Josh Hartnett Teases His ‘Bizarre’ Role in M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’: ‘It’s a Pivot’

Josh Hartnett’s role as Ernest Lawrence in “Oppenheimer” earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award when the film took the night’s top prize of Ensemble in a Motion Picture. But the actor is already looking ahead to his next role in M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming thriller “Trap,” which could afford him the opportunity to showcase a very different set of acting chops.

When Hartnett caught up with IndieWire on the red carpet of the SAG Awards on Saturday night, he shared his excitement about the movie and teased that it could be a very different performance than what fans have come to expect from him.

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“It’s a pivot,” Hartnett said of the role. “But I try to make all of my roles pivots. If you’re playing the same thing again and again, it gets boring to the audience. Working with M. Night was one of the best experiences of my career. I think he’s a true Artist in the capitol-A sense of the word. And I think people are gonna be really surprised and excited about the movie we make. It’s very bizarre, very dark, and it’s wild.”

The conversation soon turned to another acclaimed director with whom Hartnett has collaborated over the years. When asked about his relationship with “The Virgin Suicides” director Sofia Coppola, Hartnett revealed that the two still sporadically see each other and said he maintains a deep respect for the auteur.

“We were actually in Toronto at the same time while I was filming ‘Trap’ with M. Night. We didn’t get to see each other then, but we’ve seen each other a few times over the years,” he said of Coppola. “When we see each other, we’re very friendly… I think we still like each other. I like her!”

You can watch IndieWire’s red carpet interview with Hartnett in the clips below.

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