Josh Hartnett: Straight From The Hartnett

Q: Did you focus on the schoolwork then?

A: No, I got mediocre grades. I think education is very important, but I didn't want to do all that nonsense busywork.

Q: When did you start acting?

A: I took up theater after a torn ligament in my knee prevented me from playing football. Huck Finn was the first character I played, and is still probably the closest character to my own.

Q: How are you like Huck?

A: I have wanderlust. A need to keep going. A hunger to move around, see things, learn. When I was 14, I began to read a lot of Kerouac--On the Road, Dharma Bums, Big Sur. I always wanted to get out and see what was there.

Q: What grabbed you about acting the first time you did it?

A: Acting involves studying people, which I've always done naturally. Some people become psychologists. I became an actor.

Q: High school actors are often pretentious and unpopular. How did you keep from becoming like that?

A: A lot of my friends thought actors were people who emoted way too much offstage, wore way too much patchouli, made strange, obtrusive comments in class and always had to be in the spotlight. I wanted to show people that you can do theater without having to be a complete idiot.

Q: What was college like for you?

A: People were surprised I was even going to college because I was kind of a screwup for a while. That I was going to college for theater was an even bigger shock. But theater has never defined me--what defines me is wanderlust, this extreme need to move, to see.

Q: Define "screwup."

A: [Laughs] Well, I didn't mean it as a big doomsday kind of thing. I was just a bit irresponsible. When I was younger, I was pretty spacey. I'd always go off into my own thing. I'd forget important events. So, more recently, I've started to...uh... [Long pause]

Oh, sorry--talk about being spacey.

Q: For a while you worked in a video store. Was there a film that you took home with you over and over again?

A: Basquiat. I loved it because it combined the New York scene, painting and poetry. Beautifully made, beautifully acted. It's so honest, so spot-on and has such a beautiful message on fame.

Q: And that message is?

A: Fame can just snatch you up. Suddenly, it's beyond your control. Feelings of jealousy, of envy, can separate your friends from you. You, in turn, can get nasty, get scared of your friends--scared that they're out to take something from you. You can lose sight that your friends have been your friends for a long time and they don't want anything from you except your friendship.

Q: Tell me about a movie you'd most like your life to be like.

A: It'd probably be something like Kenneth Branagh's film of Much Ado About Nothing, where you're hanging around with a bunch of beautiful women in Tuscany, where everyone's always got a quip and everything works out well in the end. But conflict is necessary. It keeps us going.

Q: Who are your favorite poets?

A: There are all sorts of poets I enjoy--I can't just say Yeats or Allen Ginsberg. I wish I could write poetry.

Q: As you're gaining fame, do you find it odd that people are willing to listen to you expound on any number of subjects?

A: [Laughs] I still don't think people give a shit what I'm talking about. They're just looking for certain things they want to hear.

Q: Any political issues that are important to you?

A: I want to do something with Habitat for Humanity while I'm in Morocco shooting Black Hawk Down. It's something called Global Volunteers, where for six weeks you live in a village and help build a school or library.

Q: If one day you find your entry in an encyclopedia of movie stars, what do you hope is written about you?

A: That I was an actor who showed brilliant potential and achieved an exciting level of accomplishment. A lot of people want to be the Brando or the De Niro of their generation, but I don't know if I'm capable.

Q: Do you have Oscar aspirations?

A: I don't think I have a shot, so it's not that much of a problem.

Q: Who are you, when you strip it all away?

A: I hope I'm a caring person. I think I'm a genuinely mixed-up person. I'm aware of being goofed-up and just happy to be going through it. I'm a guy who likes to explore. I'm just looking for the next adventure.

____________________________________________

Stephen Rebello interviewed Baz Luhrmann for the June issue of Movieline.

Pages: 1 2 3