Josh Hartnett opens up about leaving Los Angeles at the height of his fame more than twenty years ago.
The 46-year-old Minnesota native, who will soon star in M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller Trap, was just 19 when he arrived in Los Angeles and quickly started landing roles, making his film debut as Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) son in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.
While his career was taking off with roles in Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor and 40 Days and 40 Nights, he moved back to his home state in the early 2000s.
Hartnett, who now lives in England with his wife Tamsin Egerton, spoke candidly about his move from LA while promoting his new film Trap with The guard.
He said there were many factors why he left, but a number of stalking incidents were the trigger for his departure.
Trapper Josh Hartnett opens up about leaving Los Angeles at the height of his fame more than two decades ago, including multiple stalking incidents, in a conversation with The Guardian; pictured in NYC on Wednesday
His move to the UK followed several terrifying encounters, including one with a man who claimed to have a gun and ended up in jail; pictured in NYC on Wednesday
When asked if there was a specific moment that prompted him to return home, he admitted, “The attention people were paying to me at that time was just plain unhealthy.”
When asked to elaborate, Hartnett insisted: ‘Well, I don’t want to put too much emphasis on this. There were incidents. People came to my house. People stalked me.’
Another scary incident was: ‘a man showed up at one of my premieres with a gun and claimed to be my father. He ended up in jail.’
Hartnett was 27 when he decided to move back to Minnesota 19 years ago. He added: “There were a lot of things. It was a strange time. And I wouldn’t be grist to the mill.’
He admitted that at the time he ‘just didn’t want my life to be consumed by my work. And there was this idea back then that you just gave it all up.’
He added: ‘And you saw what happened to some people then. They were wiped out by it. I didn’t want that for myself.’
The actor and his family now live permanently in the British countryside of Hampshire, indicating how much he prefers small-town life.
He said that when he lived in New York or Los Angeles, “all people wanted to talk about was your career,” but in his town, “nobody cared about that.”
He currently lives in England with his wife Tamsin Egerton; pictured on Wednesday in NYC
When asked if there was a specific moment that prompted him to return home, he admitted, “The attention people were paying to me at that time was almost unhealthy.”
When asked to elaborate, Hartnett insisted, “Well, look, I don’t want to put too much weight on this. There were incidents. People coming to my house. People stalking me.”
Trap – in which he plays a father who takes his daughter to a concert that is secretly a trap for him, as he leads a double life as a serial killer – is in theaters from August 2
He is in the UK on a spousal visa, which means he can go to the UK to work on a film for 180 days a year and then come home.
“This is all completely new to me. I never expected it. And time goes by fast. With four kids, you have so much to do,” Hartnett says of his family.
“In some ways, there’s less going on. But there’s more of the important stuff going on. My oldest daughter is eight and a half now – it feels like it’s happened in the last two years. So I’m trying to absorb as much as I can,” he admits.
Trap, in which he plays a father who takes his daughter to a concert that is secretly a trap for him because he leads a double life as a serial killer, is in theaters from August 2.