Josh Hartnett

He can be very sexy

He has an enormous disgusting, black mole on his neck to which we object.

He was one of the hottest guys in Hollywood in the 2000s. He apparently had a nasty coke addiction and turned down some major roles and chose terrible ones. He's improved as an actor doing so many indie and foreign films. His best roles are in Lucky Number Slevin, I Come With Rain, 30 Days of Night and his TV role in Penny Dreadful. He looks very healthy and sober now and I respect him for getting out of Hollywood and living a private life in London with his wife. He's still gorgeous.

I don’t object at all, r2

He also was good in Mozart and the Whale playing an autistic man. That's one of the few movies that really humanizes autistic people as in showing them as flawed and just insecure as regular people, the not super genius stereotypes.

[quote] He apparently had a nasty coke addiction and turned down some major roles and chose terrible ones.

You’re confusing him with Wes Bentley. Josh Hartnett straight up abandoned Hollywood. As in, he decided to stop acting and leave the business for a while.

R5 that’s interesting because even though i knew about this movie’s title I didn’t know what it’s about

Josh Hartnett is IMO absolutely on the Spectrum. It would not surprise me that he played this role humanistically because I believe you need a Spectrum actor to actually understand the subtleties and nuances and not turn it into a cartoon.

If you go on Youtube and watch some of his interviews, especially the older ones, you can see the signs of it. Several times in this Conan interview he begins to slide his hands back and forth, back and forth, or lock them together in a grip. This is Stimming.

Additionally Hartnett’s abandonment of Hollywood and his reasons for doing it align perfectly with the diagnosis of Autistic Burnout, where a high-functioning Autistic becomes overwhelmed by “‘intense physical, mental or emotional exhaustion” from trying to fit in.

[quote]"I was on the cover of every magazine. I couldn't really go anywhere. I didn't feel comfortable in my own skin. I was alone. I didn't trust anyone. So I went back to Minnesota and got back together with my old friends — ended up getting back together with my high-school girlfriend for a while — and I didn't do any filming for 18 months. I'm still finding my way through all that."

He looks so much finer as an older man, this is the op sorry but i am cruising hard on his legs and torso and

^crushing

Josh spends the first half hour of Lucky Number Slevin shirtless. A really great film, by the way.

R7 he looks absolutely normal in that interview, even if a little boring, where do you see the spectrum

Even though he was a huge sex symbol in the 00s I found him too thin and pale for my own heartthrob preferences.

When he came back with Penny Dreadful and had acquired some mass on his frame I was absolutely in love.

R11 starting at 1:20 he begins to rub his hands back and forth for about ten seconds like he’s washing them

He does this several times in the interview

This is Stimming, a method of dealing with extra sensory stress

This particular type of stimming, hand rubbing, is extremely typical of ASD people

r2 He ain't got nothing on me.

I can see high functioning anxiety disorder or autism with him but of course we'll mever will know. Anyway, I think before it was overdiagnosed, people with such conditions learned to cope on their own and weren't limited by the knowledge of diagnosis to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Daryl Hannah was a Hollywood actress with autism too but didn't know until a late-in-life diagnosis. There's actress Kim Basinger who described herself as so shy, she'd faint and have panic attacks and she also speaks in a restricted way.

He remains a more wooden Clint Eastwood. If that's possible?

u knot

R13 Oh god, just because you are mental does not make eveyone else.

He always had this "will fuck you unconscious with my thick cock" vibe about him.

I pictured it very long but thin.

Josh got nude after he turned 40. Blair Underwood went nude after he hit 50. I'm all for these aging hunks taking it off before their losd their looks.

To be fair, "Black Dahlia" would kill anybody's career.

Whooo, that movie was awful.

It's rare when I actually experience jaw-dropping moments.

The last 30 minutes of BD is so outlandishly bad (and not bad in a good way) it got me there.

He’s actually quite good in The Black Dahlia.

Despite the moles, he's always made me hard. I watched Beyond The Sea last week, and that scene with his wife made me swell.

This is the thing with actors and their agents. They want to choose meaty roles where they can get recognition and even an Oscar but there's no guarantee with any film that it will turn a masterpiece, let alone even good. So many things can go wrong behind the scenes. Nobody wants to make a bad movie but movies really aren't in the complete control of a director and many times directors can't have complete control because then it ends up a self-indulgent mess

*turn out to be a masterpiece

Well it could have been worse.

R p15; I’m from Chicago, and we all knew about her autism way earlier in her life (from high school) before it became a. Cause Célèbre.

And I heard it wasn’t a coke problem with Josh, but heroin.

R22 I love anything De Palma, even the messes. Well, maybe not Bonfire of the Vanities.

He’s hot.

There is a recent blind item that says Kevin Spacey used and abused him.

I've always thought he was akin to the wish.com version of some other more famous guy. And he's not bad looking, and does okay in films. But I never bought him as a sex symbol. He seems like a decent guy in interviews.

[quote] He always had this "will fuck you unconscious with my thick cock" vibe about him.

I wish I could be the filling in a Josh/Chris Klein sandwich. They both have thick cock energy.

[quote] There is a recent blind item that says Kevin Spacey used and abused him.

A lot of people guessed him for that blind, but the blind specifically said the actor was foreign born, and Hartnett was born in Minnesota. Which is a strange little state that sometimes seems kinda Canadian, but IS in the United States.

[quote]R p15; I’m from Chicago, and we all knew about her autism way earlier in her life (from high school) before it became a. Cause Célèbre.

Hannah or Basinger?

I nearly came buckets watching Pennywise when possessed Vanessa mentioned Reeve Carney’s Dorian Gray character topping Josh’s Ethan. Yes! Plus his kiss with Dorian before the hookup was delightful. I really liked that show, though I’ll pretty much consume any gothic horror with sexy male leads. I recall Slevin being decent.

Anyway, Josh is sexy AF, always has been. Really interesting points about autism above. I can see how it would make him abandon his career. Nice thread, OP ❤️

Sorry, Penny Dreadful. My bad!

Didn’t they throw in “foreign born” to throw people off? I would be shocked if Kevin Spacey didn’t abuse him.

I was convinced for a long time that Tommy Lee Jones was his biological father.

Tell me you don't see it.

R28/r30 again you are thinking of WES BENTLEY.

Wes Bentley was the one who costarred with Kevin Spacey. Josh Hartnett never made a movie with him.

Wes Bentley was the one who became addicted to heroin. He says he spent $400,000 on drugs.

I definitely see it, R37. I also think Rafael Nadal resembles Tommy Lee Jones.

r38

R40

He's not someone I would normally look at twice, yet he turns out to be very sexy.

His voice, deep and a bit deliberate, doesn't hurt in the least.

R38 No, I am in fact NOT thinking of Wes Bentley.

That blind was about Colin Farrell.

Yes Colin Farrell would have also been in a position to be prey for Kevin Spacey. He harassed anyone who was pretty and (industry-wise) powerless.

Josh Hartnett appeared with Spacey at an Old Vic benefit in 2008, but Spacey would not gave harassed such a huge star.

I think he pissed off the producers who we’re trying to reboot the Superman franchise when he turned the part down. For some reason they hate it when they are told ‘no’…

Yes Warner Bros. offered him $100 million for Superman.

Boy do I have an Autism Spectrum story about that.

I can't see him as Superman unless they were going for a darker interpretation.

This is a weird view of mine but I think Josh's eyes are too narrow and not expressive which makes it hard to market him as a superhero especially to little kids. He has those beady type of eyes Richard Gere also has.

R47 is correct; both JH and Richard Gere have rodentia.

r33, Hannah.

r41 Is that a metaphorical depiction of ass cheeks being pulled apart? Or do I just need a date?

No you’re correct

It’s the galussy.

[quote] This is a weird view of mine but I think Josh's eyes are too narrow and not expressive

It’s not a weird view, it’s a literal fact.

Additionally, he does not look like Superman. At all.

Bur that’s where it gets interesting.

r51 r52

R52 Also, I'm pretty sure some study showed audiences especially children respond better to actors with larger eyes. Large eyes convey emotions better. I think Josh's eyes are fine for the character/indie roles or the horror/scifi roles he usually does. He's a low-key actor. But not for a mainstream superhero role, I don't think he'd be marketable at all and he doesn't look like a Superman either.

Christian Bale has beady eyes. But I guess Batman can be squinty. Josh would be a better Batman.

Yes Batman is brooding and dark. An antihero. So Josh would have fit better. Superman is an idealist portrayed with big blue eyes.

So to understand why they offered Josh Hartnett $100 million to play Superman when he looks nothing like him, you have to go back to the doomed Tim Burton production of Superman Lives! and the casting of Nicolas Cage. Nicolas Cage was cast because they wanted a Superman who felt completely alien in a bonkers, gonzo way. The studio was not opposed to having someone who didn’t look the part because Big Blue Boyscout Superman was considered outré in the 90s. After that project failed, they went in on a JJ Abrams script called “Superman Flyby.” This was a more traditional origin story about Clark Kent coming of age, growing up isolated because of his alien birth and superpowers, becoming a young reporter to try to fit in, but when the world faces a threat, he summons his courage to become the Superman that we all know. The script emphasizes Clark’s ALIENNESS and INTROVERSION.

Josh Hartnett would have absolutely nailed this depiction of Clark Kent.

But he said no.

Interesting, Matt Bomer was also invited to audition for that role.

Where’s the disgusting neck mole in the AI pic at R57?

AI knows.

I can never find pictures of him in shorts…why come, Onika?

Not only invited to audition, but Matt Bomer was director Brett Ratner’s choice! In this case the studio said no. They wanted someone who was already a marquee name. A very bad rumor spread around that Matt didn’t get the part because they found out he was gay. However it’s unlikely it would have been the sole reason for the studio’s refusal, because he would have just gone into the closet if he got the role. It happens all the time.

Matt Bomer looks technically correct for Clark Kent, the face is a little too cherubic, and at 5’11 with a very compact frame, would not have been too imposing. Hartnett at least was 6’3.” But he would have auditioned very well, because Flyby, as I said above, is about Clark Kent’s alienness and introversion.

Matt Bomer is also probably a Spectrum actor. Two Spectrum actors, but no Superman film. Flyby gets cancelled. And that is where my Superman Spectrum Story ends…

Hartnett's kiss in Penny Dreadful? They one Aunt Seal gave me at my bar mitzvah was more passionate. Dreadful indeed.

That’s how straight actors think we kiss. Grab each other’s faces and smash together.

[quote] However it’s unlikely it would have been the sole reason for the studio’s refusal, because he would have just gone into the closet if he got the role. It happens all the time.

Does it? Does it really?

I watched Beyond the Sea (Black Mirror Season Six) last night. It was outstanding. That ending ... wow! Brilliant the way the story played with the audience's stereotypes and expectations.

Josh was good in his role, although I do think Aaron Paul outshone him a bit in what was a shinier role to start with.

Josh looks great, although I didn't care for the bushy beard in some scenes. He's aging well and of course still has that sexy voice.

One frustrating thing, though: If this show had been made in 1969 (when it is set), there would have been a lot more shirtlessness. Even though there were a number of shirtless scenes, they were shot in shadow or as a side view from a distance, so I couldn't really tell you how either actor looks without his shirt on these days, except that they're both trim and fit but not heavily muscled.

Why do modern directors (or is it the actors themselves?) shy away from showing shirtless men unless they have supposedly "perfect" Instagram-ready bodies? It's obvious that both Josh Hartnett and Aaron Paul are in decent shape. Why conceal it with lighting tricks and angles?

Maybe the director did not want to emphasize how sexy they were because it’s not important to the story?

R66, it's not about emphasizing sexiness. It's about men being shirtless in places where a man would logically be shirtless. Believe me, plenty of non-sexy men used to be shown shirtless back in the day. In fact, neither Josh nor Aaron is really super-hot in terms of their bodies. They look decently fit, and that's it.

Of course I would enjoy seeing it because I find them both attractive, but I'm not talking about gratuitous scenes like a porn vid.

Matt Bomer appears more deeply repressed because he grew up gay in a religious Texan household. He likely deeply suppressed any type of personality he had to avoid getting noticed for being gay. I can see years of trying to be the perfect godfearing child who went to church every Sunday, played football and pledged a fraternity. So repressed his sexuality to the point of coming off as asexual.

Doll even if he was raised by free-love hippies at Berkeley he would have still ended up this way.

Well he is incredibly beautiful, so that helps. It's harder to clock quirks on distractably pretty people.

A casting director looking at ten different people who all look alike reading for the same role probably isn’t going to be overwhelmed by their beauty. But the Aspie will stand out.

My theory is that it has something to do with the eyes which tend to be very beautiful and the lack of smile lines around the mouth, which renders them even more beautiful.

Josh actually smiles though and shows joy. Matt just fakes his smile all the time because his eyes always remain open, no matter what. A real smile, your eyes get smaller and causes wrinkles around your face. Tom Cruise is the same way.

Serious social anxiety in his demeanor and he can't relax ever in public. Every single pic, he looks super vigilant even when Simon is all affectionate with him. A regular hot guy would be charming, confident and rather cocky. Bomer stands out by his nervous demeanor which creates a caring response.

R 71 Oh great, the autism troll is back.

[quote] you're are not

r71

[quote] A regular hot guy would be charming, confident and rather cocky.

And that’s the Aspie stands out in the casting process. The reason Matt Bomer got White Collar? Very charming story. He was waiting to audition and was sitting very quietly unassumingly by himself. The casting director pulled the show creator aside. She whispered, “Pay attention to him. He is a STAR.”

They have “otherness.” Mystery and otherness.

[quote] Josh actually smiles though and shows joy.

No, he doesn’t. He Mona Lisa smiles. This renders him even more mysterious and more beautiful.

[quote] Every single pic, he looks super vigilant even when Simon is all affectionate with him… Bomer stands out by his nervous demeanor which creates a caring response.

Oh no! Whatever could you mean?

That’s not even the funny part, look at who she married after him.

One more because it just happened to hit my timeline

Obviously these two were never a thing but the effect the man has on the woman is the same

Josh looks happy here.

With his wife who he looks deeply in love with

Yes it’s clear he really loves his wife.

Note the wife is facially the opposite of him; big, warm, compassionate eyes, big smile.

r84

These are all over Twitter now because of the casting but it illustrates the point I was making

They are doing something with their eyes and with their mouth muscles. It just looks nicer. The public sees the exact same thing, they understand it but they can’t explain it.

Balenciaga/ H&M

R86, what the hell are you talking about? Did you post in the wrong thread, or does your comment have something to do with something said upthread? Are you R71, by any chance?

I just saw the Beyond the Sea episode of Black Mirror and DAYUM! He's FINE!

Josh makes me look animated.