Twenty years ago, an over-the-top Vanity Fair story completely changed Josh Hartnett‘s views on Hollywood—and his own career.
The 22-year-old rising star had landed enviable roles in The Virgin Suicides, Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down, but this 2001 magazine interview had him shuttering about his future.
Hartnett, now 42 and living with his wife Tamsin Egerton in Surrey, England, reflected on the moment that made him resentful toward Hollywood in an interview with The Guardian on Friday, Oct. 23.
“Oh, that was an awful piece,” he said. “Was there even a quote from me in it, or was it just everyone talking about how hot I was? People got a chip on their shoulder about me after that. They genuinely thought I’d been thrust on them. It was a very weird time.”
He was shocked that he was being compared to Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts, saying, “That’s insane. It was a set-up-to-fail moment.”
