{"id":892658,"date":"2026-09-12T05:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T05:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/892658\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T05:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T05:46:17","slug":"below-star-josh-hartnetts-hollywood-comeback-accelerates-via-newfoundland-and-two-trips-to-the-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/892658\/","title":{"rendered":"Below star Josh Hartnett\u2019s Hollywood comeback accelerates via Newfoundland \u2013 and two trips to the hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Josh Hartnett portrays widower Calvin Penney in the Newfoundland-set Netflix Canada series Below, which is having its world premiere at TIFF.Courtesy of Netflix\/Netflix<\/p>\n

The next stage of American actor Josh Hartnett\u2019s alleged Hollywood comeback has been highly visible in Toronto this week.<\/p>\n

Below, the new Newfoundland-set Netflix Canada sea-monster miniseries Hartnett stars in, screened two episodes at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday night ahead of its Oct. 8 debut.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hartnett\u2019s face was circling all over the city: Verity, his erotic thriller co-starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson that\u2019s coming out Oct. 2, is being promoted by a van \u2013 a \u201cmobile pop-up\u201d \u2013 with his and Hathaway\u2019s mugs roaming the streets during TIFF.<\/p>\n

Hartnett, himself, popped up in the flesh Thursday too. The 48-year-old father of four flew over from London, where he lives with his family, and gallantly fought through jet-lag during a daylong junket for Below followed by a premiere and a Newfoundland-themed party (where Tom Power\u2019s The Dardanelles jammed in the corner).<\/p>\n

In the middle of all that, Hartnett emerged from a social content shoot to sit down with The Globe and talk about Below \u2013 and that perception of an upswing in his acting trajectory.<\/p>\n

Comeback isn\u2019t the word he\u2019d use about his recent return to roles in high-profile projects such as Oscar-winner Oppenheimer and Emmy-winner The Bear.<\/p>\n

\u201dI would say that I\u2019m working in different genres with different fantastic directors, and being able to choose more interesting characters to play than I\u2019ve ever been able to before,\u201d says Hartnett. <\/p>\n

Curry Barker, the obsession of Hollywood, returns to TIFF for film festival victory lap<\/a><\/p>\n

By contrast, the Black Hawk Down and The Virgin Suicides star didn\u2019t find many of the roles offered back in his peak heartthrob days in the noughties all that interesting, famously declining the role of Superman and bowing out of consideration for Batman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels to me more like a progression than like a going away and coming back,\u201d adds Hartnett, who also prioritizes being \u201cfully present as a dad\u201d eight months a year with his kids aged two to 10. <\/p>\n

In Below, Hartnett plays Calvin Penney, an ice-harvesting bayman and widower living in a remote town that\u2019s soon to hold a vote on relocation. <\/p>\n

Calvin\u2019s three adult children \u2013 Wade (Stranger Things\u2019 Charlie Heaton), who\u2019s failed to launch; Mary (Ruby Stokes), who\u2019s moved to Montreal with a boyfriend; and Jay (Rohan Campbell), who\u2019s working the rigs in Alberta \u2013 are back for a Come Home Year celebration.<\/p>\n

The family reunion is badly timed, however, as a mysterious monster starts wreaking havoc on and near the water. <\/p>\n

Is it a prehistoric squid unleashed by melting icebergs? An aquatic manifestation of the Old Hag of folklore? <\/p>\n

Underneath the surface, Below \u2013 created by Canadian writer Jesse McKeown \u2013 is a parable about the history of resettlement in Newfoundland and Labrador. It\u2019s about survival \u2013 not just of its protagonists, but of a way of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what drew me to the project,\u201d says Hartnett. \u201cThat a culture that is distinct and unique can still exist in our hyper-homogenized society.\u201d<\/p>\n

What to watch this weekend: Call My Agent! and Colin from Accounts return in new forms<\/a><\/p>\n

Hartnett \u2013 a native Minnesotan who previously played a Canadian, journalist Victor Malarek, in 2020\u2019s Target Number One \u2013 was cast in Below after his friend, executive producer Jessica Rhoades, signed on.<\/p>\n

Less than a month after being sent the scripts, Hartnett was in St John\u2019s getting a crash course in Newfoundland and Labrador history, learning to tie knots and cast nets like a fisherman and working on the Penney family accent with the actors (two English, one Albertan) playing his kids. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s an actor that says that accents just come easy, they probably aren\u2019t trying very hard,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

There were other hard parts to the shoot, too. Hartnett ending up taking two trips to the hospital.<\/p>\n

His first accident was off-set and made the news: A Royal Newfoundland Constabulary patrol vehicle went through a red light and crashed into the passenger side of an SUV carrying Hartnett. \u201cSide airbag technology is one of the most remarkable things I\u2019ve ever experienced in my life,\u201d he says, noting he emerged from the hard hit with only a bruise on his arm.<\/p>\n

The RNC launched an investigation and a spokesperson e-mailed this statement: \u201cAs a result of the investigation, the operator of the police vehicle was ticketed for failing to stop at a red light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hartnett hadn\u2019t heard that was the outcome and visibly grimaces when I share it with him. \u201cHe got a ticket?\u201d he says. \u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not reported back in 2025 was that Hartnett broke his nose and got a concussion while shooting a scene on a boat. He\u2019s reluctant to talk too much about it, not wanting \u201cone small thing\u201d to overshadow what he calls a wonderful 4\u00bd-month shoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy nose isn\u2019t even crooked,\u201d he says, pointing to what is indeed a well-aligned schnoz in the middle of his handsome face. \u201cIt broke straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

In depth: On a sombre anniversary, Gander welcomes the \u2018plane people\u2019 back to the Rock<\/a><\/p>\n

Hartnett, naturally, has no end of nice things to say about Newfoundlanders (\u201csuper welcoming and very kind and open, and loved to have a conversation\u201d). He highlights the \u201cphenomenal\u201d work of the local actors such as Willow Kean, who plays his sister, and Joel Thomas Hynes, who plays a rival ice harvester. That both Kean and Hynes are novelists too \u2013 \u201cterrific writers,\u201d Hartnett says \u2013 impressed him. <\/p>\n

Former This Hour Has 22 Minutes star Mary Walsh is another Newfoundland actor in the show \u2013 playing the Jaws-like mayor of Snook\u2019s Arm, worried as much about homecoming parties going ahead as scheduled as the increasing carnage. <\/p>\n

Hartnett only has one thing to say about her in our interview, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cMary\u2019s the one who spilled the beans on that, apparently,\u201d he says, with mild exasperation. \u201cI think she\u2019s the one that said that I broke my nose.\u201d <\/p>\n

Well, what happens on the Rock doesn\u2019t stay on the Rock \u2013 and this come from away got the true Newfoundland experience on his comeback journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Josh Hartnett portrays widower Calvin Penney in the Newfoundland-set Netflix Canada series Below,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,2922],"class_list":["post-892658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-noastack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}