Josh Hartnett Absolutely Slayed In 'Oppenheimer', And Now That Two-Face In 'The Batman Part II' Rumor Is Way More Exciting

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I remember watching Josh Hartnett back in the day in various projects, random movies here and there. A smoke show of a man, for sure. Thought he would be the next big movie star. 

However, I was always kinda like, "What's this dude doing?" His voice was all kinda gravelly. His line deliveries were pretty flat and unvaried. Wooden acting a lot of the time, if I may be so harsh. But I think some of that is hitting it big at a young age. Dealing with all the fame and extraneous bullshit of being a young heartthrob had to be tough. That sounds like an amazing problem to have but nevertheless. I feel like some of his lackluster performances could be attributed to, well, his heart not being in it. I'm not saying he didn't work hard or didn't try to do well in the roles he played. IDK. Just whatever I saw from him, he was just...there...?

Recently I watched Hartnett's episode on the latest season of Black Mirror, where he has to go toe-to-toe with small-screen acting legend Aaron Paul. Hartnett fucking held his own and then some. I was like, "Oh damn, OK! Go off!!"

But Josh Hartnett in Oppenheimer?!?!?! YO. Holy SHIT. Dare I say, "A REVELATIONNNN!"

Yeah everyone's prattling on about how good-looking he is. We all knew this already. I've never seen the man so animated. That flat, low-pitched, brooding, back-foot type of character that he played earlier in his career was vanquished. He plays nuclear physicist Ernest Lawrence, who befriends Cillian Murphy's J. Robert at Cal Berkeley. With all these A-list stars across the board of a god-tier ensemble cast, for me at least, it was hard to look past some of them. Like I obviously knew it was Josh Hartnett when he popped on screen, but from the first line he gave, I was blown away. He was bursting with energy and passion. His voice was like a full register higher than I've ever heard him speak before and his gave his lines so much more life to them. The chemistry between Hartnett and Murphy was one of the highlights of the film.

It was as if there was a governor on Hartnett's acting instrument and Christopher Nolan somehow just yanked that fucker outta there and said, "RUN RUN RUN FUCKING GOOOOOO!!!!" and it was just awesome. Hartnett deserves credit for the work he did on his own. Maybe that time away from the limelight reinvigorated his zest for acting. 

Whatever the hell got into him, I want more of it. And I think Josh Hartnett would be an amazing Harvey Dent/Two-Face based on his efforts in, yes, Black Mirror but more especially the possible career-best turn in OPPY.

John Rocha on The Hot Mic podcast dropped the rumor on Hartnett and Joel Edgerton being in the running for Harvey Dent/Two-Face a while back. We're talking over two weeks ago, so before Oppenheimer premiered. I mean...this is like the classic Hollywood career renaissance perfect storm: A complex lead role on a widely renowned TV show, then a show-stealing/stopping supporting player in a gigantic movie with perhaps the biggest director on the planet at this very moment.

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Nolan recently said that Hartnett had an initial meeting about Batman Begins but that he was more interested in the script for The Prestige. Some talentless hack named Christian Bale not only took the lead in the former blockbuster, but also slayed in the latter. Don't know what happened to that guy. Haven't heard from him.

NO. 

For real, we've not heard from Josh Hartnett enough evidently. Because it turns out, this guy is a way better actor than I ever thought he had the potential to be. I'm sure I can't be alone in that opinion. So despite a reluctance to go toward the superhero realm in the past, I think Hartnett would welcome the chance to play a charismatic DA in Harvey Dent before breaking bad — Aaron Paul callback — and succumbing to villainy as Two-Face.

Although I'm not a deep-dive comic book reader, there are so many awesome Batman villains, so I wouldn't be stoked about a repeat from past flicks if it wasn't Two-Face. But it is [rumored to be]. 

We never got to see Billy Dee Williams transform from Harvey Dent. Tommy Lee Jones was a one-and-done campy heavy in Batman Forever. Aaron Eckhart was Two-Face for about two minutes of screen time before he got killed off in Nolan's The Dark Knight. Give Hartnett a full-ass two movies to cook and I think he'd be brilliant. Essentially mash up his Black Mirror and Oppenheimer performances, toss in Matt Reeves' super layered script with a dash of Gotham aesthetic and Robert Pattinson's formidable Batman. Sounds like a killer combination to me.

Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok