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Josh Hartnett has left CAA, and he has been making the rounds of agencies looking for new representation. Even though they might be unexcited by his recent movies like Bunraku and Girl Walks Into A Bar, the agencies are all over him. Who can blame them? This is a strapping young guy who can act and is only 33. I thought he was going to be a big star when he made Pearl Harbor and especially Black Hawk Down. While occasional films reminded of his potential — how great was Hartnett in 30 Days Of Night, maybe the coolest vampire movie since From Dusk Till Dawn? – for the most part he has leaned toward indie, artsy fare.
I can still remember in the early 2000s when Hartnett was offered the Superman role by Warner Bros in a three-picture deal that potentially could have paid him $100 million. He turned it down because he didn’t want to be defined by that iconic role. Sometimes shuffling the deck with reps works, but only if the actor doesn’t reject the occasional big picture to go along with the art films, something Ryan Gosling is now doing. Agents tells me that a couple of good studio roles puts Hartnett right back on the map, and that is why they’re racing to sign him. He’s still with Management 360.
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great actor? this guy makes channing tatum look like olivier.
I would say the guy who makes Tatum look like Olivier is Sam Worthington.
Couldn’t agree more.
30 Days Of Night sucked. So did Hollywood Homicide and 40 Days and 40 Nights.
You only get to bat a few times before Coach has to bench you — and rightfully so.
Man, did Hollywood Homicide suck. I had totally forgotten about it, but, wow, it sucked, big-time. It was absolutely awful. What happened with that one?
Fleming didn’t say “great actor”. He said Hartnett “can act” which he can.
I think he is among the ranks of a few good actors who have made bad decisions and it held them back or they were caught between being cast as a teen/young adult and adult roles.
I don’t think we’ve really seen what he can do yet.
I want Josh to starr as Christian Grey in 50 Shades of Grey….
Agree with Mike. Hartnett is solid and will hopefully bounce back. He probably fell through the cracks at CAA, but a smaller agency that can give him more attention would probably do him some good.
Looks like dating Amanda Seyfried worked.
he’s dating amanda seyfried? that’s already too much good fortune for one man – i also heard that when he first started his career, he barely had to struggle to get jobs – easy come easy go.
Good actor and would like to see him in a comic book villain role.
Next Summer, the Dark Knight takes on his most deadly adversary yet: TALKING BLOCK OF WOOD-MAN!
I would never call him a great actor, but he certainly didn’t do anything to deserve dropping as far as he has. Besides Superman, are we missing anything else that he turned down around the mid-2000s?
“This is a strapping young guy who can act”?! For a second I thought I was reading Cracked.com. BLACK DAHLIA, PEARL HARBOR, HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE, THE FACULTY, 40 DAYS & 40 NIGHTS..C’mon Son LOL
Yeah, turned down superman and $100 mil?! Surely, his agent was thrilled. Now it’s the walk of shame.
First of all, I doubt very seriously he was ever offered the role. Secondly, no actor in history has ever been paid 100 million dollars for a role, especially a lightweight like Hartnett.
Hartnett was always talented, and Mike is correct in saying he was poised to be a big star. He’s got that quality (still?) of girls wanting to screw him and guys OK to hang out with him. He could be a star client at Gersh. Let them make film moves for him – 360 has relationships there. ICM seems like it’d be a wash on the feature side, and WME may turn out to be the same thing as CAA was, i.e. falling through the cracks – and frankly, how many clients can Whitesell have?
Josh Hartnett is as hot as they come, but is a TERRIBLE actor. Completely wooden. Zero charisma. Ya know, it was and IS possible to have both. Josh fell off the radar cause the looks only go so far before the young girls move on.
wrong, you are absolutely right. He has zero chemistry and no appeal.
This is a perfect example of Hollywood trying to make someone happen, and the audience just not buying it. Best case scenario – get new tv procedural built around him, let the supporting players do the heavy acting work.
“What happened to that guy?” you ask. Simple–he went with CAA, Hwd’s version of Witness Protection.
Anyone who’s seen Virgin Suicides, O, Blackhawk or Lucky # Slevin knows Josh is talented. Besides that, he’s a great guy. One good role and he’ll be back on top.
And ph – you’re right, Josh would be a tremendous villain.
No Goodkat, it said he was taking AGENCY MEETINGS, not PR meetings.
Two words. Channing. Tatum.
Hollywood is ruthless if you don’t play its game. They’ll find someone else who will.
He plain and simply sucks, has no depth, just a terrible actor, and that’s why he dropped off the face of the earth… not because he was doing “arty flicks”… “I come with the rain”?? yeah, real arty! ha!
Yeah, Superman did HUGE things for Brandon Routh…
It’s true that it didn’t, but Bryan Singer wasn’t in play when Hartnett famously turned down the offer. Who knows if it would have been different (probably not under Ratner or McG). At the very least, he’d have had a load of money in his pocket.
Paul Walker also turned down Superman, along with Ashton Kutcher. Maybe this article is about one of them in an alternate universe.
this is clearly a planted article from his PR team.
Just what I was thinking!
The only good movie he was in (where he also turned in a good performance) was Black Hawk Down. Everything else has ranged from forgettable to atrocious. Frankly, I’m amazed he still has a career.
What happened is that he made a series of movies no one particularly liked so Hollywood moved on. It happens to talented people (Eric Bana) and no so talented ones (sorry Josh).
Bana is at least becoming a more interesting actor with age, and seems to be thriving in supporting parts: creepy in “Star Trek”, a laugh getter in “Funny People”, tragic/romantic in “Time Traveller’s Wife”, and an action dude in “Hanna”. He has become a much more appealing screen presence since pursuing big leads in his post Troy/Hulk/Munich career.
He is like the real life Vinny Chase from ENTOURAGE. Poised to be huge, started turning down big roles and made awful movies and fell off the map. But I doubt Marty is gonna be calling him to star in his next film out of the blue.
I was going to say he exact same thing but you beat me to it
True, lol.
I think he showed a lot of talent in 30 Days of Night. He managed to be both sensitive and powerful, in a fairly low-key performance. So he can do it. he just needs the right vehicle, and perhaps the right direction.
Agreed. I thought he did a great job in that movie.
He should fire 360 they are to blame. They ruin careers. Look at Tobey McGuire who can only get a job that his friend Leo helPs him get. Fire them. Should get a boutique mgmt company
Great work by whoever does his/360′s pr. The guy is a dolt who can talk himself out of anything. Other agencies are probably passing on him and this article is a spin to make it look like he is doing well. Plus maybe it will make Gersh feel like they got a winner when they sign him.
His best representative was his first: the late Iris Burton. She was “mercurial” to say the least, but she had the best eye for young people in her day.
He lacks presence or even a discernible personality which can be nice fallback. I saw him on stage for Rain Man and all I could say about the performance was that I saw him stand on a stage.
You knew his career was over the minute they cast someone else as the young Tommy Lee Jones in MIB:3.
I had to laugh at the comment “…who can act.”
Who can act? Not Josh.
That’s the whole reason his career has fallen apart – because he’s a terrible actor, wooden and uninvolving. He’s history.