Josh Hartnett recently reflected on turning down the opportunity to portray Superman and Batman on the silver screen, explaining how he was acutely aware of what he was walking away from when he rejected both iconic roles.
"At that age it is very easy to become someone else's tool or someone else's puppet," Hartnett explained to Metro. "I was very aware of the choices I was making and I wanted them to be my choices." The actor confessed how, at the time, he declined the roles, it didn't seem like a particularly consequential decision, divulging how he ultimately didn't want to be typecast as a "superhero type." Contextualizing his choice further, Hartnett noted how a lot of actors struggled to "get their career back" after accepting superhero roles at that point in time.
He explained, "There were a lot of powers that be that wanted me to pursue those films, but I have always been interested in stories about people and I didn't want to be boxed into that superhero type." He added, "Back then a lot of actors had to fight really hard to get their career back after they played those characters."
Hartnett turned down the role of Superman in 2006's Superman Returns; the part ultimately went to Brandon Routh, who recently teased that there is "always a possibility" his version of Superman could appear in DCEU's The Flash. The role of Batman in Christopher Nolan's Batman movies would go to Christian Bale, who played the iconic character in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.
Source: Metro