In the thriller Trap, Josh Hartnett plays a serial killer at a concert who suddenly finds himself in the crosshairs of the police. We met the Oppenheimer star for an interview
The Silence of the Lambs at a Taylor Swift concert: that’s how director M. Night Shyamalan pitched his new thriller Trap: No Way Out two years ago. The premise is as simple as it is ingenious: a serial killer is at a concert with his daughter and is lulled into the safety of the crowd. But then he discovers that the entire building is surrounded by police. The hunter becomes the hunted.
Although it is clear from the start that the protagonist is not a good person, the film invites us to root for the killer as he tries to escape. But who do you cast for a role like this? Shyamalan has found an unexpected and brilliant cast in Josh Hartnett. Just last year, he turned out to be a scene-stealer in Oppenheimer. We met him for an interview on the occasion of the theatrical release of Trap
Here you can watch the trailer for Trap:
Moviepilot: The Guardian recently published a profile about you talking about the Joshonaissance. How do you feel about that?
Josh Hartnett: Basically, my career has been like this for a while. But for some reason people are just interested in it now. I decided for myself years ago that I only want to shoot with directors that I find really interesting. I want to make movies that are different and play characters that are different from each other to surprise the audience. Thanks to Oppenheimer and a few Guy Ritchie films, more people are now noticing me in the movies again. That’s definitely flattering and makes me very happy.
I thought Cash Truck was so good. Almost like a modern Heat.
Thank you!
Which directors are still on your bucket list?
There are a few names I’d like to work with. On the Oppenheimer awards tour, I met Luca Guadagnino and Yorgos Lanthimos, whose work I find very impressive. I’ve also always wanted to shoot something with Wes Anderson. And David Fincher! He was on board a movie a long time ago that I was in. But in the end it didn’t work out.
Which movie was that?
It was Black Dahlia at the time. David Fincher was originally supposed to direct the movie. In the end, however, he decided to shoot something else. Brian De Palma then joined as a replacement director. I would have loved to work with Fincher on the movie, but it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe I can make up for it at some point.
(Josh Hartnett and Ariel Donoghue in Trap: No Way Out)
I hope there’s a possibility. Before we get to Trap, another important question: What was the last concert you went to?
Taylor Swift, The Eras Tour. My kids are completely obsessed with her. So I took them to one of the concerts at Wembley Stadium.
How cool! I’m very fascinated by how she manages to turn these concerts into a safe space for so many people. Now Trap comes in and charges the concert space with a lot of suspense.
That’s exactly what we wanted to create. We wanted to juxtapose these two completely different things. On the one hand there’s this extremely dark figure, on the other hand there’s the cheerful concert atmosphere. The exciting thing is that at first Cooper seems normal, psychologically intact. The serial killer is hidden deep inside him. We get to know him as a cool dad who only gradually reveals his true core. Uncovering these cracks in the character was a lot of fun for me as an actor. But it takes a lot of work to find all these layers in the game.
How did you manage that? Was there anything in particular that helped you prepare for the role?
Well, you can’t just meet a serial killer and ask him how he goes about his craft. So I read a lot of books about serial killers and psychology. I was particularly fascinated by how these people build a layer of fiction over their personality and life that feels stable. Very quickly, however, everything collapses as soon as one thing gets out of balance.
What other insights into the mind of a serial killer were helpful for you in bringing Cooper to life?
I found out that serial killers are basically like actors and that they kind of want to get caught too. It’s a dilemma: they’re desperate to pull off what they do. They want people to think they’re intelligent and put themselves above the law. At the same time, they want to tell their story and are frustrated that they can’t do so. It’s a constant conflict with their own narcissism. I wanted to combine these two sides in Cooper. But not just in the form of an abysmal character study. Above all, I wanted the movie to be entertaining and fun.
I giggled a lot, perhaps even too much.
No, no, that’s exactly how it should be
(Josh Hartnett and Ariel Donoghue in Trap: No Way Out)
The movie has a few twists and turns. When reading the script, did you ever have the feeling that this one twist might be too much of a good thing?
It was a big challenge to make it all convincing. It was clear to me from the start that if we wanted to pull it off, we would have to resort to a lot of humor. How do you get the audience on the side of a serial killer? Humor was our secret weapon. We tell you right at the beginning: “This is a bad person.” And then you take his side anyway.
I was also surprised how much I sympathized with him at the beginning.
That’s the trick. Cooper unexpectedly finds himself in an unpleasant situation from which he can’t escape – and that’s an experience that everyone has had. Yes, he’s evil, but suddenly he becomes human. That was the basic idea of the movie from the beginning. And that’s what I love so much about [M.] Night [Shyamalan]. He’s one of the best directors of our time who makes movies with original ideas. It’s nice to know that there are still stories out there that can surprise us and introduce us to characters we’ve never seen before.
I can even imagine Cooper becoming a new iconic movie character. Just that serial killer laugh you put on at the end.
Cooper experiences a really bizarre journey in the movie. How does a monster find a bit of humanity, at least for himself? How does he react when he can completely drop the facade? When he laughs, that’s when he’s at his most free.
While watching, I had to think of two films in particular. Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock and The Shining by Stanley Kubrick. Were these influences that you talked about during the shoot?
Night definitely had a few films that he kept going back to. I can’t remember if they were the ones you just mentioned. When we were talking about the movie at the beginning, he definitely mentioned The Stranger on the Train by Hitchcock. But I can really understand how you came up with the other films
(Saleka [Shyamalan in Trap: No Way Out)
The aspect that fascinates me most about Trap is the location at a concert in a 20,000-seat arena. How did you shoot that?
On the Eras tour, I realized how much effort goes into a concert. It’s a major project in itself and requires an incredible amount of planning. We also had to prepare everything down to the smallest detail before we could start filming. Saleka [Shyamalan] had written 14 new songs for the movie. You don’t just do that. A whole show with choreography had to be put together. Dance rehearsals, light settings – we even had a real concert crew on set who took care of the technology. For example, all the images on the screens on stage that are filmed during a concert. Their cameras were running at the same time as ours, so to speak.
Did you also play the music live?
Yes, it was all live and in front of an audience. We wanted the extras to feel like they were at a real concert. They were able to familiarize themselves with the songs in advance so that their reactions at the concert would be authentic. That was very exciting. Last but not least, I have hardly any experience of pop concerts and felt like a fish out of water. Here I am, a – then – 45 year old man, and I have no idea what’s going on. But the music was great.
Another important part of the movie is the relationship between Cooper and his daughter Riley, played by Ariel Donoghue. How does shooting a movie like this with a child actress work?
Ariel came to Canada from Australia with her family for the shoot. She was just 13 years old. So we tried to make the shoot as comfortable as possible. My family came for a few weeks. We went to the zoo, ate together and spent a lot of time together. It was important to me that she felt comfortable on set, which ultimately also benefits the father-daughter relationship in the movie. I have the greatest respect for her, because child actors do a double job. They are only allowed to work a certain number of hours, but they also have to go to school. That takes a lot of strength and energy. Ariel is an incredibly talented and professional actress.
