The Josh Hartnett Renaissance Is Here: What to Know About the '90s and '00s Heartthrob's Recent Comeback

In the late '90s and early '00s, Josh Hartnett was the reigning teen idol. The tall, dark and handsome star made his debut in the hit horror sequel Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in 1998, and starred in another horror movie, The Faculty, that same year. He then memorably played a '70s teen dreamboat in The Virgin Suicides in 1999, and as the aughts came around, he starred in both intense films like Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down and Lucky Number Slevin and teen fare like O and 40 Days and 40 Nights. 

While Hartnett has continued acting over the years, and starred in the series Penny Dreadful from 2014 to 2016, he seemed to fall out of the spotlight for a while. Recently, that’s changed, as the actor, now 46, has returned in a major way, with appearances in the acclaimed shows Black Mirror and The Bear and a role as nuclear physicist Ernest Lawrence in the Oscar-winning 2023 film Oppenheimer.  

Hartnett’s latest project is the thriller Trap, in which he stars as a notorious serial killer who takes his daughter to a pop concert and craftily thwarts attempts at capture by the police during the show. The role gives Hartnett ample opportunity to be funny, charming and terrifying.

Read on for a look at how the Josh Hartnett renaissance came to be.

Why Josh Hartnett stepped away from the spotlight

While Hartnett never took an extended break from acting, he turned down a number of big roles (including Superman!) in favor of smaller projects. He recently told The Guardian, “I just didn’t want my life to be swallowed up by my work. And there was a notion at that time you just kind of give it all up. And you saw what happened to some people back then. They got obliterated by it. I didn’t want that for myself.”

Today, Hartnett lives a quiet life in the English countryside with his wife, the British actress Tamsin Egerton, and their four kids. The actor said that he loves living there in large part because he can keep a low profile, and noted that during his rise to stardom, “People’s attention to me at the time was borderline unhealthy.”

How Josh Hartnett made his comeback

Hartnett has said, “I’m not very good at creating an image,” and has recently been committed to choosing roles he personally finds interesting, rather than coasting on his good looks. He was drawn to Black Mirror for its darkly satirical tone, while his unexpected appearance in The Bear arose from a connection to the show’s creator, as they were previously hoping to work on a movie together, but it never came to fruition.

Hartnett’s part in Oppenheimer also emerged from a longstanding relationship. The film’s director, Christopher Nolan, was originally considering Hartnett for the role of Batman in The Dark Knight, but unlike just about every other actor in Hollywood, he had no interest in the role. He and Nolan still wanted to work together, and over a decade after The Dark Knight, the director finally cast him, giving him a key role in Oppenheimer’s A-list ensemble.

Trap was yet another case of Hartnett finally connecting with a director he first met many years ago. Hartnett had met the filmmaker, M. Night Shyamalan, when his film The Village was released in 2004. They got along well, and 20 years later, Shyamalan knew the former teen icon would make for a perfectly subversive casting choice as the lead of his new film. 

Asked about his decision to cast Hartnett, Shyamalan said, “to find somebody that’s a bona fide movie star, that’s a great human being and is willing to risk everything, man, that’s a rare combination. And sometimes you think that doesn’t exist any more. And then he walked in.”

While many actors who hit it big in teen movies struggle to find serious work as they age, Hartnett has staged an impressive second act by choosing his projects carefully, striking up connections with talented directors and staying far from Hollywood when he’s not working. Clearly, this approach has worked well for him, and we hope his resurgence continues.

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