Being the subject of everyone’s romantic fantasy is both a blessing and a curse – just ask Josh Hartnett. With his brown curtains, chiselled jawline and piercing eyes delivering him almost instant heartthrob status when he first caught the attention of every impressionable teen in The Faculty, Hartnett was the definition of a poster boy. Now, twenty years on, the 46-year-old tells People that the heartthrob label was ‘frustrating’ for him.
‘I was frustrated because I assumed audiences cared more about my choices than they did,’ he admitted. ‘Audiences mostly just wanted to be entertained.’
Hartnett is having something of a renaissance, with a role in the critically acclaimed Oppenheimer last summer and a cameo in the latest season of The Bear. Now he's busy promoting his latest film Trap (out on 9 August), by M Night Shyamalan. So far, so auspicious, but Hartnett has career regrets about being typecast at such a crucial early stage. ‘Everybody wanted me to play those kinds of roles and that’s what I was being offered.’ He added that, ‘Really, the door kind of shut on those other more interesting characters for me unless I sought them out and kind of help the directors get them made.’
Hard as it may be to feel sorry for them, it's a trap that many (devilishly) handsome, young actors fall into – and not one that’s easy to escape from. Take Hugh Grant in the 1990s, who found himself constantly accused of ‘playing himself’ and ‘playing the same character’ when he starred in hits like Four Weddings and A Funeral, Notting Hill and About A Boy. Now in his 60s, he opted to play a CGI-Oompa Loompa in the musical reboot Wonka, and claims Paddington 2 is the best film he’s ever been in.
Then you have actors like Matthew McConaughey – who played the heartthrob in cult classics like How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days, Failure to Launch and Fool's Gold – who executed a sharp gear change when he starred in Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective and never looked back.
Even Ryan Gosling, of The Notebook fame, seemed to make a conscious effort not to be typecast after winning over everyone’s hearts as Noah Calhoun in 2004. His roles in films like Drive and The Big Short are evidence of that, even though he’s managed to strike a balance by starring in Crazy, Stupid, Love, Barbie and Fall Guy since too. Ryan has managed the feat of being a heartthrob and a three-time Oscar-nominated actor simultaneously.
On the other hand, Jude Law recently expressed regret for not playing more heartthrob roles as a young actor. Speaking to DuJour magazine, he said: ‘I didn’t feel like I really ever leaned into playing handsome, but there were roles that required an attractive energy. I was trying to play against my looks in my early 20s, and now that I’m saggy and balding, I wish I had played it up.’
Jude proves it's certainly possible, but it's difficult to shake off the 'hot male lead in mediocre blockbuster' bookings once they come flooding in. High School Musical and 17 Again's Zac Efron, for one, struggled to make his mark as a serious player on the silver screen until A24’s Iron Claw came out last year. Proving that it often takes the perfect role, cast and producer – and a very long time – for someone's reputation to begin to turn.
For others, the manoeuvre is not easy either. When Josh rose to fame in the early noughties, he was in his early 20s and realised quickly that he needed ‘to be very true to [himself]’ in order not to lose control. ‘At that point in your life, your frontal lobe isn’t fully formed and your idea of self isn’t fully actualised. So to have everybody sort of with a million different opinions on what they would like you to be before you know who you are is not healthy,’ the actor explained. ‘I knew that at the time.
‘I didn’t want to be defined by other people. I wanted to define myself, and I knew that what I responded to in film was different than what people were offering me.’
‘I feel really lucky that I've been able to make, I think, consistently interesting work over the course of my career. And now people are more interested in it,' he said, adding also that he's ‘really happy that people are rediscovering or discovering for the first time some of the earlier films I've made'.
It's hard to think of Josh’s reflections as a cautionary tale, let's be honest, but it turns out cashing in on heartthrob roles doesn't necessarily make for a long and fulfilling career, and neither does dodging them altogether. Either way, these actors are handsome, wealthy and adored by millions of people with or without industry kudos, so we reckon they'll be just fine.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, covering TV, celebrity interviews, news and features.