Most rising actors would do anything to secure the most coveted roles in the business and gain A-list superstardom, but it’s something Josh Hartnett was famously never interested in. He could have been one of the biggest stars in the industry if he wanted, but he decided to reject the chance to play both Batman and Superman for fear of being forever typecast.
He did dip his toes into the waters of broad studio-backed genre films, though, even if his collaboration with Harrison Ford on Hollywood Homicide has largely been forgotten. The $75 million buddy cop caper barely crossed $50 million at the box office and was savaged by critics, while most of the headlines were seized by rumors the two leads hated each other’s guts.
20 years on, and Hartnett addressed the speculation surrounding his alleged feud with the Star Wars and Indiana Jones icon in an interview with The Independent, where he sought to clear the air once and for all.
“Drama sold newspapers, especially back then. But we actually got along really well. There were things that we disagreed about on set as far as [the script], and there was a lot of rewriting happening. But it was misinterpreted as ‘They don’t get along!’ It certainly wasn’t a set that was filled with tension. I think I did call him ‘the bane of my existence’ when we were on the press tour for that movie, but that was just because he was constantly ribbing me. And that’s just his way.”
No hard feelings, then, and Hartnett couldn’t be more right in stating “that’s just his way.” After all, Ford is one of the most beloved curmudgeons that there is, and he’s never been one to hold back in making his feelings abundantly clear on anything.
