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New Star Hartnett Takes a Step Back From Spotlight

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - For a young actor who shuns the spotlight in Hollywood, Josh Hartnett is basking in it a lot these days.

The 23-year-old opened the summer over Memorial Day holiday as good guy pilot Danny Walker in the mega-hyped World War Two drama "Pearl Harbor',' and he'll end it this Labor Day weekend playing villainous Hugo Goulding in "O,'' a retelling of William Shakespeare's "Othello'' set in a modern-day high school.

While many young actors might take that kind of fame and use it as a calling card for the hottest nightclubs on Sunset Strip, Hartnett would prefer to spend his time at home outside St. Paul, Minnesota.

"I'm not going to ditch my family and friends,'' Hartnett told Reuters in a recent interview. "Also, when you get done with a movie, the last thing you want to do is go back to a movie-saturated city where you work all the time.''

Hartnett said he's trying to buy a house back there, but if his career continues on the starry trajectory of recent years, he ought to at least think about renting a place in Tinseltown.

He only started acting in 1997, but a year later was asked to star in "Halloween H20: 20 Years Later''. His recognition grew as an ultra-cool high-schooler in 1999's independent hit ''The Virgin Suicides'', and he hit the big time with "Pearl Harbor''.

It remains the No. 3 film at U.S. box offices this summer with about $195 million, but critics in general skewered it.

"When you have that kind of press beforehand, when people actually see the movie, they are bound to want to rip it apart,'' he said.

Shot on a small budget, "O'' is far different from the $135 million "Pearl Harbor'', and critics will see a much different side to Hartnett's acting than they did in the All-American Danny.

Hugo Goulding, son of the school's basketball coach Duke Goulding (Martin Sheen), is a cruel manipulator who longs for the kind of love and attention his dad sheds on the team's star player and his best friend, Odin James (Mekhi Phifer).

OTHELLO'S GOT GAME

Much like Iago plotted the demise of Othello and Cassio in Shakespeare's classic play, Hugo devises a vengeful scheme that will eventually hurt both his dad and his best friend.

Odin, an African-American teenager, has been recruited to play ball for an upscale, all-white private school that routinely fields a championship team. Odin is on his way to a big-time college scholarship and behind his talent, Coach Goulding is destined for the college ranks, too.

But Hugo, who also plays on the team, doesn't believe he's getting his fair share of recognition. And on awards day, when Odin shares the most valuable player trophy with a third player, it's Hugo who mutters, "I'm the MVP on this team.''

For revenge, Hugo puts into motion a series of events that lead Odin to question the loyalty of his white girlfriend, Desi Brable (Julia Stiles). As in Shakespeare's play, the love between Odin and Desi in "O'' is tainted by an undercurrent of racism, and Hugo's scheming eventually leads to murder.

The soft-spoken Hartnett seems about as far removed from the icy manipulator Hugo as a person could be. Not only does he prefer plain ol' Minnesota over glitzy Hollywood, he feels more comfortable in denim and a ball cap than designer clothes.

During the media interviews for "Pearl Harbor'', he hung out in the steamy press tent in shorts and Hawaiian shirt eating the same hot dogs and potato chips as the press corps, while some of his co-stars stayed put in their air-conditioned trailers.

Hartnett never set out to be an actor, but rather went to New York to "live on the streets and paint''. The way he tells it, he fell into acting with one part leading to another and another. "I still don't know what I want to do,'' he said.

But this summer, he finished making "Black Hawk Down,'' a big-budget military movie directed by Ridley Scott (''Gladiator'') and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (''Pearl Harbor''). It's about the 1993 skirmish in Somalia in which two Army helicopters were shot down and 18 Americans were killed.

So, while he may not know exactly what he wants to do and even though while he may not exactly be "Hollywood,'' his star is shining brightly, these days, high overhead.

- www.yahoo.com
Thursday August 30, 2001, 4:43 PM ET