Josh Hartnett Left Hollywood Fame After ‘Borderline Unhealthy’ Attention: ‘It Was a Weird Time’

Josh Hartnett was one of Hollywood’s biggest names in his early 20s until he left it all behind for a quieter life.

“People’s attention to me at the time was borderline unhealthy,” Hartnett, 46, told The Guardian in a profile published on Sunday, July 28. “I just didn’t want my life to be swallowed up by my work.”

He continued, “There was a notion at that time you just kind of give it all up. And you saw what happened to some people back then. They got obliterated by it. I didn’t want that for myself.”

Hartnett further cited stalking “incidents” as the reason for his hiatus from the spotlight.

It’s Time We Talk About the Josh Hartnett Renaissance: All His Recent and Upcoming Projects

“Well, look, I don’t want to give this a lot of weight … [but] people showed up at my house. People that were stalking me,” he recalled to the British newspaper before detailing an incident when he was 27 years old. “A guy showed up at one of my premieres with a gun, claiming to be my father. He ended up in prison. There were lots of things. It was a weird time. And I wasn’t going to be grist for the mill.”

Hartnett has continued acting, recently appearing in the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer and M. Night Shyamalan ’s thriller Trap . In between film gigs, Hartnett has resigned to a cozy life with wife Tamsin Egerton and their four kids in the British countryside.

Hartnett and Egerton, 35, live in Hampshire, with the former child star telling the newspaper that “nobody [nearby] cares” about his celebrity status. In England, he is able to be a father first and foremost.

“Time passes quickly. With four children, you have so much to do,” he said. “In a way, less is happening. But more of the important stuff is happening. My oldest daughter is eight and a half now – that feels like it happened in the last two years to me. So I’m trying to soak up as much as possible.”

Josh Hartnett and Tamsin Egerton’s Relationship Timeline: From Costars to Parents of 4

In Trap , Hartnett plays a “psychopath” and he was careful not to allow the heavy emotions to seep into his family life.

“I tried not to bring much of myself to the role nor let much of this character come home with me because — if you want to be blunt — all of it, everything that [my character] is doing in this film, is basically a front,” Hartnett exclusively told Us Weekly at the Wednesday, July 24, film premiere. “There’s no way that he could feel empathy toward his daughter. He couldn’t love her the way that we love.”

Trap hits theaters on Friday, August 2.