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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.
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