| Detour 2000 |
| One From the Hartnett TO MANY, ACTOR JOSH HARTNETT IS THE EMBODIMENT OF "YOUNG HOTTIEWOOD." WITH HIS PERFORMANCES IN THE VIRGIN SUICIDES AND A STRING OF OTHER FILMS, THE 21-YEAR-OLD MINNESOTAN PROVES HE'S MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY FACE. "My hair is the reason why people remember me," confides Josh Hartnett. Although the former Faculty and Halloween star has flashing dimples, an impossibly deep sexy voice, and talent to spare, it's strange to hear that his just-got-out-of-bed locks are considered his true allure. In Blow Dry, directed by Paddy Breathnach ( I Went Down ) and scripted by The Full Monty's Simon Beaufoy, Hartnett was finally given the opportunity to ply his artful hair-chopping skills--to someone else's head for a change. By day, Hartnett's character does "short backs and sides" as a barber. by night, he answers to his true calling performing "fancy stylings on the dead" as a morgue beautician. the hair really flies when the national hair-dressing competition comes to Yorkshire. "All the extras were actually people who do hairstyling competitions for a living, It actually exists," Hartnett says incredulously. "They go to these competitions and they know who's the best and who they have to beat and they pull these tricks on their competitors in order to win. It's just terrible. It's a really seedy business." Alan Rickman, Rachel Griffiths, Natasha Richardson, and Rachel Leigh Cook (a former classmate of Hartnett form his hometown of St. Paul, Minn.) round out the cast. Hartnett retires his scissors and donned hair extensions for his role as a 1970's high-school heartthrob in The Virgin Suicides, written and directed by Sofia Coppola. Hartnett plays Trip, a pot-smoking "Jim Morrison kind of stud" who falls in love with Lux (Kirsten Dunst), one of the most mysteriously beautiful, and cloisters Lisbon sister. During a particularly passionate night with his new love, he deflowers her and deserts her on the school football field, prompting a series of repercussions, that spiral toward the title's suggested conclusion, the suicides of the Lisbon sibs. "I would never do that [ in real life ]," jokes Hartnett of Trip's defection. "It was a stretch for me." Although Hartnett harbored no reservation about playing such a sleazy character, he did balk at a scene which required him to appear shirtless. "I'm not good at that whole shirt-off-thing," he laughs. "I'm just a scrawny little thing, and there are lots of people who are in good shape. Girls would rather see their bodies than mine." (His hordes of female fans might disagree.) With his next venture, Here one Earth, a love story starring Chris Klein and Leelee Sobieski, Hartnett makes the transition from suburban lothario to sensitive, small town farm boy. And, no, he doesn't get the girl this time. "I'm the guy who gets his heart broken," says Hartnett. "I've never played that before." However, the role's true challenge lay elsewhere. The part required that he learn to "play" Vivaldi's "Winter" on the violin. This presented a major test to Hartnett, a devoted jazz enthusiast with little interest in classical music. Although it was one of the most frustrating experiences of his life, Hartnett realized, "I couldn't take it out on the poor violin teacher. She's just trying to teach this imbecile how to play an instrument that she loves, and she's hearing me hack it all up. It was probably worse for her than it was for me." Apparently it wasn't all work and no play during the shooting. The film's director, mark Piznarski, "came out and drank with us one night," laughs Hartnett. "I turned 21 on the shoot. I had to have a little bit of a bender." But perhaps the true indicator of Hartnett's coming of age is his role in the sex-laden ensemble Town and Country, starring Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Andie McDowell, Goldie Hawn, Jenna Elfman, Gary Shandling, and Charles Heston, and Natassja Kinski. Hartnett plays son and "sexual conscience" of Beatty's philandering "character." Wouldn't playing the sexual conscience of a notorious ladies' man qualify as his greatest career challenge to date? Beatty "defiantly has a reputation," Hartnett laughs, "but I though it was great that he made fun of it." |
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