Josh Hartnett Shares Insight Into His Trap Character & Emotional Journey

Summary Unexpected twist: Father-daughter outing becomes nightmare as trap is set for serial killer at concert.

Collaborative effort: Hartnett praises Shyamalan's direction, creating complex character in dark thriller.

Authenticity in music: Saleka Shyamalan's songs reflect emotional journey, add tension to film.

Cooper seems like the average father bringing his daughter, Riley, to a massive pop concert in Trap. While both Cooper and Riley appear excited to share this experience, things take a turn when Cooper learns the entire concert is a trap set by the police to catch a notorious serial killer, The Butcher. With his darkest secret in danger of being revealed, Cooper will do whatever it takes to avoid detection and escape this concert unscathed.

Trap is helmed by horror legend M. Night Shyamalan, who serves as both director and writer. Josh Hartnett brings complexity and an unexpected dose of humanity to this dark, twisted character that will have audiences rooting for him even as they see some of the darkest aspects of this character. Trap also features a major concert with Shyamalan making the experience feel authentic while also using music, written and performed by Saleka Shyamalan, to reflect the emotional journey of Cooper and the tension building throughout the movie.

Related Trap: 8 Biggest Theories About M. Night Shyamalan's Upcoming Killer Twist Since Trap's trailer suggests that the movie will feature a Shyamalan-esque twist, many have come up with plausible theories about what it could be.

Screen Rant chatted with Trap star Josh Hartnett about his new movie. He discussed collaborating with Shyamalan and how the veteran director brought a major concert to life on screen. He praised both Saleka Shyamalan and Donoghue's ability to become immersed in their characters. Hartnett also shared insight into his devious character.

Josh Hartnett Teases His Trap Character Is "A Facade That He Then Learns Might Not Just Be A Facade"

Hartnett plays Cooper (a serial killer known as The Butcher) in Trap, but the heart of the movie is the father-daughter relationship between Cooper and Riley. Hartnett teased how that dynamic evolves for Cooper throughout the movie as the stakes rise with the cat-and-mouse game.

Josh Hartnett: Well, it's human and it's light to us, but to him it's a facade that he then learns might not just be a facade. That's what makes it so interesting is that this thing is set on a day where all this stuff happens that kind of forces him to reevaluate who he is. I don't think I've ever seen a movie like that.

Can you talk about working with M. Night Shyamalan to craft Cooper and getting the right tone and flavor for the character?

Josh Hartnett: Well, Knight's incredibly collaborative because he's a great filmmaker and I think all great filmmakers are not worried about protecting their vision so much. It's the more insecure filmmakers who just don't want to compromise on anything, because they don't want anything to go out of their control. Knight is, he's very warm, he's very optimistic, and he knew when he sent me the script, he knew it was going to be a tough ask for any actor and he entrusted it to me. I wanted to give him the most extreme and interesting version of this character that felt credible. It needed to feel like it was one guy and it needed to feel like all of these different layers were part of one. Not just like he was putting on these things for the sake of it, but like a need. He yearned for something, some sort of understanding of himself, some sort of understanding of family that he didn't have and that led him down the path to get to this point that now he's able to sort understand a little bit something else about himself. And then also it had to be super entertaining, so it had to be fun. It had to be done with the light touch, and that's a really difficult thing to pull off. Also, we're basically telling the audience this main character is a serial killer, and then we have to convince them to actually enjoy being around him and follow him through this piece and maybe hope that he escapes. It's a tough thing to pull off. I think Knight did an amazing job.

Saleka's Songs Are "The Internal Monologue Of Cooper To An Extent"

Image via Warner Bros.

Hartnett explained how the concert aspect of the movie was brought to life with Shyamalan crafting the concert long before filming ever began. Hartnett also broke down the details that needed to be included to make the concert feel real, including how the younger actors had to be fully immersed in every element down to singing along to the lyrics.

Josh Hartnett: Well, because as you say, he had to put up the whole concert. He was working on that before we actually went to shoot for a long time. So they knew they had a whole series of people that had worked on concerts before and put up big pop concerts, kind of create this show that then Saleka was rehearsing with all these dancers. And so by the time we got to actually film, they had created this as though we were coming to town. But then for them to make that go on over and over and over again and have the audience interact in the way that they did, it's quite a challenge. We shot this for almost a month in that one location. So a lot of the kids were young who were there as they are at a Taylor Swift concert or whatever, and they had to know all the lyrics and they had to be enthusiastic. We had a core group of people that were right around us that were kind of going to be on camera a lot. A lot of them were young and they really appreciated Saleka's music and they loved the whole process. It was just, I mean, it's quite a feat, but also Knight has a way about him of convincing people to do things that I think most people wouldn't be able to convince people to do. It's a remarkable, it's so cool, what he did.

Can you talk about [Saleka's] dedication to the role and what impressed you the most about her?

Josh Hartnett: What impressed me the most was the part of it that Knight didn't tell me about beforehand, which was I knew she was going to put on a concert. I knew it was going to be pop style and she's not a pop artist, so she was going to have to change her genre and the way that she approaches her music. She was going to have to learn all this choreography [and] she had never done anything like that before. She was going to have to be a larger than life character, all of that stuff, very difficult. And then also play a real character in the movie. All of that, very, very difficult. But the thing that you didn't tell me is that she's actually scoring the movie. If you listen to what's going on, what she's saying in the songs, it's kind of the internal monologue of Cooper to an extent. That's an insane thing to pull off. So I'm in awe of what she was able to do, kind of like I'm in awe of what Knight was able to do in creating the concert environment, making sure that that all was locked in. And then also directing us in the film. Everybody worked much harder than me on this movie. Let's just put it that way.

Josh Hartnett Wants To "Play All Sorts Of Different Roles"

Hartnett praised his co-star Ariel Donoghue and her ability to bring the father-daughter dynamic to life on screen. He also shared how they were able to play and create the chemistry together that feels organic in the movie, in part because of how her character fits into the larger thriller element of Trap.

Josh Hartnett: She was just the most lovely and open and sweet actor, and her family was there. They met my family. We all hung out, but Ariel's just like, she's such a natural that you just want to, I mean, we played on set and it worked and just kind of goofed around. Then she would say her lines, I would say my lines, but really we just kept it really light. The nice thing about that character is that for most of the movie, she doesn't know what's going on, and so we got to keep it just simply dad and daughter style. She understood that relationship really well and all the dark stuff is sort of hidden away from her, but then when it came to the emotional stuff, she was right there, right on it as well. She's super professional. But yeah, no, so much fun to work with her.

I feel like we are in the Josh Hartnett Renaissance right now with Oppenheimer to Trap amazing roles and it really shows your range as an actor. What do you look for in characters that you want to take on now?

Josh Hartnett: Kind of the same thing I've always looked for. I hate to say that, but it's true. I always want to look for something that kind of changes people's idea of what they think I am or what they think I can do. I want to surprise people. It's fun as an actor to play all sorts of different roles. I don't understand actors who just want to do one thing all the time. I always want to do something completely different from what I've just done. Luckily these days a lot of big directors are allowing me to do it and play in their films, so hopefully, I don't know, I'll be able to keep doing this for a while.

About Trap

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A father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.

Check back for our other Trap interviews:

M. Night Shyamalan

Saleka Shyamalan

Trap hits theaters August 2.

Source: Screen Rant Plus