Josh Hartnett: From Hollywood Heartthrob to Independent Spirit

Josh Hartnett, the star of M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming thriller *Trap*, reflects on his career and how he navigated the pressures of fame.

Josh Hartnett's career began in 1998 with a starring role alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in *Halloween H20: 20 Years Later*. He quickly followed this up with roles in *The Faculty

and *The Virgin Suicides*, and by 2001, he had landed memorable roles in blockbusters like *Pearl Harbor* and *Black Hawk Down*.

Hartnett's good looks and charisma quickly catapulted him to teen heartthrob status, but this label proved frustrating for the young actor.

"I was frustrated because I assumed audiences cared more about my choices than they did," he admits. "Audiences mostly just want to be entertained."

Despite his desire to take on more challenging roles, Hartnett found himself typecast in heroic roles. "I did a couple of heroic films and everybody wanted me to play those kinds of roles," he says. "That's what I was being offered."

He felt like he was losing control of his own narrative, "The door kind of shut on those other more interesting characters for me unless I sought them out and kind of helped the directors get them made."

From a young age, Hartnett learned the importance of staying true to himself. "If I lost that in the midst of all these other opinions and in the midst of all this fame, I might lose myself entirely," he says. "And I didn't want that."

He realised that the overwhelming opinions about who he should be were detrimental to his personal growth. "At that point in your life your frontal lobe isn't fully formed and your idea of self isn't fully actualized," he says. "To have everybody sort of with a million different opinions on what they would like you to be before you know who you are is not healthy."

Hartnett decided to take control of his career, choosing roles that resonated with him, regardless of mainstream appeal. "I didn't want to be defined by other people," he says. "I wanted to define myself, and I knew that what I responded to in film was different than what people were offering me."

This independent streak led to him turning down some big-budget projects, which some interpreted as a rejection of fame. "I think the media created a story very simply that I was crazy and I walked away from the brass ring," he explains. "It was more like I had a different vision of what I wanted than the media or the companies that were in charge of the movie business wanted me to be."

Now, in a career resurgence, Hartnett is enjoying a new wave of appreciation for his work. "I feel really lucky that I've been able to make, I think, consistently interesting work over the course of my career," he says. "And now people are more interested in it."

He is also grateful for the renewed interest in some of his earlier films. "People like to talk to me about *The Virgin Suicides*, *Lucky Number Slevin*, and *The Black Dahlia*."

Hartnett's journey shows that sometimes the most fulfilling path is the one you forge yourself. He chose to define his own success, and now, with a renewed perspective, he is enjoying the fruits of his independent spirit. *Trap

hits cinemas on August 2nd.