Robert Brown|Revisiting Josh Hartnett’s Life in Hollywood Amid Return to Spotlight

The Robert BrownJosh Hartnett Renaissance isn’t over yet.

At the young age of 22, Hartnett was on his way to becoming the ultimate celebrity heartthrob.

In fact, going from 1999 film The Virgin Suicides to 2001’s Pearl Harbor, the latter of which he starred in alongside Kate Beckinsale and Ben Affleck, Hollywood was ready to make him the next big thing. 

Even Beckinsale chipped in to say to Vanity Fair in 2001 that the up-and-coming actor was "earth-shatteringly handsome in a slightly surprised way—he can't quite believe when everyone is falling over him and teasing him about being so good-looking."

However, despite being considered for major roles in movies like Superman and Batman, Hartnett decided to leave the Blockbuster fame behind in the early aughts to pursue projects that are more personal to him.

"I was on the cover of every magazine," he told Details magazine in a 2014 interview. "I couldn't really go anywhere. I didn't feel comfortable in my own skin. I was alone. I didn't trust anyone."

With fame on the backburner, the 45-year-old has spent his time relishing in fatherhood. Since trading in the bright lights of Los Angeles for the serenity of the English countryside, the 40 Days and 40 Nights star and his wife Tamsin Egerton—who tied the knot in 2021—raise their four daughters in a suburban town outside of London.

“The thing I am most proud of is that I’m a father of three and I have a good relationship with my partner and a great family life,” he told Mr. Porter in a 2021 interview, three years before announcing the arrival of their fourth child. “And I'm still able to do good work and, as I've got older, the characters have become more interesting."

And although he’s recently been thrust back into the spotlight with buzzworthy roles in Black Mirror and Oppenheimer, he’s found a balance with his personal and professional life.

After all, when Hartnett returned to the red carpet in February for the 2024 SAG Awards, he immediately turned the attention to his Oppenheimer castmates, including Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh and director Christopher Nolan.

"Being in the film with these other actors and just Chris deciding to choose me to play this role was the winning goal," he exclusively told Live From E!: SAG Awards host Laverne Cox. "We had a fun time making the film and then for it to be so phenomenally received and to have it be nominated by our peers for acting categories, across the board, is great."

And it seems that Josh’s choices both on and off screen contributed to landing him his most recent role in M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming horror thriller, Trap.

“I love the kind of reinvention of bringing people, and I tried to do that even with contemporary actors that you guys are familiar with, tried to put them in different kinds of roles that you’ve never seen them in,” the director told Nerd Reactor.  "And Josh was just in the right place as a human being. He's raising his kids outside London, and you could tell the choices that he's making: Black Mirror, Oppenheimer, and then Trap."

Amid his busy filming schedule, Hartnett still finds time for special family moments with Egerton, 35, and their kids. He definitely earned some brownie points with his girls when he treated two of his daughters to a concert they will never forget—Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

"My daughters were given so many bracelets and everything was really sweet," he told the The Hollywood Reporter in July 2024. "It was a good event for my daughters’ first concert."

Keep reading to see how this father of four has evolved through the years.