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Josh Hartnett Reveals the Moment in 2001 That Set His Career Up to Fail

Josh Hartnett is opening up about the launch of his acting career in the early 2000s and how one crucial moment set him up to fail.

Just weeks after the release of Pearl Harbor in 2001, Josh was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair and the profile made him question what he was doing in Hollywood.

“Oh, that was an awful piece,” Josh said in a new interview with The Guardian. “Was there even a quote from me in it, or was it just everyone talking about how hot I was? People got a chip on their shoulder about me after that. They genuinely thought I’d been thrust on them. It was a very weird time.”

Josh had turned down the opportunity to play Superman and reports claimed he did the same for Batman, though those weren’t true.

“They looked at me as someone who had bitten the hand that fed me. It wasn’t that. I wasn’t doing it to be recalcitrant or a rebel,” Josh said. “People wanted to create a brand around me that was going to be accessible and well-liked, but I didn’t respond to the idea of playing the same character over and over, so I branched out. I tried to find smaller films I could be part of and, in the process, I burned my bridges at the studios because I wasn’t participating. Our goals weren’t the same.”

Josh says he has looked back at the Vanity Fair article and realizes now that it wasn’t that bad, but at the time he felt like it was not good for his career.

“It’s just that it happened at a time when I wasn’t that famous, and it seemed to already be asking whether I should be or not. I felt like: ‘Oh my God! I’m not the tallest poppy yet – don’t cut me down!’ I was being compared to Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts and that’s insane. It was a set-up-to-fail moment,” Josh said. “It was actually an interesting look at the nature of fame. If only it wasn’t about me.”

Josh has been working on a thriller amid the pandemic!

Josh Hartnett to Star in Action-Thriller That's Shooting During the Pandemic

Josh Hartnett is working on a new action-thriller flock.

The 42-year-old actor has been filming the new crime action-thriller Ida Red in Oklahoma during the pandemic, Deadline reports.

The movie is nearing the end of production in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma and is said to be “closely following Oklahoma and SAG-AFTRA health and safety COVID-19 protocols.”

Written and directed by John Swab, Josh stars in the movie alongside Frank Grillo, Melissa Leo, William Forsythe, Sofia Hublitz, Deborah Ann Woll, Mark Boone Junior, Beau Knapp, Slaine, and Nicholas Cirillo.

Ida Red follows “career criminal Ida ‘Red’ Walker (Leo) who is battling a terminal illness while serving a 25-year prison sentence in Oklahoma. Under Ida’s tutelage, her son, Wyatt Walker (Hartnett) has sustained the family business, alongside his uncle, Dallas Walker (Grillo). When a job goes awry, local detective and Wyatt’s brother-in-law, Bodie Collier (Slaine), is joined by FBI agent Lawrence Twilley (Forsythe), to track down the responsible party.

Josh Hartnett Clarifies Which Superhero Role He Actually Turned Down Between Spider-Man, Superman & Batman

Josh Hartnett is clarifying the reports that he turned down three big superhero roles: Spider-Man (eventually played by Tobey Maguire), Batman (Christian Bale) and Superman (Brandon Routh).

“I didn’t turn down Spider-Man. I don’t know where that came from. I’d only turned down Superman as a straight-up offer,” Josh told Variety. “But I was, at that time of my career, where a lot of people were asking me to do those types of movies. I was having meetings with those directors and people were saying: ‘Would you be interested?’ I talked to them about what they were doing and I ultimately decided I wasn’t, but that was a very privileged place for a young man to be in. I’m a little bit outside of the box and had the leverage to do that, and that’s the direction I chose.”

He continued, “Batman wasn’t an audition or an offer. It was a conversation with the director [Christopher Nolan]. I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there. When you say one thing one time about it, and now it gets blown up. But I don’t really care to tell that story over and over again.”

Here’s what Josh said back in 2015, which lead to the confusion about the Batman role.

Josh Hartnett Stars in 'Inherit the Viper' - Watch the Trailer! (Video)

Josh Hartnett stars in the upcoming Inherit the Viper, and you can watch the trailer right here.

The film also stars Margarita Levieva, Owen Teague, Valorie Curry, Chandler Riggs, Brad William Henke, Tara Buck, Dash Mihok and Bruce Dern.

Here’s a plot summary: for siblings Kip (Hartnett) and Josie (Levieva), dealing opioids isn’t just their family business—it’s their only means of survival. When a deal goes fatally wrong, Kip decides he wants out. But Kip’s attempt to escape his family’s legacy ignites a powder keg of violence and betrayal, imperiling Kip, Josie, and their younger brother, Boots (Teague), in this searing crime-thriller that builds to a shattering conclusion.

The movie hits select theaters, on demand and digital on January 10, 2020.

Watch the trailer for Inherit the Viper inside…


INHERIT THE VIPER – In Select Theaters, On Digital, and On Demand January 10
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Josh Hartnett to Star in Upcoming Drama 'Paradise Lost'

Josh Hartnett is taking on an exciting new role!

The 40-year-old Penny Dreadful actor will star in the upcoming 10-episode Spectrum/Paramount Network drama called Paradise Lost, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed on Tuesday (June 11).

Josh joins Jane The Virgin‘s Bridget Regan in the series, as well as Barbara Hershey, Nick Nolte, Gail Bean, Danielle Deadwyler and Shane McRae.

The series revolves around a psychiatrist (Regan) who moves with her family from California to her husband’s (Hartnett) hometown in Mississippi only to uncover shameful secrets that irrevocably change the lives of everyone involved.

Paradise Lost is a complex, compelling series full of incredible characters, including the small town in Mississippi where it is set. We’re excited to see John Lee Hancock bring this incredible world to life, building on the vision that Rodes Fishburne and Arika Lisanne Mittman have so vividly created,” said Paramount Network and TV Land exec Keith Cox.

Josh recently attended a star-studded royal dinner. See who else attended!

George & Amal Clooney Join So Many Stars at Prince Charles' Dinner!

It was a star-studded night at Buckingham Palace!

Prince Charles held a dinner to celebrate The Prince’s Trust for donors, supporters, and ambassadors of the organization that helps youth.

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Luke Evans, Tamsin Egerton with Josh Hartnett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Amal Clooney and George Clooney were all in attendance at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening (March 12) in London, England to show their support.

The Prince’s Trust aims to “create brighter futures for young people aged 11 to 30 [by] empowering them to get into jobs, education and training.”

Check out all the photos from the star-studded event in the gallery…

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Josh Hartnett, Tamsin Egerton & Barry Keoghan Hit the Red Carpet at BIFAs 2018!

Josh Hartnett, Tamsin Egerton and Barry Keoghan look sharp at the 2018 British Independent Film Awards (aka the BIFAs) at Old Billingsgate on Sunday (December 2) in London, England.

PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Josh Hartnett

Barry was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for American Animals.

To be eligible for consideration for the awards, nominated films had to be intended for theatrical release, produced or co-produced by a British company and have budgets of under 10 million pounds.

Josh is part of James Franco‘s upcoming The Long Home, about a young contractor who is hired to build a honky-tonk in Tennessee by the man who killed his father.

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