We're Hangin' With.....

JOSH HARTNETT

by: Lynn B.

He first came to our attention in teen horror fest flicks like Halloween: H20 and The Faculty then the sensitive Virgin Suicides and his hard-hitting roles in the epic Pearl Harbor and the war movie Black Hawk Down. He made a comedy, 40 Days and 40 Nights and then….disappeared! Hot but press-shy Josh Hartnett just went home to Minnesota to ditch the Hollywood starmaker machine. He's still a reluctant, but friendly interview and now, co-starring with one of his childhood idols, Harrison Ford, in the cop comedy Hollywood Homicide, Josh is back in tinseltown and has plenty to say about Harrison, the Hollywood Blockbuster machine, why he didn't play Superman, his escape from teen films and his next projects.

AGW: You seemed to be having fun at the MTV Movie Awards.

Josh: [grins] Harrison kind of begged me to do that because he thinks that demographic [young people] will come see this movie and I agree, but I've never done anything like that before and had made a rule not to do it. He was like, 'Get over yourself.' I got to make fun of Harrison [Ford] on stage in front of a bunch of people, it was fun. We had this little banter. I've never done anything like that. I had a lot of fun afterwards. It was a friend of mine's birthday.

AGW: Okay, they tell you you'll be in a movie with Harrison Ford. Were you a little intimidated?

Josh: Of course, yeah. I grew up and idolized him. I mean, I was born in seventy eight, and Star Wars came out in Seventy seven. So, he had quite a rise right before I was born, but I truly grew up on him. It's tough to get over that jittery feeling that you get when you meet someone that you felt some sort of connection to. He was like a father figure to me, I think, on screen. He's always just seemed like such a cool guy, and I had his [action] figures. I have this box somewhere with this Han Solo figure, the kind that the legs don't bend and you put him in his Millennium Falcon, and he'd stick out like this. [he indicates, straight up].

AGW: How do you put that awe aside and just do your job?

Josh: Oh, just be professional. We have a job to do and you just say that to yourself, and honestly, after a few days of knowing Harrison, you're not in awe of him anymore. You're more just terrified of him.

AGW: What was working with him really like?

Josh: I found out instantly that Harrison was going to walk in front of me whenever he could, he was going to step on my lines, he was going to make me feel that I had no business being there and I found out later that he was testing me, and it worked, it worked! Ron [Shelton, the director] was just like, 'Work around it, work around him. He's the big dog.' Between the characters, he is the big dog and it works, and so, I found a way to make that funny. When he does something, I kind of idolize it and do the same thing. My character is kind of odd, and it worked, I think. At some point, he'd just push me to the limit and It was a good thing that I did so much yoga. I was remaining calm. I think that I look up to Harrison because he's had an amazingly long career and he's done pretty much exactly what he wanted to do every step of the way. People don't really give him any crap and he does what he feels is best. I admire that. He is someone that I definitely look up to just as far as sticking to your guns.

AGW: Your character is really into Yoga. Were you?

Josh: No, I was doing yoga when I went to college. I did yoga for about six months everyday and when I decided to do this movie, I got right into it. To have that peace was excellent, and God, I needed it at times. I practiced for about seven months, an hour and a half everyday without fail and by the end of it, I was in amazing shape and you breathe easier, and it's the way you should be. If I had time to do it everyday, I would maintain. I'd definitely do it.

AGW: You still live back in Minnesota. Did you consider that you might have to move here? Josh: No, I'm never tempted in that way, but lets talk about flight schedules. [When I'm working], I try to get back as much as possible, but like, there's one flight in the early, early morning to Minnesota and then, there's one at twelve forty five at night the next morning, the red eye, so, I only did that a couple of times while I was out here. Usually, when I'm working on a movie, I tend to stay where I am. It keeps me focused. I'll have to call Harrison for a ride. He flies everywhere, he's got it figured out.

AGW: What is the strangest place you've been approached by a fan?

Josh: I had someone give me a script in the Met not too long ago. The Metropolitan Museum in New York. I was walking through the ancient Greek sculptures, and this guy was like, 'Hey man, I've got a script for you, and you know so and so? I went to NYU,' and I was like, 'Yeah, I do.' He goes, 'Yeah, we're good friends. Anyway, I want to give you this script,' and it's like, 'Cool, thanks. Enjoy the art.' I took it. You're not supposed to but I think that the best thing to do is just get on with it because it's kind of uncomfortable.

AGW: You turned down playing Superman. Can you clarify why it's just not for you?

Josh: It just wasn't the kind of movie that I wanted to do. They offered me the role while I was shooting Hollywood Homicide. I said no. They offered it to me again, I said no and again and again. Then, Brett Ratner [then scheduled as director] came out and I talked with Brett, and I really thought that he had great ideas for the film. When people pursue you with that amount of vigor, I take it seriously. So, I had to think about it, but no, I don't ever want to do it. I just didn't want to play Superman and I've turned down all of the other superhero movies too. I said no. But then there's a reason to be Superman. I could fly and go wherever I wanted to go, put on my cape.

AGW: So no thinking about the bad luck other Superman actors have had?

Josh: [Laughs] No. I don't think that I believe in that sort of thing, but if I got to that point and I said, 'Okay, I'm going to do it,' and someone said, 'Hey, remember them,' I'd probably take a second thought.

AGW: If you weren't an actor, what would you be doing today?

Josh: Be at a gas station somewhere. I'd be looking for a job like everyone else in America right now. All of my friends have been losing their jobs. I wanted to paint. That's what I was hoping to do when I grew up, be a painter. It would have to be modern because I idolize the painters that could do whatever they wanted and chose what they felt was right for each painting and not someone that was limited by their lack of vision. But painting takes time. I love doing it whenever I get a chance.

AGW: Does it take time for you to get into the rhythm of doing a comedy?

Josh: No. This character is so completely unaware that he's funny, and those are the kind of characters that I like to play in comedy because honestly, I'm not a comedic actor. I don't think about timing. It's definitely a different place to move to. What I appreciate is like Peter Sellers type comedy. It's like he's just totally unaware of the fact that he's fabulous. He's just so funny. this guy is just searching for these answers in all the wrong places, and he's goofy and you can laugh at him.

AGW: What keeps you going? What drives you?

Josh: Experience and knowledge and as much information as I can take in. And love and support that I can give out. I have a vague vision, and my dad was the greatest at this. He had a picture of this old African man in a small turban, an Ethiopian man in his office, his whole life, and this man had really beautiful wrinkles and you could tell that he smiled a lot in his life. My dad would say, 'I'm working to be that man. That's what I want to be when I'm older. I want to have enjoyed my life, I want to have seen it,' I think that I'm at that point now. I just have a vision of what I'd like to be when I'm older.

AGW: Are you able to maintain a personal life and date like a normal guy?

Josh: Yeah, I think that I've got a pretty good bullshit detector. I think that I've been okay in that category. I've met a lot of really cool girls.

AGW: Have you made it a point not to date anyone in the entertainment industry?

Josh: No, I haven't made that point. It's nice when the person that you're with understands what you're going through and that's why a lot of celebrities date celebrities and other actors date other actors and musicians tend to date….. models [Laughs].

AGW: We hear there were some injuries making this film.

Josh: We got into a car accident and I got messed up a couple of times. I did some pretty wicked stunts, and I jumped off the Victoria's Secret store, that was about twenty five feet. Some other guy jumped off a ladder onto a kiosk. The whole thing went out from under him and he went straight back on his head. These stunt guys are crazy, but you know, I got to do some cool stuff like jump off of a building and stuff like that, and then, the car accident was one of those things where a stunt driver just [messed] up.

AGW: How about doing big blockbusters like Pearl Harbor?

Josh: You still have to work and do the same job. But it's so focused on the way it looks and getting the technical aspects right that you feel like a prop most of the time. The movies that are more fun for me are the movies that are more character oriented. I actually went away to shoot 'Wicker Park' and when I came back to do a re-shoot of a scene, Harrison turned to me, and I was getting really pissed off because it was just like a factory, 'Go, go, go because we've got to get seventy five angles,' and Harrison just laughed and said, 'What, you been working on some sort of art film?' 'Yeah.' [Laughs].

AGW: So is Wicker Park also called Obsessed? What is that about?

Josh: Obsessed sounds like such a made for TV, movie of the week. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's just not my thing. It's a good movie. I play a guy who's had his heart kind of torn from his chest and he moves away for about two years, and comes back to Chicago, to Wicker Park and he's engaged and he thinks he sees this woman who really broke his heart and he's not sure and so, he's trying to find her and it takes him a few days. Matthew Lillard [Scooby Doo] is in it also and he's making his first kind of dramatic turn and he's really, really good.

AGW: Do you still get offered a lot of teen roles and are you turning them down?

Josh: Well, the reason for that is that you can get stuck in the heartthrob thing and I try not to play that up. My agents don't even send those to me now. There are a lot of guys who ride that and that's fine for them, but I want to find serious roles. Unfortunately, that's a hard road to take when you're a young guy who some people think sells tickets because the girls like him, but I'm not going to negate an entire half of the species. I think that it's good that women like what I do, that's great, so thank you.

source: http://www.agirlsworld.com