I just want to make good films on my own wherever I can.
— Josh Hartnett
Everybody was trying to put me in action movies and heroic roles, and I wanted to find more complex things. They just didn't suit my taste, so I thought, 'OK, I have to be brave enough to say no.' And for a while, that hurt me immeasurably in the Hollywood world.
When the director has a vision for a piece that I've never heard before, and they can back that up with visuals, and they talk a good game, I get really interested in the world that they're trying to create.
My musical tastes go from Zeppelin to Bob Dylan to Kanye West and Lil' Wayne. Anything modern and progressive.
I'm not all that demanding, I don't think. My family might think otherwise.
I'm not really a tourist attraction kind of guy.
I always find that I have to be emotionally on my character's side for it to be convincing.
Running around when I was a kid was a really happy time; a time when getting home for dinner or for sleep were my only responsibilities.
I get quite fed up being on a film set day after day, six days a week. It can get to be a grind.
I admire when people take the harder path, not because they are masochistic and want to beat themselves up, but because you actually kind of learn more and I think you grow more.
Honestly, I guess if you looked at my CV, I've been doing independent movies since I started. I think that I kind of took a few steps back from Hollywood as soon as it all started to come my way because I wasn't quite ready for the attention.
I don't love L.A. I love New York and Minneapolis, so if I have a choice I'll stay in those places.
You know, honestly, acting in film is remarkably independent. You're doing your thing and someone else is doing their thing.
My parents are hippies, so I must have a bit of hippie in me.
I've had my heart broken, and it's not fun. But I'd rather have my heart broken than break someone else's heart.
I should be getting photographs of me with my arm around these people like restaurant owners do, because eventually I am going to have to prove to my kids that once I was an actor!
We made 16 episodes of Cracker and I loved doing the show, but unfortunately no one was watching us.
You think that if you are the best actor, you deserve the most or if you are the biggest star, you deserve the most. That race just isn't important to me.
I became popular very young. I viewed myself as just a young actor trying to figure out how to do well, and, you know, making mistakes and learning and growing.
I'm always trying to find something unique or a project that I can do something unique in.
My interests are guitars, cars, and vacation. I've been playing guitar all my life. My dad was a professional guitarist, but I'm terrible, which lets me off the hook, so I just play for myself.
I am an insomniac.
There are some films that really break the mold, and some films that don't. I've been looking for films that break the mold a bit.
We all want somebody to come in and save the day and change our lives for the better.
If everything is going well in my life then I start to read the papers more and I start to worry about everything I can't deal with. They say wisdom is knowing what you can fix and what you can't change. I'm very unwise.
I'm proud of 'Black Hawk Down' because I think it told a provocative story and it was honest. It could have had more opportunity to tell both sides of the story, but I'm still proud of it.
I'm a lot older than my little brothers and sister, so I think I grew up babysitting them.
People care about my fame, not me. But that's fine. I have my own life.
If I was painting or writing, I wouldn't veer away from things because they seemed unsavoury to me. So as an actor, I kind of think the same way. I should do things that are different and interesting and shed light on the craziness of the world.
Up until the age of 16, I was very focused on sport - I played a lot of football. Then I tore my ACL and had to stop playing.
I had a good time shooting in New Zealand. I almost bought a home there while I was there, because I loved it so much.
My hat was pulled down and this girl said 'Are you really him?' I whispered 'Yeah, I'm really him.' She screamed, 'Mom! Dad! It's Heath Ledger!
Be honest with yourself and lie to everyone else.
I'm very 'spur of the moment'. I'm always trying to think of fun things to do to create a memory.
Not living in L.A. gives me a different perspective. I'm not so caught up in the daily process of self-congratulations that's out there.
I don't like to act in my personal life. I like to be straightforward.
I have a pretty easy life.
My abilities on the computer are limited pretty much to iTunes and YouTube. I check my email as much as anybody, but I'm more old-fashioned in a certain sense.
Life isn't what it's like in the movies.
I get bored with the same old film coming out every weekend. It feels like it's the same story all the time, and the same visuals, and the characters' dilemmas are remarkably similar.
I spent my entire first pay cheque from 'Cracker,' a TV show on ABC, on an Audi because my other car broke down and I needed to get to work.
Fame was initially this kind of blunt tool that was thrust into my hands very young.
I look for the character to be something interesting, the script to have a good story and be original, and a director that I admire.
I'm always trying to find something unique or a project that I can do something unique in. When the director has a vision for a piece that I've never heard before, and they can back that up with visuals and they talk a good game, I get really interested in the world that they're trying to create.
I never really considered acting as a career. I kind of fell into it. Originally, I wanted to be a painter.
I like movies about people and movies with characters; that's what I'm drawn to as a person who likes to create these characters within the story, but I like it all, really.
I don't really comment on my personal life because I feel like any comment at all is opening up a whole can of worms. I'd just rather not talk about who I'm dating.
We're all on a journey. The average American switches professions four times. I'm lucky to be in a business where I can change the character I am playing every couple of months.
My friends and I make short films. We pretended to rob the Dairy Queen where our friend worked, but someone thought we were real thieves and called the cops! Soon, the cops burst in with guns drawn!
It's not scary to make a horror film because you get to pull back the curtain and see that none of it's real. When you're watching one, the terror bombards you.
