Josh Hartnett Turned Down Christopher Nolan’s Offer To Play Batman

 Josh Harnett was the go-to-white guy in movies in the late 90s /early 2000s then he decided he was too good to be in Hollywood blockbusters, so now he’s on a show on Showtime where he plays a werewolf. Cool. But here’s a story he told Playboy about the time his head was so far up his own ass that he turned down Batman Begins after Christopher Nolan asked him personally. He’s playing a werewolf now, so no regrets!

I’ve definitely said no to some of the wrong people. I said no because I was tired and wanted to spend more time with my friends and family. That’s frowned upon in this industry. People don’t like being told no. I don’t like it. I learned my lesson when [writer-director] Christopher Nolan and I talked about Batman. I decided it wasn’t for me. Then he didn’t want to put me in The Prestige. They not only hired their Batman for it, they also hired my girlfriend at the time. That’s when I realized relationships were formed in the fire of that first Batman film and I should have been part of the relationship with this guy Nolan, who I felt was incredibly cool and very talented. I was so focused on not being pigeonholed and so scared of being considered only one thing as an actor. I should have thought, Well, then, work harder, man. Watching Christian Bale go on to do so many other things has been just awesome. I mean, he’s been able to overcome that. Why couldn’t I see that at the time?

Hartnett kinda paints Nolan as a revenge-fueled dick, which we’ve heard before, but in 2012 I was at a bar in Hollywood and Amanda Seyfried walked up behind me and said, “Crowded in here, huh?”. She was with Josh Hartnett who was wearing a wool beanie, an army coat, and a really big scarf. In Los Angeles. It was 75 degrees. Anyway, that’s all I got. Draw your own conclusions on his personality based on his wardrobe choices.