Movie star Josh Hartnett has explained how he approaches his film career.
Josh Hartnett is determined to remain “open” to new career challenges.
The 48-year-old actor – who recently starred alongside Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson in Verity, the new psychological thriller film directed by Michael Showalter – is keen to maintain an open-minded attitude about future projects.
The Hollywood star told Variety: “The things that are always going to get me interested are the people involved. Beyond that, if it’s something I haven’t explored before, I really want to try it.
“You never can tell what’s going to come along, and staying open to that. I’ve stopped putting my own concepts of what I would like my career to be and started to look at what’s there and be practical about it. ‘This is what people are offering.’ I love to do new and different work, and stuff that’s exciting to me is usually the stuff I haven’t really thought about that much beforehand.”
Josh previously played a murderer in Trap, the 2024 thriller film, and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ernest Lawrence in Oppenheimer.
The actor relished the challenge of playing such diverse characters.
He said: “When someone like M. Night Shyamalan comes along and says, ‘Hey, you want to play a serial killer who’s a really good dad?’ ‘Yeah! I don’t know why, but I got to figure this out. I got to know this guy. I got to figure out how to play him.’
“It was the same thing with playing Ernest Lawrence. I had very little understanding of who he was. I was excited to dive in and read [Michael Hiltzik’s nonfiction book] Big Science and to get to know this character in among that larger story. And, obviously, the chance to work with Christopher Nolan. So it’s that combination that’s always exciting to me.”
Josh doesn’t know where he’ll head next in his career.
He explained: “I can very honestly say I have no idea what the next thing is going to be, which is exciting to me as well.”
Meanwhile, Josh previously explained that he tries to spend “as much time with [his] family as possible”.
The actor has enjoyed a hugely successful career in the movie business, but Josh tries to balance his professional ambitions with his family life.
The film star – who has four children with his wife, actress Tamsin Egerton – told Us Weekly: “I’m balancing like crazy. I’ve got a lot of time at home. I’ve shot one film in the last 18 months.
“[My wife and I] had a baby. I wanted to be at home with the baby for as long as I could, so I spent 13 months at home after he was born. Then I went and shot Verity and now I’m gonna go shoot something else this summer. But I am definitely taking as much time with my family as possible.”
Verity star Josh Hartnett tries to maintain an ‘open’ mind
