Josh Hartnett had no desire to go method when it came to portraying a serial killer in his new film Trap.
“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, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Trap world premiere on Wednesday, July 24. “He’s a true psychopath.”
Hartnett plays Cooper — an infamous serial killer nicknamed “The Butcher” — in the psychological thriller, which is written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Cooper’s world gets turned upside down when he realizes the Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) concert he’s taken his daughter (Ariel Donoghue) to is a trap set up by police to catch him.
While the trailer for the film shows Cooper being an attentive dad to his teen, Hartnett told Us that everything viewers see is a facade. “There’s no way that he could feel empathy toward his daughter,” he explained. “He couldn’t love her the way that we love.”
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That doesn’t mean the character can’t go through a journey of his own. “Something in this film that is so interesting,” Hartnett noted, “is this story of a psychopath learning that maybe he’s not entirely God.”
While Hartnett admitted that a film told from a serial killer’s POV might not initially seem all that attractive to moviegoers, the actor praised Shyamalan for creating something “really fun” and unexpected.
“Hopefully by halfway through the film, you’re actually rooting for the character and it’s a strange thing to have happen,” he continued. “I love that about M. Night, he’s always taking genres and upending expectations and coming out with a different angle. And this film’s no different.”
Shyamalan, of course, is known for his epic plot twists. And while the main character being revealed as a psychotic murderer certainly counts, that wasn’t how Hartnett perceived things when reading the script. Instead, it was taking a genre and changing “everything about it” to keep the viewer on their toes.
“That’s what people will remember him for,” Hartnett told Us. “In the meantime, I guess people get caught up the idea of a twist, but I think [while] there are some twists and turns, it’s more just, like, you’re taking this ride in an entirely different way than you’ve ever taken one before. Which I think is fantastic. Not many people could direct a film like this.”
Shyamalan, meanwhile, has just as much adoration for Hartnett. While speaking to Us, the director explained why the Oppenheimer star was the perfect choice for the role of Cooper.
“When he walked in, he just had an energy about him that was [a] superstar,” Shyamalan said. “He’s a superstar — but that was one half of the equation. The other half of the equation is, ‘Hey, I’m willing, I’m ready to do anything, whatever you want, I don’t want to be safe.’ Like he pretty much said that to me.”
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Echoing Hartnett’s own sentiments, Shyamalan said the duo were “like-minded” when it came to the type of film they wanted to make.
“Danger and taking huge risks and not knowing whether we’re going to succeed. That’s what kind of excites him,” he told Us. “I think we both kind of eschewed some of the Hollywood journeys and normal movements that you would do in Hollywood and we both enjoy kind of breaking the mold a bit. … [We] really connected on many things.”
Trap hits theaters on Friday, August 2.
With reporting by Leanne Aciz Stanton
