In an April interview with Playboy, Josh Hartnett expressed regret for turning down a number of roles, which included a part in Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige." The lead role in "The Prestige" went to Christian Bale, who went on to play Batman in Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy.

Now, while he says that the original Playboy interview framed his words in the correct light, the actor wishes to set the record straight regarding the context later reports placed his comments in. USA Today gave Harnett a platform to address the life his words took on.

"I always regret being honest about certain things. The way they come out and get decontextualized makes it sound like a boast. In that particular situation, it wasn't what we were talking about at all. We were talking about, at that particular time in my life, do I regret anything in particular? He was talking specifically about Superman at that point. I said no, I don't regret it. I regret some of the relationships I could have formed that I didn't form.

And I said, for example, I was really interested in this movie that Christopher Nolan's brother wrote and it's called 'The Prestige.' I went and had a meeting with them. Warner Brothers wanted me to talk about Batman. I wanted to talk about 'The Prestige.' I don't read my own press as much as possible. I just kind of -- you have to be cautious about how you put certain things.

To set the record straight, in a nutshell, it was about relationships I wish I'd formed but because of my fear of the concept of being one thing in my career and one thing only, I decided I would just stay away from that one aspect. That was only part of what I was doing at the time."

Hartnett can currently be seen playing Ethan Chandler on the Showtime series "Penny Dreadful."