MANILA, Philippines — Director M. Night Shyamalan is full praise for Josh Hartnett’s “amazing” performance in their upcoming movie “Trap.”
The film stars Josh as a serial killer known as The Butcher who accompanies his daughter to a concert, which he realizes is a trap set by police to catch him.
Josh commended the director for his work ethic after going through the movie’s storyboards, which M. Night worked on to bring to life.
“I think he does that because he feels what the actors are going through. You can see him behind the camera, really experiencing it, wanting to be there 100%, to see how it will be experienced by the audience,” he said. “Later, he can then put it together in a way that’s going to be most effective for the audience. It just shows what a master he is of this craft. And I think because of all that, he really enjoys the process.”
M. Night mirrored the praise toward Josh, seeing him as a reflection of his filmmaking.
“I have come to think of the way I make movies as a reinvention of myself, reinvention of tone, reinvention of a genre every single time. That’s what gets me excited,” he explained. “To do that, I look to do things differently. I offer the opportunity to make smaller, provocative movies, and maybe we can connect with people from around the world.”
As such, the director wanted someone “at the right place in their life” and “willing to take a real risk,” because in doing so, audiences will witness something rare and extraordinary.
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“I think Josh exactly fits this description — he lives in England with his family. He’s an incredibly thoughtful and philosophical man. To play Cooper, this particular role, I needed someone that was all in and was ready to take a risk,” M. Night said.
The filmmaker recalled meeting Josh and upon looking each other in the eyes he know he was down for just about anything.
“There was an energy, an electricity coming off of him. I think for audiences, one of the great reasons to come to this movie is seeing the amazing performance that Josh gives,” M. Night ended.
Josh is going through a resurgence following his rise to fame on the crime series “Cracker,” the slasher movie “Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later,” Sofia Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides,” and most especially “Black Hawk Down” and “Pearl Harbor.”
Last year, Josh starred in Oscar-winning film “Oppenheimer” as American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence, the winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the cyclotron.
He also appeared in Guy Ritchie’s “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre,” the “Beyond the Sea” episode of the latest season of “Black Mirror,” and most recently in an episode of “The Bear.”
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