Josh Hartnett Had Something to ‘Prove’ as a 40-Something Action Star — But a Rom-Com Is Still Coming (Exclusive)

Add Josh Hartnett to your list of hot action stars.

In Fight or Flight, which hit theaters on Friday, May 9, Hartnett plays down-and-out ex-Secret Service agent Lucas Reyes, who makes a deal to bring a high-value asset back to the States. The problem? The plane is filled with assassins trying to kill them both. The film was shot in just 25 days by first-time director James Madigan, and the experience is nothing short of blood-soaked, brutal fun. The fact it features a platinum-haired, fortysomething Hartnett handling all his own stunts is just a bonus.

“I was like, ‘Can I still do this? I wanna see if I can,’” the actor, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly about his choice to do the project. “I wanted to prove something to myself, physically, but also just give somebody pure popcorn entertainment in the best way possible, which is with a lot of humor and a lot of physicality and over-the-top, unexpected surprises. I’m very proud of it.”

Hartnett opened up to Us about taking chances at this stage in his career, the importance of balancing work and life at home and looking ahead to his next chapter.

Us Weekly: You are stabbed, punched and pelted at every turn in this film. You’re even in danger of being sucked out of the airplane! Why submit to that punishment?

Josh Hartnett: [That] was the conceit of the film when it was sent to me. [Our producers] also did John Wick and they were like, “Keanu [Reeves] does his own stunts.” And I was like, “Yeah, I know.” And they were like, “Well, do you wanna do your own stunts? It would really make the movie better.” And I was like, “Yeah, of course I do.” In your forties like I was, not many people are asking you to go out and do your own stunts and film. So it was such a unique challenge and also just a fun opportunity to have some of the greatest, most fantastic stunt teams around me helping choreograph.

Us: Were there any stunts you didn’t do yourself?

JH: I had a wonderful stunt double who helped preface all of the fights. And he did one stunt for me that I wasn’t allowed to do. So aside from that one stunt, I did everything else. That was the one where the character’s thrown into the bar. Because the glass was not breakaway enough for production and they were worried that I was gonna get cut badly and then we’d have to stop production. So that was the only thing that I wasn’t allowed to do. But the rest of it’s me. And it was pretty demanding.

Us: Were you on board with your characters’ eclectic look and blonde hair? How involved were you in the creative decisions?

JH: That was my choice. These are all my choices. The blonde thing was just a logic thing for me. He’s been in Bangkok for two years. He’s been hiding from people that have been trying to kill him. He’s done everything to hide himself. I wanted to show that he’s sort of given up. And this was a ridiculous thing that he tried, dyeing his hair, that it was still kind of present because he didn’t really care anymore and he was on his last legs. I like meeting the character at the lowest point in his life and then taking him even lower, in a way. Then he becomes an unreliable hero, which I think is more fun for the audience to be a part of, because they don’t know if he’s going to win, or even if they want him to win.

Us: I was rooting for him fully. This movie is so funny and the blooper reel would probably be crazy. What would your contribution be?

JH: There’d be so many times I hit my head on those f***ing baggage compartments there at head height — like, there’s no room on a plane to fight. And I was getting pummeled into those things in every single scene. The blooper reel would just be me. Like, oh, my neck, ’cause it just kept hitting that thing. But we didn’t have any time to reset or to recalibrate or to recover. We had to keep going and we had 25 days to shoot the whole thing. So it was just one after the other, after the other. Sometimes shooting two different scenes and two different sequences at the same time, or working one out while we were shooting the other one.

Us: I bump my head on those things even when I’m just on a plane.

JH: Try having a 250-pound Bulgarian stunt guy hit you from the side into one of those things!

Us: No, thank you! You’re so funny in this movie. Would you ever return to rom-coms?

JH: I’ve got one that I’m working on! I can’t say anything about it because it’s not happening yet, but I’ve got a script we’ve been quietly putting together that would be kind of in the rom-com genre.

Us: You’ve been going full force these past few years. Are you craving a break at all?

JH: I’m balancing like crazy. I’ve got a lot of time at home. I’ve shot one film in the last 18 months. [My wife Tamsin Egerton and I] had a baby. I wanted to be at home with the baby for as long as I could, so I spent 13 months at home after he was born. Then I went and shot Verity and now I’m gonna go shoot something else this summer. But I am definitely taking as much time with my family as possible. At the same time, when I go away, I wanna make it worth it. And I’ve been very, very lucky to be working with great people and [be] making films that people are seeing. So it feels like I’m doing a lot more than I am maybe.

Us: And the range of your projects is so varied. What goes into choosing what roles you play?

JH: Is it unique? Is it something I haven’t done before? Can I be surprising? Is it surprising to me? Would it be interesting for me to be a part of because it’s new? And then, will it be interesting to an audience to see me do it? Can I pull it off? That’s another part of it. [With Fight or Flight],I was like, “Can I still do this? I wanna see if I can.” And then once I commit to something, I really make sure that I can do it. I don’t want to mess with anybody and I want to make sure that when you go have the experience of watching a film that I’m in, you’re being completely entertained.

Us: Fight or Flight ends on a major cliffhanger. Could we see you in a sequel?

JH: Listen, if a ton of people see it and a ton of people want us to do a sequel, I would be totally game I really enjoyed it, but at the same time, it was more that we wanted to leave the whole thing open-ended and fun and just have the question marks out there. This is a fun character that could be explored further with [my costar] Charithra Chandran. I think she’s so talented and so much fun to work with.

Us: Well, I’m campaigning for a franchise. I want to watch you do it into your seventies!

JH: Oh, great. So me and Liam Neeson. Yeah, this is my Taken.