‘Too much’: Why Josh Hartnett turned his back on Hollywood

Josh Hartnett shot to global fame after a string of major movie roles in the early noughties - then he packed his bags and moved back home. Here’s why.

Josh Hartnett’s decision to turn down the starring role in the Superman franchise at the height of his fame has become a major talking point of his career.

But for the first time, he has revealed the other early-noughties blockbuster that he was supposed to lead – which ended up becoming a career-defining role for one of Australia’s most famous actors.

Speaking with news.com.au to mark the release of his latest film, crime-drama Ida Red, Hartnett, 43, confirmed long-running whispers that he had been originally cast to star in 2005’s groundbreaking – and multi-Oscar-winning – Brokeback Mountain, but had pulled out.

The movie was a mammoth success and earned its leading actors, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, critical acclaim for their portrayal of two shepherds who fall in love and are forced to keep their relationship a secret.

Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from the 2005 film.

Hartnett was originally slated to appear. Picture: Valerie Macon/AFP

However, according to Hartnett, that romance was originally supposed to be brought to life in a completely different way.

“Unfortunately, I was going to do Brokeback Mountain,” he told news.com.au, opening up about the secret “sliding doors” moment.

“And I had a contract with (2006 film) Black Dahlia that I had to film, so I had to drop out of it.”

Hartnett went on: “It was a different film altogether, it was me and Joaquin Phoenix. But they went on to do it with Heath (Ledger) and Jake (Gyllenhaal).”

(As Gyllenhaal told USA Today in 2019 of the cultural phenomenon same-sex love story: “It opened tons of doors. It was crazy. It was amazing. It’s defined my career in different ways.”)

While Hartnett has regularly gone on the record to deny having regrets about rejecting a number of iconic blockbuster roles in the early noughties, he did admit he was disappointed about Brokeback Mountain.

“I’ve always wanted to kiss Joaquin, so that’s my biggest regret,” Hartnett joked.

Hartnett shot to fame as Danny in Pearl Harbor.

In 2001, at the age of 22, Hartnett became a household name thanks to his casting alongside Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale in Pearl Harbor, and his follow-up performance in Black Hawk Down. Then the inevitable happened: Superhero franchises began to court the young rising star.

Hartnett’s decision to turn down several likely career-defining roles – most famously, a three-picture deal as Superman and an offer from Christopher Nolan for Batman – has raised eyebrows ever since.

It was clear he wanted to break free of the path to stardom that had been laid out in front of him by the Hollywood machine.

“There were a few (catalysts) – journalists were less kind to celebrities back then, there were no outlets like Twitter or Instagram to voice your own version of things … you were at the mercy of journalists really, unless you played that game very cleverly,” Hartnett said.

“And I was pretty young to be playing cleverly, so would find myself at the darker end of that spectrum where you’d have people talking about what you do on a moment-to-moment basis in a non-flattering way, and I just wasn’t interested in having that be my life.”

Hartnett with Pearl Harbor co-star Ben Affleck.

It prompted the young star to pack his bags and move from Tinseltown back home to Minnesota, where he became extremely selective about the movies he actually wanted to do, and focused on spending time with his friends and family.

“I didn’t think that was crazy – I still don’t,” Hartnett said. “It’s an industry that thrives on hype and thrives on what’s interesting at that moment, but I wouldn’t put myself back in that situation, ever.”

He added that he’d been completely overwhelmed by the heat of the spotlight that had been suddenly thrust upon him following Pearl Harbor.

“At that point in my life, when I was so young and just trying to form my own personality, I just felt it was too much, honestly,” he told news.com.au.

“I was happy to be going to work and making films, and coming home and hanging out with people who I knew cared about me, instead of, you know … hobnobbing.”

Besides, Hartnett added: “If I were to have sort of stuck in that Hollywood game, I think I would have been played out pretty quickly. I think people would have gotten pretty sick of me. I’m happy to be making films, 20-something years later.”

Josh Hartnett with longtime partner Tamsin Egerton and Benedict Cumberbatch at a dinner to celebrate The Prince’s Trust, hosted by Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace in 2019. Picture: Chris Jackson – WPA Pool/Getty Images

After his swift catapult to stardom, Hartnett largely leaned in to the indie film genre, and had a starring role in hit horror series Penny Dreadful from 2014-16.

His latest project, Ida Red, which also stars Oscar-winner Melissa Leo, sees him take on the role of Wyatt Walker, who’s on a mission to get his dying mother – the matriarch of the family’s crime business – out of prison so she doesn’t spend her last days in there.

“The interest (for this movie) for me, came from sort of the familial relationships,” Hartnett told news.com.au.

“And you have a heightened family relationship when you’re working together as well … And these guys are all working in the same business, and their fortunes rise and fall with each other.”

It was one of the first American productions to cautiously get under way amid the first Covid-19 wave last year, which created plenty of uncertainty among the cast and crew.

“Covid drained the budget … and no one really had any idea if we were going to get through [filming or what we were going to do if, or when, someone got Covid,” Hartnett said.

He explained that they’d all been tested every day, and stayed in small working groups.

“But even some of the actors were isolating from each other – Melissa [Leo] didn’t really want to come into contact with people … People were scared. We made it as best we could, but it took a lot of the resources away, so it felt like we were really crunched – but we were able to pull it off.”

Ida Red is available for digital download now.