The feud between Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett
Pairing a grizzled veteran up with a fresh-faced rookie has been a staple part of the buddy cop genre since its inception, with one entirely forgettable example creating simmering tension between stars Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett.
In the early 2000s, Hartnett was being hailed as one of the fastest-rising young stars in the industry, something he dealt with by actively turning his back on it. He wanted to be an actor, not a movie star, and as a result, ruled himself out of the running for a string of iconic roles, including Batman and Superman.
Meanwhile, Ford had been a mainstay of the A-list since the late 1970s and wasn’t shy about leaning into his status as a well-known curmudgeon. His dry sense of humour has regularly been misinterpreted over the years, which ended up affecting the production of the dull-as-dishwater flop Hollywood Homicide.
In Ron Shelton’s widely-panned bomb that didn’t come close to recouping its hefty $75million budget at the box office, the two leads are partnered up to try and solve the murder of several high-profile music industry figures, but the main source of focus in the build-up to its release in June 2003 was the rumours of discontent between its bickering central duo.
Hartnett admitted how “there were times we would end up just sitting in the car when we were supposed to be doing a scene and neither of us would say anything for like an hour,” which he likened to “a testing period I had to endure” as his more established co-star tried to gain a handle on the upstart he was sharing the screen with.
It was claimed that they even had pet names for each other, if not of a complimentary nature. Ford would reportedly refer to Hartnett as a “punk”, while he’d return the favour by calling the Star Wars and Indiana Jones icon an “old fart”. It made for some testy and awkward moments on the press tour, but the younger of the two would eventually try to clear the air.
While Hartnett did admit calling Ford “the bane of my existence”, he suggests tales of a bitter feud were blown out of proportion. “Drama sold newspapers, especially back then. But we actually got along really well,” he explained. “There were things that we disagreed about on set as far as the script, and there was a lot of rewriting happening.”
Claiming their frustrations with the production were “misinterpreted” as direct bitterness between them, it still doesn’t sound as though Hollywood Homicide was the most exuberant set to be around. Whether by accident or design, it was reflected in the finished film, with both Ford and Hartnett coming across as being completely and utterly bored beyond belief.
