Josh Hartnett Clarifies Comments On Turning Down Christopher Nolan's Batman

Last month, Penny Dreadful star Josh Hartnett gave a candid interview to Playboy that caused quite a stir. Why the fuss? Josh discussed the various superhero roles he turned down, like Superman and Christopher Nolan's Batman. Some people interpreted those comments as though the 36-year-old actor was boasting about which roles were available to him at his peak. Others took his comments to mean he regretted passing on the superhero roles themselves. He now wants to clarify that his only regret stems from the missed opportunity those roles would have offered him in forming relationships with filmmakers he admires.

"I always regret being honest about certain things. The way they come out and get decontextualized makes it sound like a boast," Hartnett explained to USA Today. "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."

Do you think Josh Hartnett would've been a better Batman than Christian Bale? Let us know in the comment section below.