I had it bad for Josh Hartnett for a while. It was after seeing 40 Days And 40 Nights. Why didn’t Shannyn Sossamon become a bigger deal? She has a PERFECT face. God I wanted to look like her. I think I still want to look like her. I certainly wanted to be her. Back to back makeout work opportunities with Heath Ledger and Josh Hartnett? Come on.

Anyway, Josh was so f-cking hot in that movie I almost got arrested in the theatre. Even in that corny scene where he gives her an orgasm just by trailing a flower up and down her body I was in into it. He’s going to be on The Social next week. During my week off. I’ll be shoe shopping in London to make myself feel better.

So what happened with Josh Hartnett’s career?

In a new interview with Playboy to promote Penny Dreadful Hartnett is asked about why he never became a big movie star. He explains that at the time he was uncomfortable with fame and that looking back, he wishes he wasn’t so precious about it:

“The intensity of my sudden fame was overwhelming for me, and in the middle of that, I felt I couldn’t trust any new person I met or their motives. I spent a lot of time back home in Minnesota with my friends and family. I did smaller movies, and I stopped working for a while. If I could go back and take with me my wisdom of today, I wish I’d been more resilient. I hope I wouldn’t be as panicked as I was. Maybe I’d have known that no matter what people try to take from you, you don’t have to give it to them. I’ve definitely grown a bit.”

During that time, Hartnett had opportunities. Like Christian Bale’s opportunities. Christopher Nolan wanted to work with him. And he walked away:

“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.”

The girlfriend at the time was, of course, Scarlett Johansson. God they were on fire when they were together, weren’t they? I just wasted 10 minutes on Google images looking at old photos. If you haven’t seen The Black Dahlia do it just to get off.

Scarlett, of course, like Christian Bale, went on to play Broadway and become a superhero and one of the most bankable stars among her peers. So, yeah, he has some regrets.

“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?”

I quite like the honesty of that approach at the end there. “Why couldn’t I see that at the time?” I, personally, relate to that a lot more than the celebrities who are all like, “It happened for a reason” like we don’t impact our destinies.

And then we get a little Pearl Harbour nostalgia. Shall we?

It was a sh-t movie. But it was also GREAT to look at.

While Josh’s career is what it is, Ben went on to win more Oscars:

“In what universe does Ben Affleck win an Academy Award for a best picture he starred in and directed? I knew he had it in him to do whatever he wanted to do. Ben has always been the smartest guy, but he holds that in reserve for some reason.”

He wasn’t the smartest guy at that time. After the party after the junket for Pearl Harbor, Ben had to be carried out of the venue he was that wasted. It never f-cked with his chances though. That’s what Josh Hartnett keeps looking at. Up at?

Here he is with his girlfriend Tamsin recently. The way he’s looking at her… yeah… it’s still there for me.

Click here to read the entire Playboy interview.