Wicker Park
He first came to our attention in teen horror fest flicks like Halloween: H20 and The Faculty then the sensitive Virgin Suicides and his hard-hitting roles in the epic Pearl Harbor and the war movie Black Hawk Down. He made a comedy, 40 Days and 40 Nights and then….disappeared! Hot but press-shy Josh Hartnett just went home to Minnesota to ditch the Hollywood starmaker machine. He's still a reluctant, but friendly interview and now, co-starring with one of his childhood idols, Harrison Ford, in the cop comedy Hollywood Homicide, Josh is back in tinseltown and has plenty to say about Harrison, the Hollywood Blockbuster machine, why he didn't play Superman, his escape from teen films and his next projects.
AGW: You seemed to be having fun at the MTV Movie Awards.

Josh: [grins] Harrison kind of begged me to do that because he thinks that demographic [young people] will come see this movie and I agree, but I've never done anything like that before and had made a rule not to do it. He was like, 'Get over yourself.' I got to make fun of Harrison [Ford] on stage in front of a bunch of people, it was fun. We had this little banter. I've never done anything like that. I had a lot of fun afterwards. It was a friend of mine's birthday.

AGW: Okay, they tell you you'll be in a movie with Harrison Ford. Were you a little intimidated?

Josh: Of course, yeah. I grew up and idolized him. I mean, I was born in seventy eight, and Star Wars came out in Seventy seven. So, he had quite a rise right before I was born, but I truly grew up on him. It's tough to get over that jittery feeling that you get when you meet someone that you felt some sort of connection to. He was like a father figure to me, I think, on screen. He's always just seemed like such a cool guy, and I had his [action] figures. I have this box somewhere with this Han Solo figure, the kind that the legs don't bend and you put him in his Millennium Falcon, and he'd stick out like this. [he indicates, straight up].

AGW: How do you put that awe aside and just do your job?

Josh: Oh, just be professional. We have a job to do and you just say that to yourself, and honestly, after a few days of knowing Harrison, you're not in awe of him anymore. You're more just terrified of him.

AGW: What was working with him really like?

Josh: I found out instantly that Harrison was going to walk in front of me whenever he could, he was going to step on my lines, he was going to make me feel that I had no business being there and I found out later that he was testing me, and it worked, it worked! Ron [Shelton, the director] was just like, 'Work around it, work around him. He's the big dog.' Between the characters, he is the big dog and it works, and so, I found a way to make that funny. When he does something, I kind of idolize it and do the same thing. My character is kind of odd, and it worked, I think. At some point, he'd just push me to the limit and It was a good thing that I did so much yoga. I was remaining calm. I think that I look up to Harrison because he's had an amazingly long career and he's done pretty much exactly what he wanted to do every step of the way. People don't really give him any crap and he does what he feels is best. I admire that. He is someone that I definitely look up to just as far as sticking to your guns.

AGW: Your character is really into Yoga. Were you?

Josh: No, I was doing yoga when I went to college. I did yoga for about six months everyday and when I decided to do this movie, I got right into it. To have that peace was excellent, and God, I needed it at times. I practiced for about seven months, an hour and a half everyday without fail and by the end of it, I was in amazing shape and you breathe easier, and it's the way you should be. If I had time to do it everyday, I would maintain. I'd definitely do it.

AGW: You still live back in Minnesota. Did you consider that you might have to move here?

Josh: No, I'm never tempted in that way, but lets talk about flight schedules. [When I'm working], I try to get back as much as possible, but like, there's one flight in the early, early morning to Minnesota and then, there's one at twelve forty five at night the next morning, the red eye, so, I only did that a couple of times while I was out here. Usually, when I'm working on a movie, I tend to stay where I am. It keeps me focused. I'll have to call Harrison for a ride. He flies everywhere, he's got it figured out.

AGW: What is the strangest place you've been approached by a fan?

Josh: I had someone give me a script in the Met not too long ago. The Metropolitan Museum in New York. I was walking through the ancient Greek sculptures, and this guy was like, 'Hey man, I've got a script for you, and you know so and so? I went to NYU,' and I was like, 'Yeah, I do.' He goes, 'Yeah, we're good friends. Anyway, I want to give you this script,' and it's like, 'Cool, thanks. Enjoy the art.' I took it. You're not supposed to but I think that the best thing to do is just get on with it because it's kind of uncomfortable.

AGW: You turned down playing Superman. Can you clarify why it's just not for you?

Josh: It just wasn't the kind of movie that I wanted to do. They offered me the role while I was shooting Hollywood Homicide. I said no. They offered it to me again, I said no and again and again. Then, Brett Ratner [then scheduled as director] came out and I talked with Brett, and I really thought that he had great ideas for the film. When people pursue you with that amount of vigor, I take it seriously. So, I had to think about it, but no, I don't ever want to do it. I just didn't want to play Superman and I've turned down all of the other superhero movies too. I said no. But then there's a reason to be Superman. I could fly and go wherever I wanted to go, put on my cape.

AGW: So no thinking about the bad luck other Superman actors have had?

Josh: [Laughs] No. I don't think that I believe in that sort of thing, but if I got to that point and I said, 'Okay, I'm going to do it,' and someone said, 'Hey, remember them,' I'd probably take a second thought.

AGW: If you weren't an actor, what would you be doing today?

Josh: Be at a gas station somewhere. I'd be looking for a job like everyone else in America right now. All of my friends have been losing their jobs. I wanted to paint. That's what I was hoping to do when I grew up, be a painter. It would have to be modern because I idolize the painters that could do whatever they wanted and chose what they felt was right for each painting and not someone that was limited by their lack of vision. But painting takes time. I love doing it whenever I get a chance.

AGW: Does it take time for you to get into the rhythm of doing a comedy?

Josh: No. This character is so completely unaware that he's funny, and those are the kind of characters that I like to play in comedy because honestly, I'm not a comedic actor. I don't think about timing. It's definitely a different place to move to. What I appreciate is like Peter Sellers type comedy. It's like he's just totally unaware of the fact that he's fabulous. He's just so funny. this guy is just searching for these answers in all the wrong places, and he's goofy and you can laugh at him.

AGW: What keeps you going? What drives you?

Josh: Experience and knowledge and as much information as I can take in. And love and support that I can give out. I have a vague vision, and my dad was the greatest at this. He had a picture of this old African man in a small turban, an Ethiopian man in his office, his whole life, and this man had really beautiful wrinkles and you could tell that he smiled a lot in his life. My dad would say, 'I'm working to be that man. That's what I want to be when I'm older. I want to have enjoyed my life, I want to have seen it,' I think that I'm at that point now. I just have a vision of what I'd like to be when I'm older.

AGW: Are you able to maintain a personal life and date like a normal guy?

Josh: Yeah, I think that I've got a pretty good bull**** detector. I think that I've been okay in that category. I've met a lot of really cool girls.

AGW: Have you made it a point not to date anyone in the entertainment industry?

Josh: No, I haven't made that point. It's nice when the person that you're with understands what you're going through and that's why a lot of celebrities date celebrities and other actors date other actors and musicians tend to date….. models [Laughs].

AGW: We hear there were some injuries making this film.

Josh: We got into a car accident and I got messed up a couple of times. I did some pretty wicked stunts, and I jumped off the Victoria's Secret store, that was about twenty five feet. Some other guy jumped off a ladder onto a kiosk. The whole thing went out from under him and he went straight back on his head. These stunt guys are crazy, but you know, I got to do some cool stuff like jump off of a building and stuff like that, and then, the car accident was one of those things where a stunt driver just [messed] up.

AGW: How about doing big blockbusters like Pearl Harbor?

Josh: You still have to work and do the same job. But it's so focused on the way it looks and getting the technical aspects right that you feel like a prop most of the time. The movies that are more fun for me are the movies that are more character oriented. I actually went away to shoot 'Wicker Park' and when I came back to do a re-shoot of a scene, Harrison turned to me, and I was getting really pissed off because it was just like a factory, 'Go, go, go because we've got to get seventy five angles,' and Harrison just laughed and said, 'What, you been working on some sort of art film?' 'Yeah.' [Laughs].

AGW: So is Wicker Park also called Obsessed? What is that about?

Josh: Obsessed sounds like such a made for TV, movie of the week. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's just not my thing. It's a good movie. I play a guy who's had his heart kind of torn from his chest and he moves away for about two years, and comes back to Chicago, to Wicker Park and he's engaged and he thinks he sees this woman who really broke his heart and he's not sure and so, he's trying to find her and it takes him a few days. Matthew Lillard [Scooby Doo] is in it also and he's making his first kind of dramatic turn and he's really, really good

AGW: Do you still get offered a lot of teen roles and are you turning them down?

Josh: Well, the reason for that is that you can get stuck in the heartthrob thing and I try not to play that up. My agents don't even send those to me now. There are a lot of guys who ride that and that's fine for them, but I want to find serious roles. Unfortunately, that's a hard road to take when you're a young guy who some people think sells tickets because the girls like him, but I'm not going to negate an entire half of the species. I think that it's good that women like what I do, that's great, so thank you.

Hollywood Homicide
He was pretty in "Pearl Harbor", bland in "Black Hawk Down", and scared in "Halloween H20" - but has Josh Hartnett ever faced a stiffer challenge than working with grumpy ol' Harrison Ford in "Hollywood Homicide"?

So what happened with that car crash everyone's been talking about?

Look, I crashed one car. I still maintain that it wasn't my fault. I think the director Ron Shelton would agree with me. Harrison [Ford] is just stirring the pot. I didn't almost kill him as much as he persists that I did.

How was it to do a film with Harrison?

Harrison's an icon. It was a treat to meet him.

But what it was it like to work with him?

Well, it's never like you anticipate. We went out and met each other for the first time. Harrison started judging me instantly, trying to figure out how to play me, where I fit in the way he looked at things. Ultimately it took a long time but we got along after a while. There was a little bit of tension. I think he's had a little bit of tension with other young actors he's worked with.

So tell us about the on-screen relationship between your two characters...

We were going for a kind of father-son relationship between the characters. The young cop who really wants the older cop's affection and the older cop who doesn't understand the young cop at all. They really don't understand each other. It's a kind of cross generational thing.

You're a cop, but like Harrison's character you also have a second job right?

Yeah. He's doing real estate on the side and my character is teaching yoga. I did about seven months of training. I started three and a half months before filming started and kept it up through shooting. I did about an hour and a half every day. Not much of it was in the film but it kind of helped me set it up. I loved yoga. It was a lot of fun. But I've had to give it up now. I don't get enough time these days.

Pearl Harbor
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii, May 18, 2001--Aside from the historical resonance and awesome special effects, Pearl Harbor gets you two hunks for the price of one. And if Ben Affleck is the smooth-talking, attention-grabbing lead singer of this operation, Josh Harnett is the brooding guitarist, the quiet guy whose mystery and aw-shucks awkwardness have an appeal all their own. In other words, he's a star in the making.
And he knows it. The gentle, polite Minnesota boy, whose major film debut was playing Jamie Lee Curtis's son in Halloween: H20, explains to Hollywood.com his fears about how a big film like Pearl Harbor will affect his daily life and the rigors of making war movies.

How's your day going?
Josh Hartnett: I was just talking about you over there. You guys are the Internet, you guys have to get your information straight so I can stop [correcting you].

Fire away.
Hartnett: OK. Here we go. I did not audition for Dawson's Creek six times or whatever. I live in St. Paul, I was born in St. Paul and I spent my whole life in St. Paul, basically. Went to school at Minneapolis South, not Richfield [High School]. I'm 22 years old, not 48 or whatever. There's a lot of other stuff, I just can't remember it right now.

And you're dating …
Hartnett: Nobody.

Are you shy with the ladies, the way your character is in the film?
Hartnett: Danny Walker's not me, by any means. I wanted Danny to be a fetal version of me, a newborn version of me. He's very innocent; very vulnerable, very sweet and idealistic. Had a lot of heartache in his life that led to that.

Tell us about the boot camp they put you through.
Hartnett: At the end of it, I wanted to hurt some authority figure really badly … They break you down; they try and make you realize you're absolutely nothing and worth nothing. And then they're supposed to build you back up. Unfortunately, we were only there five days, they didn't have time to build us back up, so we left feeling about as low as we possibly could.

Ben Affleck said it was much harder than what the Saving Private Ryan guys went through.
Hartnett: We did actual army ranger boot camp, at the army ranger training grounds. We had actual military guys mixed in with us, and these guys said this was the hardest four days they'd had in the military so far.

Why do you think actors even need to go to boot camp?
Hartnett: I earned a lot of respect for the military which allowed me to play this character without any sort of cynical edge, which really helped my character a lot. It gets injected into my consciousness by going there and then it's there--you can't get rid of that.

Talking to the many survivors of Pearl Harbor, what gave you the most emotional impact?
Hartnett: The thing that stuck in my mind most was that after 60 years, they still cried about it.

Do you have any personal connections to the war?
Hartnett: My great-uncle was in D-day. He lived through it all; I don't think anybody he knew at the beginning made it to the end. He wrote letters back the whole time. I read those letters while I was filming this movie. And my grandpa was the exact opposite. He was stationed in Italy and North Africa and pretty much played Ping-Pong the whole time.

We heard you weren't sure you wanted to do Pearl Harbor. Why was that?
Hartnett: I come from a very liberal background so I wasn't sure if I wanted to be in a war movie. But most of it was I wasn't sure I wanted to be famous on this kind of level. It seems kind of backward. I don't think it really helps your development as a person, but it helps doing the right films. I just eventually came to the decision to see how far I can ride this thing. I can always quit and fame can go away in no time. This was the thing that was scariest to me, so I wanted to prove I could do it.

You still live in St. Paul instead of Los Angeles or New York. Is that your way of keeping things realistic?
Hartnett: Yeah. I don't really want to get sucked up in the madness. I like it at home where my best friends and my family are.

The Virgin Suicides
"Knocking all the girls and their mothers right off their feet" Is how Josh Hartnett describes the powerhouse effect of Trip Fontaine, his character in The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola's nuanced first feature as a director, which opens in April. Heads turn and hearts break when seventeen-year-old Trip rolls languidly down the high-school corridors in this adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides's darkly comic novel about the fate that befalls celestial schoolgirl Lux Lisbon and her equally mythical sisters. When Hartnett arrived in Hollywood from Minnesota after being kicked out of acting school, he incited a pretty similar reaction. Within two months, he'd found himself a regular TV gig (on Cracker), immediately followed by a brief stop in Teen Horrorland, via Halloween: H20 and The Faculty. From there, he moved smoothly into an unbroken chain of upcoming releases (along with The Virgin Suicides, he's wrapped Blow Dry, Here on Earth, Town and Country, and next month's O).
We can't claim immunity to the charms that got Hartnett this far this fast: We've profiled him before. But that was just an Introduction. When he pulls on Trip's velvet bell-bottoms (the movie is set in the '70s), they fit so well it's hard to remember the bemused, introspective twenty-one-year-old actor inside them. But by the same token, when Hartnett strides down that corridor as Trip, he's moving from up-and-coiner status to here-right-now.

ELIZABETH WEITZMAN: Was it hard to get Into the head of a character like Trip? JOSH HARTNETT: No, it was pretty easy. He's like this former fat boy coming into his own. He just eases right into a lifestyle of utter joy, doing whatever he can to stimulate himself in all the right ways.

EW: Is there anything actually in his head? JH: I think what he wants from the world is to move to Acapulco and live on the beach with an older woman. In the meantime, he's just trying to seduce and hang out. But then he falls in love with Lux and everything gets twisted and he has to think again.

EW: He does hurt her terribly. Do you think he's culpable at all in her suicide? JH: He definitely has something to do with it but, from a more mature standpoint I would say that if someone is going to commit suicide, she's going to commit suicide. I would never hold a single other person responsible for that.

EW: I was impressed with the light touch the film uses on the topic. JH: If you really break it down, suicide is not something you can explain. This is not a story that's meant to enlighten everyone on the intricacies of taking your own life.

EW: Do you think It's a cautionary tale in any way? JH: You could probably sit and figure out who's to blame, but I'm not sure. I see movies all the time that manipulate you by playing a high note on the piano or some string instrument, and suddenly you're crying. I'm sick of being told what to think.

EW: Is there anything about Trip that's similar to who you were in high school? JH: He's kind of an alter ego I always wanted, so that sometimes I could say, All right, screw it. I'm just going to be.

EW: Were you ever able to do that? JH: Whenever I took time off from all my worrying, yes. Like right now, I'm just kind of Trippin' it.

EW: How is he different from who you were most of the time? JH: I don't think he has that third eye pointed at himself. I think it's pointed up at the clouds, thinking of some Led Zeppelin song.

EW: Are you particularly drawn to dark characters--or characters who, if not dark themselves, participate in other people's darkness? I'm thinking of Trip's willful irresponsibility. JH: I like to think there's a little darkness and a little lightness in [all the characters I play]. Trip is kind of an innocent until the end. It's more interesting when people overcome inner turbulence, but at the same time I do like the innocent. Have you ever read The Idiot? I think Dostoyevsky created a brilliant character there. He doesn't have any self-inflicted wounds. I love that. People don't like him because he's so pure.

EW: One of Lux's sisters, who suffers from many self-inflicted wounds, says that there's no pain worse than adolescence. Do you agree, or do you think life can get worse? JH: I don't think it gets worse. It's a pretty scary time. So many emotions come up and you don't really have the wisdom to make the right choices. You can really screw yourself in adolescence.

EW: There have been so many real-life situations lately where kids have acted out horribly on their pain and rage. Why do you think this is? JH: Well, I think the fact that we allow guns in our country is the main problem with school shootings. [So many people] have guns and their way of dealing with stress or with a person they don't like is to just blow them away. The next thing you know, we'll be giving people rocket launchers. The right to bear arms--that is fuckin' bullshit. I would rather somebody walk up with a knife and really have to feel what they're doing than for them to be able to take this mindless action that feels like nothing. like a video game.

EW: Do you think incessant images of violence are to blame? JH: I don't know, but it's kind of disturbing that sex can't be shown on TV but they'll show a million killings. I don't know why we're so much more afraid of our bodies.

EW: And what about you? How do you feel about doing nude scenes? JH: I'm not comfortable with it yet, but we'll see. Some people have this meat-market mentality, so you've got to take your shirt off because it will bring girls into the theater. When that comes up on a set, I challenge it.

EW: Do they ask you to do that often? JH: No. I don't have a very good body. Some of these guys workout every day. I work out maybe once a year, so they've got me beat.

EW: Do you think youth culture is lopsided in favor of MTV-style Instant gratification, or are teens getting a pretty representative cross section of influences tight now? JH: The people who are getting a good cross section are reading books. For every good teen movie--and they will never call The Virgin Suicides a teen movie--there are ten bad ones. There's so much crap coming out of every orifice of the industry that it's hard to find anything good. It's not anybody's fault; it's just the general ideals in Hollywood.

EW: Hollywood is probably as tough a place to be as high school in a way. JH: It is high school.

EW: [laughs] Did you know what It was going to be like when you went out there? JH: My opinions definitely changed when I got there. I thought it was going to be this magical place where people walked around in slouch hats and overalls and carried monstrous signs. When I saw Chaplin, I thought that was the way Hollywood is--except a little more built-up. I thought all the studio heads would just kind of wink across the tops of buildings at each other and say, "Aha!" So I was kind of disappointed. I moved away pretty quickly.

EW: When you first got there, did you expect to wait on tables for three years or did you think you'd start working right away? JH: [laughs] I was like, Oh, I've seen enough movies--it's not going to be so hard. I had no idea. Luckily it happened that way or I would have come home and done something else.

EW: How long do you think you would have waited? JH: I gave myself two months.

EW: What would you have done if it hadn't worked out like that? Did you have any backup plan? JH: I never have any backup.

EW: What do you think What do you think you might be if you weren't an actor? JH: A professional football player.

EW: Then you'd have to start working out. JH: Oh, no. I just want it to happen. I don't want to work for it.

EW: If you ended your acting career, would you miss anything?

JH: I would just be mush. I wouldn't do anything if I didn't have something I was working for.

EW: But you're not working on anything right at this minute. JH: I'm searching for the right girl right now. That's my goal.

EW: To a degree, The Virgin Suicides is about this cosmic mystery that separates boys and girls. Trip really doesn't understand girls at all. JH: No, but he does know how to seduce them. They're two completely different things.

EW: Did you understand girls when you were his age? JH: I don't even think I understand girls now.

EW: But do you know how to seduce them? JH: I doubt it. I figured out that the only way to get women in high school was not to care that much. Now I realize that you just have to live your life and eventually they'll be attracted to you and you'll be attracted to them and it will just happen. I think.

EW: Does love generally mean different things to boys and girls? JH: Yes. I think guys understand love a little better than girls.

EW: Really? How so? JH: Guys think of love as a feeling, which means that if you do something wrong you can still love somebody. So guys are constantly screwing up and then saying, "But I love you!" And girls have a different standard for love.

EW: Did you screw up a lot when you were a teenager? JH: Oh yeah. I screwed up and I'm still screwing up. I can't give it up. It's like it's my pastime.

EW: Are you single right now? JH: Yes, kind of.

EW: Have you ever had your heart broken as bad as Lux does? JH: I have had my heart broken, and it's no fun. But I'd rather have my heart broken than break someone else's.

EW: Who's going to be your Valentine this year? JH: Some girl.

EW: Do you have a specific girl in mind? JH: Yeah, but things change. We'll see. I don't know.

EW: Is it important to you to have a Valentine? JH: As far as Valentine's Day goes or in general?

EW: For Valentine's Day. JH: No, not at all. In grade school we passed out the little hearts that said "I love you," and we all got to eat candy. That's when Valentine's Day mattered to me. Now every day is Valentine's Day.

Halloween H2O
At 19 years old, Josh Hartnett is a brand new face in the film world...making his cinematic debut in HALLOWEEN H20. What's more frightening is that he plays John Tate, the nephew of Michael Myers! Hartnett speaks in a very deep, but quiet voice. Sporting the same blue hat he wore on the set of HALLOWEEN H20, Hartnett sat down to tell us about his experience with Michael Myers!
Q: Josh, on the behind the scenes clips we've seen you're in that same blue hat you're wearing now. Is there something special about that hat? JH: I did a movie where I've got extensions and when I'm on the set, it's just nice to - hide myself.

Q: What are you working on right now? JH: Right now I'm working on a movie called VIRTUAL SUICIDES. Sophia Coppola is directing.

Q: This is your feature film debut. Seeing the fame previous HALLOWEEN alumni have reached, do you think any of that will happen to you? JH: I can just hope for the best and kinda take what's coming...try and be respectful to fans who want autographs.

Q: As an actor, don't you even dream of fame? JH: I never really did. I know its probably completely senile, but what I really want to do is theater. I went to theater school and got booted, got kicked out.

Q: Why? JH: (Laughs) You really ask good questions. Ahhh....why. Lots of reasons, lots of reasons. Well, it's a state run school, and they don't really have a lot of funding for the arts, so they can't really afford to graduate everyone they take in. They took in 26 of us and the first day they told us only 7 of us would graduate. And that's not a good position to put a volatile young actor in, to pin 'em against each other. So anyway, I told them that's probably not the best way to go about it, in this very eloquently written letter. And they really didn't appreciate it. And there was also something about a professor's daughter...(laughs)

Q: A lot of your scenes in H20 are with Jamie Lee Curtis. What's she like to work with? JH: Jamie Lee...she is a luminous person. She's got charisma and such passion. And that's something every young actor should take a look at. To sit back and watch the way she works is really a lesson. She's just great.

Q: Likewise, what was Michelle Williams like? JH: She's a talented actress. I had to strain just to keep my jaw off the floor.

Q: Did you watch the first HALLOWEEN before working on H20? JH: Yeah. I saw the first one tow weeks before we started. it is a classic movie. That's where the horror cliché came from.

Q: How much of you is in the character of John Tate? JH: Quite a bit actually.

Q: Can you picture yourself becoming a teen idol? JH: I don't think there's any problem with being a teen idol if you can handle it, if that's what comes. It's such an insane business. There's this standard you have to be in order to be a teen idol. I dunno if I could handle that.

Q: Who and what were some of your influences in the movies? JH: Ethan Hawke. He's a terrific actor. My inspiration when I was younger - my Dad made me watch ON THE WATERFRONT. Jimmy Stewart, people like that.

Q: When did you know you wanted to be an actor? JH: About three years ago. I hurt my knee while playing football. I auditioned for this play...and I got the part. I got up on stage and people were clapping - and looking at me. It was exciting. I felt like I had a place.

Faculty
There've been so many flavors-of-the-month among young actors in the last two years that they've all to melt together. Josh Hartnett is one . . . . . . who's unlikely to lose his tang. Actors and actresses in the sixteen-to-twenty-one age bracket have become the dominant market force in Hollywood via the recent onslaught of teen ensemble movies and TV shows. But when the shine goes off these wet-behind-the-ears wonders, as it inevitably will for most of them, only those who possess true talent will endure and Josh Hartnett should be among them. As the son of scream queen emerita Jamie Lee Curtis in last summer's Halloween: H20, Hartnett infused his relatively thankless role with a thoughtful, brooding presence tempered by good humor, which helped push the movie beyond its horror formula into family drama. He's currently playing a cool loser in the youth-studded sci-fi thriller The Faculty. But Hartnett sprung the teenybopper casting trap when Warren Beatty chose him for a part in the upcoming Town & Country; we'll also see him next year in Sofia Coppola's first feature as a director, The Virgin Suicides, a decidedly adult dark comedy. Offscreen and on, this twenty-year-old Minnesotan distinguishes himself from the pack: He's funny, unaffected, and refreshingly ingenuous.

LAURA JAMISON: When did you start acting? JOSH HARTNETT: About three years ago in Minneapolis. I had torn some ligaments in my knee and I couldn't play football anymore. I was moping around and my aunt, who's into theater, got me to audition for a production of Tom Sawyer. I didn't want to do it because I thought theater was . . . you know how it's perceived when you're in high school.

LJ: Geeky? JH: Yeah. So I went but I was still aloof. I said, "Fine, if I get Huck Finn, I'll do it. If not, forget it." And I got Huck Finn and didn't really stop doing theater for the next two years. I found it exciting living other people's lives.

LJ: Now you're landing roles in Hollywood films. What's it been like making that leap? JH: I was so naive. I thought I'd go to Hollywood, make a million bucks, then move to Pads and paint. Then I realized it's not that easy to do things the way you want to in Hollywood - or even to do them at all.

LJ: You had a role as a pretty troubled character in the short-lived TV series Cracker. Was that good casting? JH: Yeah, I'm very good at playing troubled. I don't know why. After my dad watched Cracker, he said to me, "I'm sorry for whatever I did." I said, "You didn't do anything - I was acting." My performance made him feel bad; he said he'd seen all those faces before.

LJ: What do your parents think of your acting career? JH: We had a few disagreements about it at first because when I decided to do it I gave up on high school. It's always hard for me to understand that someone might have a problem with what I'm doing. I guess I'm kind of a self-involved person, but I don't think there are many actors who aren't.

LJ: All right. So who do you play in The Faculty? JH: He's called Zeke. When the part was brought to me, I was told he was the coolest guy in school and that was about it. I was like, "Oh, OK." But what I got from reading the script was that he's the classic underachiever. He could do anything he wants to. He just decides he doesn't want to because, you know, fuck the system, man.

LJ: It turns out the teachers are aliens, right? And one of the students starts figuring it out and tells the others. Is that your character? JH: Definitely not! Zeke's oblivious. But I get to drive real fast and get the girl and all that kind of stuff.

LJ: Do you have any thoughts about this whole youth phenomenon in movies, of which you're a part? JH: I think the studios are just cashing in on the young actors who are drawing audiences. I don't know how long it's going to last and I don't know which actors are going to make it beyond this trend and which aren't. I suspect there're going to be a lot of has-beens pretty quickly. It'd be nice not to be one of them, but you can't worry about that. Almost everybody out here right now claims they want to be a real actor. It's not like the brat pack, you know?

LJ: Because you grew up in the Midwest, would you say Hollywood has been a culture shock for you? JH: A little. Everybody is trying to position themselves all the time. It's this big game that never ends. If you do that for too long, you might look back one day and say, "What happened to my life?" The film I'm working on right now [Town & Country] stars Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton, who aren't the kind of people who need to position themselves. You know who's boss, and that's kind of refreshing in an old-fashioned way.

LJ: But I bet you have more of a chance of being on the cover of Entertainment Weekly than Warren or Diane. They may be legends but you guys are pushing them aside in terms of publicity right now. JH: Well, that's why I'm in the film.

LJ: You're the token youngster? JH: I hope not token.

LJ: I don't mean to trivialize you like that, but they needed a youngster, you mean? JH: I guess. If you want to call me a youngster. They just want everybody to see the movie, including the younger crowd.

LJ: Actresses have always been chosen for roles because of their looks. It wasn't always so true for men, but I think it is now for your group. Do you have any thoughts on that? JH: I don't buy into it. There've always been people who aren't what's considered classically beautiful, but they've become what they've wanted because of their vision or drive. I hope my getting jobs isn't based on my looks. It might be, but it'd be cool if it wasn't.

LJ: Is there pressure to present yourself in a certain way? JH: Well, you know, I've been getting manicures and stuff.

LJ: That's good - keep it up. JH: There seems to be kind of a Noxzema feel about my group of actors. Responsibility and cleanliness are in. It doesn't mean there isn't any debauchery in Hollywood anymore; that's always going to be here. Not that anybody's been pushing me into a rock 'n' roll lifestyle - it's just not chic anymore. Moderation is a pretty big word among the people I know. There's a practicality around at the moment; it's pretty unexciting, actually. But I've been lucky enough to play a couple of dirty characters onscreen and that's good because you don't want everything to become sterile. You don't want to lose the messiness of life.

"O"
Josh Hartnett talks about shooting hoops--and getting others to jump through them--as the Iago-type Hugo in "O."
Freddie Prinze Jr., eat your heart out.

Quite possibly Hollywood's most reluctant "It" boy, Josh Hartnett seems to be the young actor whose been most successful at breaking out of the teen scene, despite the fact that his latest,"O", is a movie set in high school.

You see, "O" isn't the typical teens-in-angst flick, but aims a bit more highbrow as a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare's Othello. In it, Hartnett takes on the role of Hugo, a hoops-shooting, manipulating Iago-type who is so jealous of basketball star Odin (Mekhi Phifer) that he attempts to ruin what Odin holds most precious--his relationship with Desi (Julia Stiles)--with tragic results.

The serious-minded film fits the seriously serious actor, whose quietly commanding presence and shy-yet-confident manner belie his 23 years. It's those very qualities, though, that have helped boost him from the realm of cheesy horror flicks like Halloween: H2O (Jamie Lee Curtis's kid) and The Faculty (smart-aleck genius kid) and lame teen romances like Here On Earth (small-town kid). And lately he's been busy taking on adult roles that other teen-movie stars would kill for, like his US Air Force pilot in Pearl Harbor and soldier in Somalia in Black Hawk Down.

We chatted with this reticent yet likable star who seems poised to be the next big thing, whether he likes it or not.

The film's release has been a long time coming, for a number of reasons. What was it like making it? Josh Hartnett: That was two-and-a-half years ago, and I barely remember three days ago. You guys are gonna have a rough time getting good stuff out of me!

What about working with Mekhi Phifer? Hartnett: Mekhi and I got along very well. We went to this basketball camp together for three weeks where we got the tools to make the basketball scenes come to life. Me and Mekhi both sunk our teeth in. We never played one-on-one or anything, but Mekhi's not that competitive a guy. He's just a real good guy. He liked to say 'that's love, man.' We got along really well.

And Julia Stiles? You know, she's already done more than a few Shakespeare retellings. Hartnett: I met Julia once, we screen tested for a movie together. That was when I first went out to LA. I didn't know her. I didn't know anyone's work except Martin Sheen's [who plays his character's father and basketball coach] , but I'd seen Clockers.

What's been your experience with the Bard? Hartnett: I was always into Shakespeare and when I went to college I did a few scenes. We had to take a scene and give it a different scenario, a different setting. We did a lot of experimentation. I've always loved his poetry.

In this one you're Hugo, the jealous Iago figure. How did you characterize him? Hartnett: I think he's a very intelligent guy, emotional guy. But with intelligence comes the ability to manipulate, and with the emotion comes irrational decisions. You just gotta hold it together with the jealousy and the envy and the anger over his father's lack of love. And then the character plays himself.

So tell us…what's it really like being touted as the "next big thing"? Hartnett: I never paid any attention to that because I know that's not the case. All the stuff that has led up to this is based on decisions I've made and luck that I've had. All I want to do is make good movies. If you read the articles, you get a big head, which upsets me. I'd get really angry with myself if I start acting like that. The only other reaction is to get pissed off because someone doesn't like you. So it doesn't help me at all, so I stay away from it. I try not to pay attention to it and just hang out with my family and friends.

You choose not to live in Hollywood and do that whole scene. How has fame changed your life? Hartnett: People come up a lot more and want to talk to me. I'm still waiting to deal with it, I don't know when it's gonna become intolerable, 'cause I hear a lot of stories and I see where it becomes too much. But I don't really go to the spots... if I lived here and I went to Hollywood-type parties a lot, but I don't do that. Unless people follow me back to Minnesota, which would be their loss 'cause my friends and family would destroy them. Minnesota people are very polite. They treat you like a normal human being. I guess it's been good for me to be back there. I feel pretty much in a good spot.

So in Minnesota can you, like, just go over to Home Depot and pick up some paint? Hartnett: I was just there. I had to sign an autograph for the checkout person.

OK. That's all well and good but what the world really wants to know is... what was up with that Faculty haircut? Hartnett: I never really liked going to the barber, so I cut it myself. That's how it turned out. I had that haircut when I went in for the auditions.

The team of people around me gave up on my appearance a long time ago. They know I'm always gonna do the wrong thing as far as appearance goes. It's never not stylish enough to be stylish. They leave me alone.