The 2003 film “Hollywood Homicide” has mostly faded from memory now, but around the time of its release, everyone was talking about the rumored feud between the movie’s stars, Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett. Now, 20 years later, Hartnett opened up about the rumors that he and Ford clashed during filming in an interview with The Independent.
According to the “Black Mirror” actor, the feud allegations were greatly exaggerated by the press. “Drama sold newspapers, especially back then,” he told the publication. “But we actually got along really well.”
Hartnett continued, “There were things that we disagreed about on set as far as [the script], and there was a lot of rewriting happening. But it was misinterpreted as ‘they don’t get along!’ It certainly wasn’t a set that was filled with tension. I think I did call him ‘the bane of my existence’ when we were on the press tour for that movie, but that was just because he was constantly ribbing me. And that’s just his way.”
In the movie, Hartnett and Ford play a mismatched pair of detectives who are tasked with solving the murders of a famous hip-hop group. At the time of the film’s release, there were rumors that the two didn’t make eye contact during filming. There were also reports that Ford called Hartnett “punk,” while Hartnett reportedly called the Indiana Jones star “old fart.”
During a 2003 appearance on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” Hartnett told O’Brien that he and Ford weren’t exactly palling around between takes. “When I first met him, we went and had a bagel,” he said. “He kind of sat there right next to me, and just wouldn’t even look at me. We ate our bagels in complete silence, and eventually he started testing me in these odd ways once he felt that I was getting too comfortable. He started smacking me back down.”
O’Brien joked, “He sounds like a bastard,” but Hartnett said he ultimately got along with his legendary costar by the end of filming. “It took a while, but we became pretty close after a while.”