The Pearl Harbor hunk takes on Shakespeare … sort of

Forget everything you've ever read about Josh Hartnett. Forget the cover-boy stuff, the "100 most beautiful people" drivel, and all the talk about him being next big thing. Because even though the hesitant heartthrob and former high-school football player really could be the next big thing, he doesn't want to hear it. He really, really doesn't want to hear it.

"It just doesn't help me at all," he says. "So I've just got to stay away from it." And indeed he does. He's much happier in the land of a thousand lakes, his beloved home state of Minnesota, than courting photographers at Laker games. And as for chic parties and hot Hollywood restaurants, try the Home Depot instead. Yup, studly Josh is an aw-shucks kind of guy.

He recently spent some time with Mr. Showbiz on a gorgeous morning in Marina Del Rey, Calif. Wearing generic jeans and a white T-shirt, and holding onto a chewed-up baseball cap, the soft-spoken actor talked about his latest movie, "O"; life after Pearl Harbor; and his questionable hairstyling choices. Though imposing at 6 feet, 3 inches, he seemed a little tentative at first, his voice occasionally cracking and revealing a remnant of boyhood, but he soon got comfortable and flashed the smile that's turning on Hollywood.

How has your life changed since you became the next big thing with Pearl Harbor?
Well, it's kind of tough to hear you say that, that the machine has set it in motion that you're going to be the next best thing.

Surely, you knew all about that.

I never paid any attention to that because I know it's not the case. You know, I got the role and I wasn't even sure I was going to do it. All the stuff that led to this is based on a decision I made and luck that I've had. But everybody who's put something out there for me gets something back, I hope. And all I want to do is make good movies and be a part of that.

What do you think about all the hype and the magazine covers?

As far as paying attention to that kind of stuff, it kind of infuriates me in a lot of ways because if you read the articles, you either get a big head — which always upsets me because I don't work like that and I don't live like that. I get really angry with myself if I start to act like that, you know like a Hollywood arrogant prick. And the only other reaction is to get pissed off because nobody really gets it, or they don't like you, or whatever. It just doesn't help me at all, so I've just got to stay away from it. I was in Africa [working on the upcoming Black Hawk Down] for a month and a half after Pearl Harbor came out, so I missed the whole big push, but when I came back, it was all kind of mellow. I try not to pay attention to it and just try to hang out with my family and my friends.

In your daily life, can you see your celebrity through other people?

Well, people come up a lot more to me and want to talk to me about all sorts of stuff. Minnesota people are very polite and they treat you like a normal human being and they understand that not everyone wants to talk about the same thing all the time. It's been good for me being back there.

Does being famous meet your expectations of it when you were first dreaming of your success?

I guess I'm still waiting to deal with it. I don't know when it's going to become intolerable, because I hear a lot of stories and I see where it becomes too much. But I don't really go to the spots where the paparazzi and the autograph seekers go, so I see them very rarely and I can deal with it. If I lived here [in Los Angeles] and I went to a lot of Hollywood parties and all that kind of stuff, I'd probably go nuts, but I don't do that. So unless people decide to follow me back to Minnesota, which would be their own loss because my friends and family would destroy them, I feel pretty much like I'm in a good spot.

So you can pretty much pop over to Home Depot and buy a hammer any time you want?

I was just there not too long ago. [Laughs] I had to sign an autograph for the checkout person, but that's OK.

Regarding publicity, do you have any comment on Ben Affleck's rehab?

It's not an issue for me. I feel like it's none of my business. I like Ben and I know he's a very good person. And I know that he cares about people and I know that he's doing the best thing for himself. And when I see the media chastise him for it, or chastise him and then bring him back up and go through the whole slimy game, I just really feel bad for him, to tell you the truth.

Why do you feel bad for him?

That all that stuff has to be associated with him just trying to get his life back together. I just try and stay out of it. I mean, it's his life and … yeah.

Your new movie, "O," is really an old movie.

It was [made] two and a half years ago. I barely remember two and a half days ago. My mind works like that. You're going to have a rough time getting cool stuff out of me.

Work with me here. Can you recall something cool that you and co-star Mekhi Phifer did?

Me and Mekhi got along very well. We went to this basketball camp for two weeks at the beginning of the shoot with this guy who runs an NBA camp during the summer. And he gave us the tools to make the basketball scenes come to life. We both sunk our teeth in because we wanted to do really well. We never played one-on-one or anything, because Mekhi's not that competitive a guy. He's just a real good guy and we got along really well.

Did you know Julia Stiles before this movie?
No, I'd met Julia once, I think. Wow, when was it? I think we screen-tested for a movie together, but that was when I first got to L.A. She was pretty young and I was pretty young too. I didn't know her and I didn't know her work.

Have you ever been jealous, like your character, Hugo?

Yes, I've felt jealousy. I think that everybody feels jealousy at one point or another, it's just a matter of magnification of it for this guy. There are a lot of attributes to Hugo that I had to look at and there was the jealousy and the envy and all those regular things, but I had to find things within him that were good, too.

Like what?

I think he's a very intelligent guy, a very emotional guy, very passionate guy. With intelligence comes the ability to manipulate and with the emotion comes irrational decisions. And you put all that together with the jealousy and the envy and the anger and suddenly the character plays himself.

Had you ever done any Shakespeare before "O"?

I went to a school where Shakespeare was offered as a class, and I took that. It was with a really great teacher and I was always into Shakespeare, I always liked him. And when I went to college I did a few scenes. And usually we had to take a scene from Shakespeare and give it a different scenario and a different setting, you know, like the streets of New Orleans or something. We did a lot of experimentation with him and I've always loved his poetry.

So then you didn't feel out of place with this piece?

No, I didn't feel out of place. I liked it very much. I mean, we rehearsed in the text, which was cool.

What's up with your hair? In your first two movies, Halloween: H2O and The Faculty, you had, shall we say, some very unconventional haircuts.

I cut it myself. I really did and nobody bothered me about it.

How did you come up with it?

I had that haircut when I went in for the auditions and I never really liked going into the barber, you know, sitting in the chair, so I cut it myself. That's the way it turned out, it was pretty different. And nobody — [not even] the studios — gave me a hard time about it.

Do you normally experiment with your hair?

It's not something I spend time thinking about. I don't. My appearance is of minimal interest to me.

So here's the conflict: When you give yourself a dorky haircut, what does your team of managers and agents say about it?

The team of people around me gave up on my appearance a long time ago. They know that I'm always going to do the wrong thing as far as appearance goes and it's never not stylish enough to be stylish, you know? So I don't really think about it and they leave me alone.

What was it like in Morocco when you did Black Hawk Down?

I was there for, like, four and a half, five months, and it was a bunch of American and English and Australian white guys with military cuts walking through an Arabic nation. And you know, on our days off, some pretty strange things happened to any number of the cast. … People really don't know what's going on in these places all around the world right now. Macedonia is the hot spot right now.

Were you fearful for your safety?

I try not to be too concerned for my own personal safety because that kind of hinders you and usually that just brings on problems. Especially when traveling.

How so?

I find that if you just act like you know what the hell you're doing, people believe you. And there are a lot of French and Spanish in Morocco, it's probably the most westernized Arabic nation, so I didn't feel like I was that out of place. I mean, I felt pretty out of place, but I didn't feel like, you know, like I was the only man around who spoke English.

Another of your upcoming films is 40 Days and 40 Nights. Is that about going 40 days without any sex?

Sex or any sort of physical touching.

So are you the kind of actor that lives the role?

A buddy of mine actually did it and he wrote a script about it and I played the part. He actually did it — but I couldn't do it. [Laughs]

by Gayl Murphy; www.mrshowbiz.go.com