SNAPS: JOHNNY DEPP, KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, BEN AFFLECK AND HILARY SWANK

cover| story|JOSH HARTNETT
The case for
JOSH
HARTNETT
A dismembered body.
A complicated investigation.
A good role. Josh Hartnett
talks about playing an
L.A. cop in the gritty mystery
The Black Dahlia I BY BOB STRAUSS
When an actor who’s groomed for
conventional movie stardom
turns his back on his own hype
for projects he considers artistically
worthy — well, we like to see that.
But fans of good movies rarely understand
the career risks that such a move
involves. Take the case of Josh Hartnett.
A few years ago, the model-handsome
Minnesotan was the talk of Tinseltown.
He had the second male lead in the sureto-be-blockbuster
Pearl Harbor, headlined
the slick romantic comedy 40 Days and
40 Nights and played cop buddy to
Harrison Ford in Hollywood Homicide.
Okay, none of those movies proved to be
as popular as hoped. But Hartnett, now 28,
was uncomfortable with the prospect of
being a standard leading-man even then.
“I was never into chasing the brass ring;
that just sounds too stressful,” he says in
his deep, resonant voice during a phone
call from his home in New York. “I never
lived in L.A. — I’ve been out there to
shoot, but I’ve never actually lived there.
I figure that if you can prove yourself as
an actor and directors want to work with
you, you’re more likely to stick around
without having to constantly be working.”
While there is some logic in that
approach, pulling it off can be easier said
than done. Since becoming more choosy,
Hartnett has starred in two interesting
but indifferently received thrillers,
Wicker Park and Lucky Number Slevin,
famous 20 | september 2006