His Hollywood trajectory led to great success with films such as Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down and even notably turning down the role of Superman twice but still Josh Harnett walked away from Hollywood. He’s shortly to reappear in M Night Shyamalan in ‘Trap’ and he revealed the reason why he stepped away from tinsel town.
He explained, “People’s attention to me at the time was borderline unhealthy…..There were incidents. People showed up at my house. People that were stalking me,”. He went to further to say, ‘“…a guy showed up at one of my premieres with a gun, claiming to be my father. He ended up in prison. There were lots of things. It was a weird time. And I wasn’t going to be grist for the mill.”
Turning down heart throb roles and tent pole movies he left Los Angeles, moved back home and changed the films he expressed interest in starring in. Instead he pushed for small scale films that were more challenging saying, “I just didn’t want my life to be swallowed up by my work,” he explained. “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.”
He added, ‘“Some of those films were successful. Some of them were failures. But I was always swinging for something that was outside what people expected from me,” .He even had a meeting with Christopher Nolan about playing Batman, but pitched himself instead for a role in Nolan’s thriller The Prestige. The roles eventually went to Christian Bale. “I recognized the missed opportunity to work with a guy like Chris,” Hartnett said. “And I’ve figured out that as much as you’re worried about curating your career to things you’re interested in, I don’t believe that’s the most important thing any more. It’s about finding people who you really trust.”
…….and what’s why Josh Harnett walked away from Hollywood
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source: Hollywood reporter
