Josh Hartnett portrays widower Calvin Penney in the Newfoundland-set Netflix Canada series Below, which is having its world premiere at TIFF.Courtesy of Netflix/Netflix
The next stage of American actor Josh Hartnett’s alleged Hollywood comeback has been highly visible in Toronto this week.
Below, the new Newfoundland-set Netflix Canada sea-monster miniseries Hartnett stars in, screened two episodes at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday night ahead of its Oct. 8 debut.
Meanwhile, Hartnett’s face was circling all over the city: Verity, his erotic thriller co-starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson that’s coming out Oct. 2, is being promoted by a van – a “mobile pop-up” – with his and Hathaway’s mugs roaming the streets during TIFF.
Hartnett, himself, popped up in the flesh Thursday too. The 48-year-old father of four flew over from London, where he lives with his family, and gallantly fought through jet-lag during a daylong junket for Below followed by a premiere and a Newfoundland-themed party (where Tom Power’s The Dardanelles jammed in the corner).
In the middle of all that, Hartnett emerged from a social content shoot to sit down with The Globe and talk about Below – and that perception of an upswing in his acting trajectory.
Comeback isn’t the word he’d use about his recent return to roles in high-profile projects such as Oscar-winner Oppenheimer and Emmy-winner The Bear.
”I would say that I’m working in different genres with different fantastic directors, and being able to choose more interesting characters to play than I’ve ever been able to before,” says Hartnett.
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By contrast, the Black Hawk Down and The Virgin Suicides star didn’t find many of the roles offered back in his peak heartthrob days in the noughties all that interesting, famously declining the role of Superman and bowing out of consideration for Batman.
“It feels to me more like a progression than like a going away and coming back,” adds Hartnett, who also prioritizes being “fully present as a dad” eight months a year with his kids aged two to 10.
In Below, Hartnett plays Calvin Penney, an ice-harvesting bayman and widower living in a remote town that’s soon to hold a vote on relocation.
Calvin’s three adult children – Wade (Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton), who’s failed to launch; Mary (Ruby Stokes), who’s moved to Montreal with a boyfriend; and Jay (Rohan Campbell), who’s working the rigs in Alberta – are back for a Come Home Year celebration.
The family reunion is badly timed, however, as a mysterious monster starts wreaking havoc on and near the water.
Is it a prehistoric squid unleashed by melting icebergs? An aquatic manifestation of the Old Hag of folklore?
Underneath the surface, Below – created by Canadian writer Jesse McKeown – is a parable about the history of resettlement in Newfoundland and Labrador. It’s about survival – not just of its protagonists, but of a way of life.
“That’s what drew me to the project,” says Hartnett. “That a culture that is distinct and unique can still exist in our hyper-homogenized society.”
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Hartnett – a native Minnesotan who previously played a Canadian, journalist Victor Malarek, in 2020’s Target Number One – was cast in Below after his friend, executive producer Jessica Rhoades, signed on.
Less than a month after being sent the scripts, Hartnett was in St John’s getting a crash course in Newfoundland and Labrador history, learning to tie knots and cast nets like a fisherman and working on the Penney family accent with the actors (two English, one Albertan) playing his kids.
“If there’s an actor that says that accents just come easy, they probably aren’t trying very hard,” he says.
There were other hard parts to the shoot, too. Hartnett ending up taking two trips to the hospital.
His first accident was off-set and made the news: A Royal Newfoundland Constabulary patrol vehicle went through a red light and crashed into the passenger side of an SUV carrying Hartnett. “Side airbag technology is one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever experienced in my life,” he says, noting he emerged from the hard hit with only a bruise on his arm.
The RNC launched an investigation and a spokesperson e-mailed this statement: “As a result of the investigation, the operator of the police vehicle was ticketed for failing to stop at a red light.”
Hartnett hadn’t heard that was the outcome and visibly grimaces when I share it with him. “He got a ticket?” he says. “Okay.”
Not reported back in 2025 was that Hartnett broke his nose and got a concussion while shooting a scene on a boat. He’s reluctant to talk too much about it, not wanting “one small thing” to overshadow what he calls a wonderful 4½-month shoot.
“My nose isn’t even crooked,” he says, pointing to what is indeed a well-aligned schnoz in the middle of his handsome face. “It broke straight.”
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Hartnett, naturally, has no end of nice things to say about Newfoundlanders (“super welcoming and very kind and open, and loved to have a conversation”). He highlights the “phenomenal” work of the local actors such as Willow Kean, who plays his sister, and Joel Thomas Hynes, who plays a rival ice harvester. That both Kean and Hynes are novelists too – “terrific writers,” Hartnett says – impressed him.
Former This Hour Has 22 Minutes star Mary Walsh is another Newfoundland actor in the show – playing the Jaws-like mayor of Snook’s Arm, worried as much about homecoming parties going ahead as scheduled as the increasing carnage.
Hartnett only has one thing to say about her in our interview, however.
“Mary’s the one who spilled the beans on that, apparently,” he says, with mild exasperation. “I think she’s the one that said that I broke my nose.”
Well, what happens on the Rock doesn’t stay on the Rock – and this come from away got the true Newfoundland experience on his comeback journey.