Instead of studio projects, Hartnett spent the rest of his 20s veering toward independent movies — such as “Wicker Park,” “Lucky Number Slevin” and “The Black Dahlia.” He turned down the role of Superman in Bryan Singer’s 2006 reboot (which starred Brandon Routh instead) and he was on Christopher Nolan’s short list to play Batman (before Christian Bale).
Then he seemed to fall off the public radar. In the last decade, he’s resurfaced here and there, in some short films and small indies. Hartnett co-starred in “Penny Dreadful,” the 2014 horror series that aired on Showtime for three seasons. And he took a break from acting to raise his two kids. Hartnett, now 41, seems to be making a gradual comeback, with more projects on the horizon, including Guy Ritchie’s upcoming drama “Cash Truck.” His latest role is in “Inherit the Viper” (now in theaters in limited release), a drama about a family grappling with the opioid crisis.
Hartnett spoke to Variety by phone from London, where he lives part time. “We have a place in the States, too, and we go back and forth,” Hartnett said. “My partner” — the actress Tamsin Egerton — “is English. When we started having children, she wanted to be near her family, so we’re here a lot of the time to make that happen.”
Can you tell me what appealed to you about “Inherit the Viper”?
We shot this two years ago. The world of opiate use and what has become known as the opiate crisis on the Eastern seaboard was relatively fresh. It was before it became a political talking point and before a lot of people were paying attention to it. The script, I felt, handled that very touchy subject in a smart way. I felt like, if you’re going to tell the story well, tell it in a small way — about a family — and leave the larger implications to the audience. In my opinion, it’s sort of a little poem.
Did your research include talking to people affected by opioids?
Yes. I did some research on my own, and we also had some people that we were able to talk to that had either dealt these drugs or had been addicts themselves. About the time that we started to film, the story really started to break in the national press. Suddenly, there were all these firsthand accounts, and there were lots of videos and things online that were absolutely horrible to watch, but necessary.
This was after the election?
Yeah. It was in the early stages of Trump’s presidency. You’re right to sort of point out the time period, because it became so political, this crisis. But when we first signed on, it was almost apolitical. It was a human crisis.
You play the older brother in a family affected by addiction and violence. Did the character stay with you after you finished filming?
I’m a father now, and I’ve taken on a lot of dark roles over the years. I try not to take too much of it home with me because things like this especially can be really taxing and not healthy to bring around young kids. But also, it’s just not my story. I put myself into the situation as best I can while doing the job and understand it as best I can, but in a way, my job is to portray the emotions of the situation as opposed to living them.
I’m just looking at your IMDb page. It looks like 2020 is going to be a bigger year for you, with a handful of movies coming out. What’s your process for choosing roles?
I read a lot of scripts. I actually really enjoy reading scripts because there are so few good, unique scripts out there. There are a lot of scripts that you can see just the edges of them have shifted a little bit to sort of make them feel new, but it’s just packaging really. When you find a script that approaches a story with fresh eyes, it’s exciting to me. And the more I read, the more those pop out to me.
This guy, Daniel Roby, wrote and directed a movie that’s now called “Target Number One.” It used to be called “Gut Instinct.” He originally sent me the script six years ago. Over the course of while he was trying to put the financing together, he kept calling me and saying, “Oh we’re going to get it going soon.” I just saw that movie a couple weeks ago and it’s phenomenal [Smaller] films, it’s always surprising to see them find their legs, and to me, that’s more satisfying than working on a big-budget thing that already has an audience built in. So yeah, I read a lot of scripts and then I find what I think is going to be the most satisfying from a gambler’s point of view.
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