| Top Gun 2001 |
| JOSH HARTNETT IS BOMBARDING HOLLYWOOD WITH HIS ALL-AMERICAN GOOD LOOKS AND EASYGOING MIDWESTERN CHARM. IS THE STAR OF PEARL HARBOR ON HIS WAY TO BECOMING THE NEXT TOM CRUISE? I'm at a point in my life where every-thing is a struggle," says 22-year-old Josh Hartnett. "You're not quite an adult, you're not quite a kid. You're in that strange, extended adolescence when you don't know what to make of the world. So I'm choosing roles that shed some light on that. Of course, it helps when you have the choice to play a U.S. Navy pilot in Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor, the $135 million World War II epic with Titanic-like buzz. It's been a quick and steady rise for this former St. Paul high-school football player, who began acting in local productions when he was 16. After a brief stint at SUNY Purchase, Hartnett moved to L.A. and almost immediately landed parts in The Faculty, Here on Earth, The Virgin Suicides and Town and Country, in which he was cast as Warren Beatty's son. But he doesn't seem to have the cutthroat adittude of many actors today, and his carefree approach may be the one thing that saves him from the early burnout. "I'm just going by whatever comes," says the actor, who once tried to write a novel and is currently collaborating on a screenplay with a friend. "I'm trying my hand at everything-just dabbling. We'll see how it works out." In fact, the laid-back adittude and cool reserve are precisely what makes this all American so appealing. (he becomes an even more charming when you find out that he paints in his free time and prefers weekends at the lakeside cabin to cruising the Hollywood bar scene.) However, Hartnett had an eye-opening experience when he was sent to boot camp not once but twice-first for Pearl Harbor and then to train for a role in director Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, a film about the civil war in Somalia. But he has no plans to enlist anytime soon. "It's not what I believe in, ultimately," he says. Hartnett won't be stereotyped as a reluctant war hero, either. This summer, he stars with Vinessa Shaw and newcomer Shannyn Sossamon in 40 Days and 40 Nights, a comedy about a man who swears off women for Lent. Comedy has been his biggest acting challenge to date. "I don't consider myself a funny guy," he says. Despite getting career counseling from Pearl Harbor costars Alec Baldwin and Cuba Gooding Jr., Hartnett is characteristically nonchalant about his plans for the future. "You aspire to be a good person first off and a great actor," he says. "There's no way to go about it. You just draw your own map." |