Josh Hartnett on not doing Halloween remake; ‘I’m pretty much always looking forward’

I heart Josh Hartnett so much, I giggle and blush when I read his name. You know what I just found out? Josh and his girlfriend, Tamsin Egerton, just had their second baby last August. Josh and Tamsin have a two-year-old daughter but they’ve never released her name. And now they have a two-month-old baby and they haven’t released the name or sex. Congratulations! The good news is that since Josh made his triumphant return in Penny Dreadful (Ethan 4EVA!) he has a bunch of things in production. One movie we won’t be seeing him in is the Halloween sequel with Jamie Lee Curtis. Josh’s first role was as her character Laurie Strode’s son in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. Now that we are coming up on the 40-year anniversary, Jamie Lee is coming back but Josh isn’t. According to Josh, it’s because he’d rather look forward than back.

Back in the summer of 1998, a fresh-faced, gap-toothed Josh Hartnett hit the scene in “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.” The 20-year-old was unknown at the time, but was set to become the new “it” guy of his generation.

Now that news of another “Halloween” remake has surfaced, many fans were wondering if the actor would be back to reprise his role as Laurie Strode’s son, John, since Jamie Lee Curtis herself would be returning for the upcoming film, due out in October of next year.
Well, Hartnett has never been big on sequels, and clearly isn’t about to embrace nostalgia now.

“I’m pretty much always looking forward. That’s not something I would be looking to be a part of, but it’s not that I didn’t have a great time,” Hartnett told HuffPost when asked if he’d ever consider appearing in the reboot.

“I had a great time working with Jamie and I think she’s fantastic, but the whole thing about self-determination is something that’s really important to me,” the actor continued, alluding to his decision to take a break at the height of his fame in the early 2000s. “I think if you’re on autopilot in your life, by definition you’re not actively making decisions, so therefore probably really not actively involved in your life as you could be. I like to be as awake as possible, and so I just … that whole just going along for the ride, being grateful that you are a movie actor and allowing people to push you down the path of doing all the things that are expected of you, doesn’t seem as active to me as I’d like it to be. I like to sort of do my own thing, and have done. I’m proud of that, I guess.”

[From Huffington Post]

Ah, bless him. I understand if you need to read his answer more than once. I’ve read it about five times and I’m still not quite sure what he’s saying. I do appreciate that wants to make clear that he loved the movie and loved Jamie but that he just likes to look forward. I don’t know what he means when he’s talking about self-determination, though. Is he’s saying doing a sequel is like resting on your laurels? He didn’t specifically say that he was asked to do the sequel. Judy Greer is currently in talks to play Laurie’s daughter, Karen Strode. Prior to Josh playing her son, Laurie had another daughter named Jamie Lloyd. So, I appreciate his philosophy on reflection but I think a shorter answer might have been “no, they didn’t offer.”

As for his break from Hollywood at the height of his fame – he’s discussed this before. When Josh came back on the scene for Penny Dreadful *fangirls* he gave a few interviews in discussing his choice to turn down many high-profile roles; most notably Superman, Spiderman and Christopher Nolan’s Batman. Fame became such an albatross around his neck that he fled home to Minnesota to hide. But in reality, he only ever took a year and a half break. If you check his IMDb, he has worked steadily since he broke on the scene in 1998. He just ‘hid’ in a bunch projects nobody watched. I mean, I get what he’s saying, that’s it’s important to maintain control of your fame and life and that sometimes that means turning down huge opportunities but I really think he needs to change his narrative from “a break from Hollywood” to “a break from mainstream.” He could still make the same argument with that.

But he also needs to change his opinion about going back because if Penny Dreadful ever comes back, I need him to say yes. Ah heck, I’m always going to follow Josh into whatever project he “hides” in next.

Oh – baby pics! And a diamond band on Tamsin’s finger?
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