Josh Hartnett: He’s in the flashlights again

“What happened to Josh Hartnett?” film fans may have asked themselves a few years ago. The former star of major blockbuster films such as “Pearl Harbor”, “Black Hawk Down” or the teen comedy “40 Days and 40 Nights” seemed to have completely disappeared from the scene towards the end of the 2000s – only to make an impressive comeback in 2023 to lay down.

Hartnett not only played a highly acclaimed role in Christopher Nolan’s (53) Oscar favorite “Oppenheimer”, but was also in an acclaimed episode of the latest “Black Mirror” season and alongside stars such as Hugh Grant (63) and Jason Statham (56) can be seen in Guy Ritchie’s (55) spy comedy “Operation Fortune”.

But in truth, the former teen idol never completely disappeared from the scene. Rather, the American worked constantly in smaller film and series projects – and also concentrated on his family life with his wife Tamsin Egerton (35) and their three children. The couple have been living away from Hollywood for years in a small rural village in England.

Conscious decision against great fame

In 2001, after Pearl Harbor opened in theaters, Hartnett retreated to his home state of Minnesota for 18 months. Previously, the actor said he had worked every single day for over four years – but he seemed less suited to the illustrious Hollywood life than others. “I was on the cover of every magazine. I had nowhere to go. I was alone. I didn’t trust anyone,” recalling that time.

Back then, as a young, 21-year-old actor, he found the Hollywood star circus “overwhelming”: “The press was a little different back then – there were paparazzi on every corner, you couldn’t go anywhere without being harassed in some way,” he said Hartnett.

That’s why he decided to continue working as an actor, but to move his life away from Hollywood. After his return to Minnesota, he also spent time in New York and met his future wife, the British actress Tamsin Egerton, on the set of the 2013 film “The Lovers”. A daughter was born in 2015, and two more children followed in 2017 and 2019. The couple married in a private ceremony in November 2021 and lead a life away from the Hollywood flashlights.

Josh Hartnett never stopped working

In all this time, however, Hartnett never stopped working as an actor. At the beginning of the 2000s, he decided against initially becoming the iconic superhero Superman – Hollywood allegedly offered him a $100 million contract for three films – and later turned down the lead role in Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins”. , with which Christian Bale (50) became a superstar.

But Hartnett continued to find employment in all the years that followed. “I didn’t really take a major break that was planned, I just had kids,” . Because he prioritized his family, Hartnett appeared in “smaller films” “because it meant I didn’t have to be away from the children as often.”

Also in 2021, Hartnett summed up his life in Hollywood: “What I’m most proud of is that I’m a father of three children, have a good relationship with my partner and a great family life and am still able to do good work and the characters have become more interesting as they’ve gotten older.”

After some successes such as a leading role in the successful Showtime series “Penny Dreadful” (2014-2016), Hartnett returned in a big way in 2023 with the three roles mentioned above. Red carpet appearances also followed. For example, in July 2023, Hartnett was present with partner Tamsin Egerton at the England premiere of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”, or appeared in 2024 – after the end of the actors’ strike in Hollywood – at the BAFTAs and most recently the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles .