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Josh Hartnett
by Abbi Toushin
When he was interviewed in May for the release of the Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay behemoth, Pearl Harbor, in which he had one of the leading roles, the most popular question buzzing around actor Josh Hartnett was whether or not the film, a big-budget take on the historic December 7, 1941 bombing, would actually change his life.
Three months ago the now 23-year-old Hartnett, who was sporting a stubbly scalp as evidence of a film he was shooting at the time (A Bruckheimer/Ridley Scott collaboration called Black Hawk Down, which is due out sometime next year), would basically smile and say that he would know better once the movie came out. Now, an entire summer and roughly $195 million in domestic box office since the film was released, the brown-eyed, brooding Hartnett has a much more definitive answer to this question.
"I was in Africa [shooting Black Hawk Down] when it all went down and for a month and a half after it was released and by the time I got back, everything had mellowed out quite a bit," said Hartnett during a recent interview at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Marina Del Rey, Calif. "But I do go to the grocery store at a different time than I used to."
Exactly what time of day he steps out of the house to purchase milk and eggs isn’t the only thing that has changed in Hartnett’s life over the past few months. Director Tim Blake Nelson’s O, a modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic Othello, has finally surfaced after seven fake release dates and a switch in distributors from Miramax to Lions Gate. The film, which stars Hartnett alongside Julia Stiles, Mekhi Phifer and West Wing president Martin Sheen, was shot two and a half years ago. It was temporarily shelved, however, when the Columbine shooting entered the public sphere in the spring of 1999.
Hartnett revealed how his character in the film, Hugo—who is equivalent to Iago in the original play—could identify with the two kids who sparked the Columbine massacre. "He’s a confused kid and he doesn’t know how to react. He doesn’t have any sort of constructive way of reacting to this jealousy and envy," said Hartnett of his character, whose internal levels of jealousy and envy eventually reach a boiling point before spilling over into murder. "It builds up inside of him and he lets it loose, he just lashes out."
O is set in the world of private prep school basketball, where Odin (Phifer, in the role equivalent to Othello) is the team’s star athlete. Hugo’s dad (Sheen) is the coach of the team and, much to his dismay, doesn’t pay Hugo much attention. Because of the fact that his father practically ignores him, paired with his jealousy over Odin’s pursuit of Desi (Stiles, in the modern-day role of Desdimona), Hugo does whatever it takes to ruin Odin’s happiness and success, both personal and professional.
Even though Hartnett admits that it’s somewhat difficult to hash out the defining motivation for Hugo’s many manipulative actions—after all, he made the movie over two years ago—he did offer up his opinion on why, about 400 years after Shakespeare’s Othello was published, people are still trying to analyze Iago’s rotten behavior.
"We tried to offer a little bit more of an explanation for his actions in this one," said Hartnett, adding that "all the things you hear about Iago—the jealousy, the envy—definitely come into play. And then you have to find what you like about the guy. He’s very intelligent and with that comes manipulation. He’s very emotional and passionate and he seems to care very deeply, but his priorities are definitely mixed up."
Unlike his seemingly confused character in O, which was released into theaters on August 31, the real-life Hartnett remains well-grounded and extremely down-to-earth. The Minnesota native, who was raised in St. Paul, but currently lives in adjacent Minneapolis (where he plans to stay for at least the next year), hasn’t let the fact that he’s been catapulted into the public spotlight via Pearl Harbor affect his views on life. Even though many aspects of his career have changed in the past few months—primarily the fact that he is much more recognizable than he used to be—Hartnett continues to live his life the way he’s used to, trying not to let the overwhelming essence of Hollywood invade his personal space.
"All of my friends and family still treat me the same. It’s just a little bit different now. Before, people were like, ‘congratulations, keep plugging away, things are really going to happen for you.’ And you’d go, ‘well, things are happening, I’m happy where I’m at.’ And everything was good," said Hartnett. "And now there’s a little bit more of you seeing things in people’s eyes that you didn’t see before, like you’d see in Hugo’s eyes. You’d see a little bit of envy, a little bit of wonderment."
"You change," added Hartnett in a strong voice. "You’re no longer Josh to some people. You become a means of getting something else. People suddenly want to hang out with you for the wrong reasons, and paranoia sets."
One of the reasons Hartnett stays at home is because, while there, "I am pretty much safe." He still calls Minnesota home, and even though he goes to Los Angeles fairly often to shoot films or for press events, he has never lived in the City of Angels. He loves the place many call the "Mini Apple" because it has four real seasons (unlike Southern California) and, most importantly, because it is able to provide him with "family, friends and a sense of reality."
"I just live my life the way that I’ve always lived it there, just going out to the places I always go out to where people know me, and it’s the same way it’s always been," said Hartnett, saying that he particularly likes going to a place in the Twin Cities that is a combination bar, bowling alley and theater. "I’m making it sound hickish…but it’s just a nice place, and there’s a lot of places that are combinations of things and it’s just a good liberal town with a lot of art."
While Hartnett tries to live an average life, he can’t simply escape the fact that he is much more recognizable than he was before all the "Pearl Harbor" hoopla. When asked if he can easily be considered the biggest star in the neighborhood, Hartnett let out a small chuckle before giving his answer. "Well, Prince lives not far away," he said, "and he’s pretty big."
However, this doesn’t make the 6’3" actor with the deep-set eyes and caterpillar brows any less of a star. Hartnett, who started his career by doing small plays and television commercials, had his big movie break in 1998 with Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, in which he played vet actress Jamie Lee Curtis’ teenage son. After that, he quickly landed roles in The Faculty, The Virgin Suicides and Here On Earth before Bruckheimer and Bay cast him as Captain Danny Walker, opposite Ben Affleck, in Pearl Harbor.
"He was the first guy through the door. You can never hire the first guy. He’s this grunge kid from Minnesota," said Bay three months ago, when he was talking about how he and Bruckheimer decided to cast Hartnett for "Pearl Harbor." "After I’d seen 1,000 guys we brought him in for a screen test, and I called Jerry up after I cut it together and said, this guy is going to be HUGE."
Since the epic war film came out, Hartnett has become nothing short of a sex symbol. Even Affleck, while doing press for the film in May, predicted it when he said, "the kid’s going to have women camped out on his lawn for months at a time."
While this may be a bit extreme, teenage girls and young women alike would probably agree that Hartnett could honestly join the ranks of fellow heartthrobs like Heath Ledger and Paul Walker. This is a title, however, that Hartnett does not willingly embrace.
"I try not to think about it too much because, as far as growing up goes, that’s a big step backwards—to start revering yourself as anything but yourself," said Hartnett, who sat down for the interview wearing a pair of worn-in blue jeans, wrinkled grey long-sleeved T-shirt and a tan and green baseball cap with a SKOAL (chewing tobacco) logo and ripped brim. "I tend not to think about it too much, because you look pretty ridiculous considering yourself a sex symbol."
Even so, this hasn’t kept Hartnett’s image from popping up on several magazine covers over the last few months. His soulful face has been seen on the front of publications like "Vanity Fair," "Movieline" and a recent "Entertainment Weekly," on which he posed with fellow O co-stars Phifer and Stiles. Despite the fact that he has been plastered on various glossies and written about over and over again, Hartnett has a very simple way of keeping things in check.
"Actually, my girlfriend has given me a good way of looking at it. She just tells me that it’s a two-dimensional image, that I really look nothing like these pictures when I’m out and around and talking and stuff like that, and basically living. That’s not me, man. That’s somebody else. That’s two-dimensional Josh," said Hartnett with a laugh.
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