Josh Hartnett has been making us swoon for more than two decades (see: Pearl Harbor, The Virgin Suicides, and 40 Days and 40 Nights). These days, the Black Hawk Down actor opts for a much slower pace, living in the UK with his family and dogs, and listening to Taylor Swift with his daughters. (Yes, he has a favorite album.) With the release of Verity, the big-screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s twisty thriller, where he stars opposite Dakota Johnson and Anne Hathaway, he plays a self-described “front-facing sad boy” with a much darker side.
In our series, Texting With, we ask Hartnett our burning questions. Here’s what he had to say about…
I'm Josh Hartnett, and I'm texting with theSkimm.
We know you went to the Eras Tour with your daughters. Do I have a favorite Taylor Swift song?
Let's get into it. Midnights is a great album. It's hard to choose a favorite song because I don't really listen to them in my time when I'm not with the kids, but I could probably sing a bunch of them.
Which former co-star of mine would I choose to write my memoir?
There's a right answer for this.
Anne Hathaway would be really thorough, and she'd be very fair. I would take that. We came up at about the same time. I was a few years before. We both had, I think, movies that were very successful two and a half decades ago.
And it's really nice when you meet somebody in this industry that has such a good reputation, and they live up to it [be]cause it's not always the case.
Living in the UK, what is an American faux pas that I'm guilty of?
The English people that I know, that I spend a lot of time with, would probably say that I can be overly earnest. I tend to take things very seriously. And the other thing is I eat with my knife and fork all wrong. I eat with the fork in the right hand, the knife in the left hand. They do the opposite.
Is there an English custom or food that I've grown to love?
I love the English obsession with dogs. We now have, as a family, five dogs, which is crazy, but in the UK, you can bring dogs into the pub. You can bring dogs to get a haircut if you want to. You can bring them everywhere.
How does it feel knowing that Pearl Harbor sparked a lifelong World War II obsession with a group of teenage girls?
Did it? That's my question.
When you're making a movie that's elevated and larger than life and very much a romance, if the audience was drawn in to the point that they became interested in the subject matter that surrounds the romance, that's a really good sign.
Can I skimm the plot of my new movie, "Verity"?
Verity Crawford is an author, a very famous author, and she suddenly can't write her novels anymore, and we don't really know why at the beginning, and her husband comes down to New York to meet potential new authors and meets Lowen Ashleigh, who is played by Dakota Johnson. [He] asks her to come up to their place in Vermont and continue Verity's work, and all sorts of strangeness ensues.
Lots of obsession, lots of deception, lots of sexy, dark sort of events. It's a wild ride.
If I had a playlist for my character, Jeremy, what songs might be on it?
The songs that he would choose to show the world about himself would be something like Sufjan Stevens or something, and what's behind it might be a little bit more intense. Yeah, front-facing sad boy, and behind the scenes, a little bit more unhinged.
Who of the cast is most likely to move to the woods of Vermont?
Seeing as I live in the UK, it would probably be not me, because I'm over there. I'd say, Annie. I think Annie's halfway up there already.
Is this my first introduction to Colleen Hoover?
Yes. I felt like I got the best introduction imaginable. I couldn't believe my luck when this came across my desk because there were such wonderful actors associated, such a great script, what a great book to come from it, and [I] loved the director, obviously, Michael Showalter.
Were there any unique rules on the set of "Verity"?
I think the main rule that we had was to have fun [be]cause Michael Showalter is a fantastic director, but he's also a comedian and an actor.
We actually really enjoyed ourselves making this. It wasn't filled with as much mystery and darkness as the script might call for.
The funny thing that the girls keep bringing up in interviews is that, on set, they thought I was 100% Team Manuscript just like Jeremy all the way, but in reality, when I read the book, I was kind of Team Letter.
Oh, sorry. I'm getting a call from Robert Downey Jr. I got to go. RDJ, what up?
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.