”
He says he was drawn to working with The Sixth Sense director, known for his supernatural scripts, because he likes to scare himself when making movies.
“I loved working with Night and enjoyed the psychological stretch of playing this character,” he says, adding he chooses roles which “are outside of my comfort zone”.
“I tend to be drawn to characters I haven’t seen before, and if a character scares me a little bit … I get excited. I hope you see it and think it unique,” he says.
“There are many movies you can go to, if you want to see the same kind of movie again, but this one is unusual and I am always drawn to that.”
It’s a strategy he’s applied to his career – having started out as a young heart-throb in movies including The Virgin Suicides and Pearl Harbor, he trod the standard Hollywood leading-man route, in movies like Black Hawk Down and The Black Dahlia until … he stopped. Then he began to do things on his terms.
“I’ve never had a one-to-one relationship with the industry,” he admits.
“I don’t feel a part of it exactly, I’ve always been living my life and then been lucky enough to make films.”
The Minnesota-born movie star removed himself from Hollywood, literally, when he met British wife Tamsin Egerton on the set of the 2015 film The Lovers. The couple moved to Hampshire, in England’s south, where he lives on a farm with their four young children, all under 10, and emerges for projects he finds interesting. He says he’s been a city person most of his life, so being surrounded by fields is all new to him.
“There was a bit of a culture shock, but I’m adaptable, I’ve been moving around my whole life. We’ve been in the country for five years and my girls absolutely love it. I’m getting used to the feeling of being settled down – which I think I should have figured out a little while ago,” he says, with a laugh.
“I’m late to the game.”
Hartnett extended his paternal instinct to on-screen daughter Ariel and said he loved working with the 14-year-old Aussie actor, who also appears in TV series Wolf Like Me with Isla Fisher, which earned her a Logie nomination.
“She’s enormously talented and very bright,” he says.
“She can turn on her character and leave it in an instant and be a fun, normal kid, which is rare,” he says, adding they “had a really nice time making the movie together”.
He says his kids visited the set and were in awe of her, hanging out with her after work and on the weekends.
So has it inspired them to follow into the business?
“I don’t think I am going to have a choice,” he says.
“My oldest daughter is eight and just did Macbeth at school. It was really cool. I am not encouraging or discouraging – I don’t think I have a choice generally with my kids. I am just going to try to foster the best environment for them to do what they want to do,” he says.
And what does he want to do, with his Joshaissance? More comedy, he says and definitely less action.
“I have not been the lead in a comedy for 15 years – maybe longer,” he says. “I would love to do more.”
With action-comedy Die Hart with Kevin Hart under his belt, plus thriller Fight or Flight and drama The Long Home coming out, Josh says action is getting harder, and “it’s not as easy as it looks”.
“I don’t know if I’m going to revisit that any time soon. Not everyone can be Tom Cruise.”
Trap is in cinemas August 8
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