Josh Hartnett on Finding (and Shedding) His ‘Below’ Accent, and the Car Accident That Nearly Derailed Production

Below is performing well above Netflix‘s expectations. On Tuesday, the streamer reported another number-one week for the Newfoundland-set limited series starring Josh Hartnett, Charlie Heaton and one giant squid. In its first full week of availability, Below reeled in 21.2 million views (it premiered to 17 million views in a shortened debut week), the streamer’s most ever in a single week for a Canadian original title.

The Hollywood Reporter grabbed Hartnett (Penny Dreadful, Black Mirror), who plays local fisherman Calvin Penney, to chat about the show’s success, its similarities to Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay and the 48-year-old actor’s successful breakaway from his teen idol days.

What was your first reaction to the show’s viewership numbers?

I was pleasantly — not surprised. I mean, I wasn’t surprised because I know that the show is good and I was hoping — but it was beyond, I think, even mine and Jesse’s hopes. The reactions have been thoughtful, and they’ve been across-the-board interested in different levels of the show — some people are just there to kind of witness the mystery of it, or you know the monster-y aspects of it, and that’s fine too — and then there are people that are kind of digging a little deeper, no pun intended, but it does feel like people are having a thoughtful reaction to it, and it feels like they’re really enjoying it. I’ve got to say, it’s an amazing feeling to have something that you make and you put your time into being considered on that level.

I am among those who have compared Below to Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay. At a certain point in viewing both series though, the comparisons ought to die down.

Yeah, I guess so. I hadn’t even heard [Widow’s Bay] until it came out — well, until I saw the trailer for it. I was like, “Oh, thank God.” But, at the same time, it involves some of the same themes. So yeah, I guess it was a little bit of a scary situation if we get caught in that flywheel of people’s opinion, that “Oh, it’s just that, it’s just that, it’s just that.” But I always knew that Jesse [McKeown] was making something — well, since seeing Widow’s Bay — that’s totally different. And luckily Netflix didn’t get scared of it because we’d already shot it. We were done. It was coming out.

To use a pun myself, the Below shoot wasn’t all smooth sailing — you were involved in a pretty serious car accident during production. I’m not sure how many people know about that.

Well, we didn’t really talk about it because I didn’t really want it to be the story. I just wanted the show to be the story. But we got hit — my driver and I — coming home from work at like one o’clock in the morning. Got T-boned by a police car running a red light. They hit us very fast.

Was everyone all right?

We’re both OK. My driver has whiplash. I think he’s still trying to figure out what to do about that. He’s still in some pain. But I was OK. I mean, the miracle of the side-impact air bag was — because it hit just in front of my door and broke the axle of our car and smashed in our engine. [The police officer] had bull bars on the front of his car, and they all went up. Broke the front end of his car, and it was just very close, but we were OK.

The entry point for viewers is probably your very specific Newfoundland accent. Did you hang on to any of that after production?

No, I don’t personally because I feel I live in England. My wife is English. My kids are English. If I were to change my accent, my parents would disown me.

When I first heard the accent, it felt like I didn’t know how to place it. It was like a little bit Irish, it was a little bit Canadian, it was a little bit middle-American… and also just a little bit sort of Cornwall. But none of those things came out in the wash when you started to investigate them. You had to kind of start from scratch.

We had this great group of people that were working on the set that were there to call us out when we were going south or going in the wrong direction — going too Irish or whatever. And it just kind of all worked out. I knew when we started, as we all did, [the accent] is going to be jarring to the public when they first hear it. There are going to be some haters that come up, there are going to be some trolls. If you don’t commit to it… you’re not really doing a service to the story — so we decided to really go for it.

Below is a limited series, but one with an ending that could easily spawn a second season. As you know, these days, “limited” doesn’t always mean “limited to one season.” Have there been talks of a season two?

We have not had any talks about a second season. Other people will talk about that and then talk to me about it if that were to be the case, but I haven’t heard anything about it yet. We’re just super happy with the results.

Is this the most VFX you’ve acted across from?

I was going to say, like, it’s on that level, but I did Sin City (2005) for two scenes where there was not even a set. It was the first time that happened. This is well before Marvel or anybody started using volume stages. It was just green screen. So, green screens and tennis balls — I’ve done it before.

This was more on-location, so I didn’t even feel. When I’m speaking to the giant squid, or if I’m watching — I’m looking at the sea and I’m out on a ship, and there’s very little that I have to imagine. It’s under there. And so it was less CGI than it might look like from the onset.

You’re certainly beyond your “heartthrob”-typecasting era of 40 Days and 40 Nights and Pearl Harbor, but do you still feel an internal pressure when choosing roles to sort of break that mold?

For me internally, it’s not a factor. I don’t know what it is for everyone else. I can’t live like that. I need to choose based off of great material, based off of the people I’m going to be working with. That’s it, and the fact that I’m getting offered things that are across the board at this point, as opposed to just what I was being offered when I was younger. I had to fight really hard to get out of that box when I was younger, and now I feel like, as far as directors are concerned, they’re trusting me with more things, and so maybe the public is — but I don’t have a gauge for that because I’m not really in touch.