Josh Hartnett Shares Stalking Incidents Drove Him to Leave Hollywood

Josh Hartnett is recalling a harrowing point in his career.

Although he surged to fame with films The Virgin Suicides and Pearl Harbor in the late ‘90s and early aughts, Josh took a step back from the spotlight at the height of his career.

And though he’s previously shared that the focus on his personal life was one of the reasons behind him scaling back, the Trap star now admitted there was another component that had an effect on him.

“People’s attention to me at the time,” Josh told The Guardian in an interview published July 28, “was borderline unhealthy.”

In fact, though he doesn’t want to give this point in his life “a lot of weight,” Josh does note that his experiences with stalkers had reached a threshold.

“There were incidents,” he explained. “People showed up at my house. People that were stalking me. A guy showed up at one of my premieres with a gun, claiming to be my father. He ended up in prison.”

That incident occurred when he was 27 years old, according to the outlet, but it didn’t end there. “There were lots of things,” he continued. “It was a weird time. And I wasn’t going to be grist for the mill.”

The Faculty star—who now lives in England with wife Tamsin Egerton and their four kids—also explained he wanted to keep himself grounded.

“I just didn’t want my life to be swallowed up by my work,” he shared. “And 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.”

However, fast-forward to today, Josh remains grateful for the support he’s received during his resurgence.

“It's extremely gratifying that people are interested in what I'm doing,” he recently told E! News. “I mean, we don't make movies for ourselves, we make them for an audience. So, it's extremely gratifying that people are liking what I'm doing right now.”

Keep reading for a look back at Josh from over the years.