Josh Hartnett hits back at 'hiatus' claims: 'I was everywhere'

Josh Hartnett has pushed back on the idea that he spent two decades on hiatus from the film industry, insisting he was still working and had simply stepped away from the big Hollywood projects that made him famous. 

The actor, 48, was asked by Out Of Order whether he takes "offence" at the suggestion that he disappeared for 20 years. 

His answer was typically wry. 

"I was on hiatus from people's minds, I guess," he said. "You know, in a way, kind of gives me the ability to come back and be fresh again."

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Hartnett currently stars in Verity and also appeared in 2023's Oppenheimer, but he spent roughly two decades away from big-budget filmmaking. 

In the early 2000s he featured in a run of blockbusters, among them Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down, both released in 2001. 

Looking back, he admitted he had been all over the screen at the time. 

"It was a little bit like I was everywhere and I didn't even know who I was yet," he said.

He was clear, however, that he wasn't turning his back on filmmaking altogether. 

What he was rejecting, he explained, was the notion that blockbusters should be the only thing he did with his life. 

He was 22 when he finished Black Hawk Down, and he chose to take around a year out, during which he wrote a screenplay. 

He wanted to try new things, he said, and had fallen for the idea of finding films like The Virgin Suicides, which he loved making.

Not everyone around him was thrilled. 

Hartnett acknowledged that some people became frustrated, as they had been counting on him to deliver one big movie after another. 

He said he effectively pushed himself out of the business side of the industry for a time.

It isn't the first time he has spoken about his choices. 

In a 2020 interview with Metro, he revealed he took himself out of the running for roles such as Superman and Batman. 

"At that age it is very easy to become someone else's tool or someone else's puppet," he said at the time, adding that he knew exactly what he was choosing and wanted the decisions to be his own.

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