Twenty years ago he was one of the world’s hottest young actors, before he retreated – and ended up in Surrey. He explains why he had to leave Hollywood – and what he knew about Harvey Weinstein

Josh Hartnett is sitting at home in Surrey, thinking about the time he was asked to play Superman. “I had this idea that because he lives in this world where he can’t touch anything without it flying across the room, he has become almost afraid of himself and his own power. He doesn’t know how to be Superman any more. He’s so afraid, he has become almost neutered by the experience of living on Earth, where he can blow things up just by looking at them.”

The studio demurred – “They didn’t really want a fear-based character at the centre of their movie,” he says wryly – and Hartnett walked away. But his Superman concept now feels like a metaphor for what was happening at the time in his own life, as he became increasingly overwhelmed, even horrified, by his status and the hysteria that surrounded it. Twenty years ago, the hottest young male actors in Hollywood were Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck – and Hartnett. Michael Bay, who directed him in Pearl Harbor, put it bluntly: “He’s going to be fucking huge.” The actor grimaces at the mention of that. “Huge was never something I aspired to,” he says.

Continue reading…

You May Also Like

Review of the year: uncovering the science of Covid-19 (part two) – podcast

This year, the Sars-CoV-2 virus has come to dominate both the headlines…

North Korea fires projectile into Sea of Japan – reports

Latest of several launches within a month signals further ramp-up of hostility…

‘When we plant, they come’: thirsty elephants pose new problem for drought-hit Kenyan farmers

People in Taita-Taveta county have had to find ingenious ways of keeping…

Meet the stars riding the crest of hallyu, the Korean wave in fashion, art, film and music

The K-pop idol who broke free to go independent, the designer whose…