Josh Hartnett has had a career full of fascinating roles and unexpected choices. From The Virgin Suicides to his latest film Trap, Hartnett has showcased his range as a performer within many different genres. However, his journey to working with Christopher Nolan on Oppenheimer might be one of his most intriguing stories yet. The Pearl Harbor actor recently opened up about how he landed a part in the ambitious, Best Picture-winning biographical drama, and how they first met to talk about the director’s Batman project in the 2000s.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Hartnett chatted about some of his past movie roles, and how they influenced his acting career. One of these was Oppenheimer, a role that has been credited with “bringing back” Hartnett after the 46-year-old actor stepped away from big Hollywood blockbusters in more recent years. He revealed that the part came to him, and he had been looking for an opportunity to work with Christopher Nolan after they spoke about Batman many years ago. He said:
I knew Chris from earlier in my career. We didn’t work together, and there’s all sorts of conjecture, conversations that go on around this. I was never offered Batman, so let’s like, put that to bed. Chris has said it, I’ve said it multiple times. We just talked about it. I thought maybe I’d never hear from him again. It was a big regret of mine that I didn’t pursue working with him… back when I was younger. Because I knew he was a fantastic filmmaker, and I knew that being able to sort of like, foster relationships with great filmmakers is really what this business is about as an actor.
Rumors have swirled for years that Hartnett turned down playing Batman, but it seems the reality is that he was only being softly considered for the role, and it was never officially offered to him by Nolan. Batman ended up being played by Christian Bale in one of the movie stars’ most iconic performances. But even though it was many years ago, Nolan still kept Hartnett in the back of his mind, and reached out to the Black Hawk Down star when it came to casting Oppenheimer, and Hartnett jumped at the opportunity. He said:
And then he brought me the [Oppenheimer] script. I read it, and we talked about Ernest Lawrence. He told me right off the bat, he’s like, ‘This is a real character. There are a lot of characters in this, but this character is important. Cillian [Murphy] is the lead, and we’ve got these other guys. Like, it’s gonna be a big deal.’ And I was flattered, really flattered to be a part of that crew.
Nolan was right to convey how important the character of Ernest Lawrence was to the plot. He was a nuclear physicist who worked with Oppenheimer at UCal Berkeley while the titular figure was a teacher there. He helped introduce Oppenheimer to the Manhattan Project, which is considered the inciting incident in the film. Hartnett was perfectly cast, and he’s wonderful in the movie, truly embodying the warmth that draws Oppenheimer to him, as well as the intelligence.
This was such a successful collaboration, and shows that Nolan doesn’t have a short memory when it comes to actors he was impressed by in the past. Hartnett called the experience “refreshing,” and seems increasingly interested in working with more visionary directors, considering he just worked with M. Night Shyamalan and Guy Ritchie as well. Nolan tends to want to work with the same actors again and again, so hopefully this isn’t the end for this partnership, and fans may possibly be able to see the Sin City star in another big screen ensemble film directed by Nolan in the future.
You can see Josh Hartnett in Trap, which is now in theaters nationwide. Fans can also revisit his performance in Oppenheimer, which is currently streaming for Amazon Prime subscribers. For more information on other exciting titles heading to cinemas or streaming this year, make sure to consult our 2024 movie release schedule.