Josh Hartnett: Straight From The Hartnett

Q: Does it ever get awkward when you're romancing your costar?

A: It's weird when you're doing a love scene with someone you just fought with. How do you push past that? You have to be a really good actor to brush off bad feelings and replace them with warm ones. A smart actor doesn't get involved because the relationship affects his performance.

Q: Are you a smart actor these days?

A: I'm getting smarter. With my girlfriend or ex-girlfriend or friend--I don't know what to call her--we never look at it like, "Are we together or are we friends?" She's going to kill me for saying this. I definitely screwed up and now, it's just a change in the circumstances. It's really tough not being with her, to tell you the truth. When we see each other we can't deny our feelings.

Q: If she looks anything like you do right now as you're talking about her, you're probably both hurting pretty badly.

A: Don't feel that sorry for her because I screwed up, man. She's had boyfriends before. She screwed me over first. We've been on and off together for a long time.

Q: Is she an actress?

A: She does theater in Minneapolis. The only thing that's important is that she and I have maintained a good relationship through all of this odd "fame" stuff, as I have with all my friends.

Q: Getting back to 40 Days and 40 Nights: what made you choose that as your follow-up to Pearl Harbor?

A: The script scared the hell out of me because when I started reading it I realized, "Goddamn it, it's a sex comedy." Then I kept reading and thought, "This is brilliant." After I finished it, I wrote on it: "They'll never make it because it's so sexual."

Q: How sexual is it?

A: After my character gets dumped by his girlfriend, he goes on a sex binge. But every time he has sex he feels emptier and emptier, until he starts to feel like he's going insane. He decides to give up all female contact for the 40 days of Lent, thinking it's going to make everything better. Then he meets the perfect girl.

Q: You went from that film to the military drama Black Hawk Down. Did Ridley Scott tell you what he'd seen of you that made him want to cast you?

A: Michael Bay showed Ridley parts of Pearl Harbor. Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced Pearl Harbor, is also producing Black Hawk Down. Jerry has been nothing but good to me.

Q: What attracted you to Black Hawk Down?

A: I wanted to work with Ridley. I was excited I could tell friends that I was working with a master! The story never stops being intense, so it's just going to be a wild ride.

Q: With whom do you compete for roles?

A: Sometimes Heath Ledger.

Q: Which roles has he won that you've wanted?

A: 10 Things I Hate About You wasn't a role I was dying to get, but it wasn't a role I didn't want, either. I was sent the script for The Patriot and I didn't read it because I was shooting another movie. Once I read it, I thought it was great, but by the time I called, Heath Ledger was already cast.

Q: What film roles not related to Ledger have you missed out on?

A: I was in London when Tigerland came to me and I wanted that because it's a fantastic role--I was like, finally something I want to do--but I heard about it too late and Colin Farrell is just juggernauting right now. My biggest problem is that I don't read the scripts on time. That's me, a day late and a dollar short.

Q: Do you ever get jealous of what other actors your age are capable of doing?

A: When I saw Benicio Del Toro do such a fantastic job in Traffic, I thought, "Come on, all it is is a series of facial movements. Why can't I make my face do what Benicio's does?" He's unbelievable.

Q: How do you evaluate your talent?

A: I can't stand watching myself on-screen. I want to be able to get to the point where I can watch and say, "Yes, that's what I wanted to do," but it's never that way.

Q: Will you ever live in L.A.?

A: No, never. I live in Minnesota. I've still got a little of that "Fuck them, I don't have to be in L.A. if I don't want to." Hollywood is so full of people with so many opinions that I can't keep my own opinions straight. Not living in Los Angeles is a means of survival more than anything else.

Q: Didn't you grow up away from your mother?

A: I grew up in St. Paul with my dad and stepmom. My mom lived in San Francisco for most of my life.

Q: Was that difficult?

A: Yeah, I missed my mom as I grew up. We never really knew each other that well. But I'm fine.

Q: Were you a good kid or a rebel?

A: I defied everything even slightly parental--in fact, I've been defying everything for pretty much my whole life. All I wanted to do was not do what they told me to do. My parents had gone to a particular Catholic school when they were kids and their attitude was, "Go where you like, but we'll only pay for you to go to the same school we went to." I hated it. I was buttoned-up all the time. I defined my character by being the opposite of what the school told me to be. That was unhealthy.

Q: Did you run with any clique?

A: I didn't want high school to capture me like I thought it had captured so many other people. The others didn't want to conform and fit in any more than I did, but they did. It really pissed me off that they didn't stick to their guns.

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