Two decades later, Josh Harnett has spoken out about his decision to leave Los Angeles at the height of his fame.
“I didn’t want my life to be consumed by my work,” the 46-year-old star of M. Night Shyamalan’s new film, “Trap,” said in an interview with The Guardian published Sunday. “At the time, there was this idea that you just had to give up on everything. And we saw what happened to some people back then. They were wiped out by that. I didn’t want that for myself.”
Harnett’s journey in Hollywood began when he gained attention playing prominent roles in independent films such as “The Faculty” and “The Virgin Suicides” in the late 1990s. Next came lead roles in the 2001 films “Black Hawk Down” and “Pearl Harbor” and 2002’s “40 Days and 40 Nights.”
But he didn't like the fame that came with those high-profile roles (not to mention the hero or heartthrob parts he was offered), and soon after making those big-budget films, he stepped away from the spotlight, moved back to his home state of Minnesota and cut ties with his agents. After about 18 months, he returned to the industry, turning down big-budget roles and instead taking jobs in smaller independent films.
The “Pearl Harbor” actor now lives in the UK on a marriage visa with his wife, British actress Tamsin Egerton, after commuting between the UK and New York for years. The two met while filming Roland Joffe’s film “The Lovers” in 2011, began a relationship the following year and welcomed the first of their four children in 2015. They later moved to the British countryside and, in 2022, he revealed that they secretly tied the knot in 2021.
Harnett says the humble village life leaves him more time to spend with his children than his life in New York and Los Angeles.
“People only want to talk about your career” in New York and Los Angeles, she told the Guardian. But in the UK, she said, “nobody cares.”
“I never would have expected it. And time goes by fast. With four kids, there’s a lot to do. In some ways, there’s less going on, but there’s more important things happening. My oldest daughter is now 8 1/2 years old; to me, that’s like it’s happened in the last two years. So I’m trying to squeeze in as much as I can.”
In “Trap,” Hartnett plays a devoted father who takes his daughter to a pop star’s concert, but director Shyamalan is known for his twist endings (think “The Sixth Sense” and “The Village”). And the movie’s trailer reveals an unexpected twist: The father is actually a serial killer known as the Butcher.
“Trap” hits U.S. theaters on Friday.
