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Josh Hartnett Takes on Challenge Playing Serial Killer in 'Trap'

Josh Hartnett attends the red carpet at the 'Trap' premiere in New York City, US, July 24, 2024. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
Josh Hartnett attends the red carpet at the 'Trap' premiere in New York City, US, July 24, 2024. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
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Josh Hartnett Takes on Challenge Playing Serial Killer in 'Trap'

Josh Hartnett attends the red carpet at the 'Trap' premiere in New York City, US, July 24, 2024. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
Josh Hartnett attends the red carpet at the 'Trap' premiere in New York City, US, July 24, 2024. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

Josh Hartnett says his role as a shrewd serial killer in filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan's new movie "Trap" marks a departure for him as an actor.
"It's unlike anything else I've played," Hartnett, who has starred in films such as "Black Hawk Down", "Lucky Number Slevin", "Pearl Harbor" and "The Virgin Suicides", said at the London premiere of "Trap" on Monday.
"Honestly, taking on this character wouldn't have been possible had it not been for Night, because if you're going to take on something this wild and this out there, you need somebody who you really trust behind the camera," Reuters quoted the American actor as saying.
"And another thing is, I just always like a challenge."
In "Trap" Hartnett plays Cooper, who takes his teenage daughter to a pop concert that turns out to be an elaborate police entrapment operation set up to catch a serial killer - who turns out to be Cooper. The psychological thriller was written, directed and produced by Shyamalan, who is known for his unique plot twists.
"I try to create something really hyper original in the marketplace so I can compete," said Shyamalan, whose credits include "The Sixth Sense", "Signs" and "Split".
That originality means the work "sticks with you. The idea here was like a concert and a thriller together."
Getting into the mindset of the character involved reading about psychopathy and sociopathy and long discussions with Shyamalan about the tone they wanted the character and the movie to take, Hartnett said.
The result was another career high point, said Hartnett, 46, who started acting in the late 1990s and whose recent work includes roles in Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" and Guy Ritchie's "Wrath of Man" as well as parts in TV series "Black Mirror" and "The Bear".
"Trap" is out in cinemas globally in August.

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Loni Anderson, Who Played Smart Against Stereotype on 'WKRP in Cincinnati,' Dead at 79

Loni Anderson, attends Stars From "It's A Wonderful Lifetime" Honor Blue Star Families Military Spouses, Who Will Receive The Gift Of A Lifetime at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on November 28, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
Loni Anderson, attends Stars From "It's A Wonderful Lifetime" Honor Blue Star Families Military Spouses, Who Will Receive The Gift Of A Lifetime at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on November 28, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Loni Anderson, Who Played Smart Against Stereotype on 'WKRP in Cincinnati,' Dead at 79

Loni Anderson, attends Stars From "It's A Wonderful Lifetime" Honor Blue Star Families Military Spouses, Who Will Receive The Gift Of A Lifetime at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on November 28, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
Loni Anderson, attends Stars From "It's A Wonderful Lifetime" Honor Blue Star Families Military Spouses, Who Will Receive The Gift Of A Lifetime at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on November 28, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images/AFP)

Actress Loni Anderson, who won acclaim for her US television sitcom role as the brainy, glamorous radio station receptionist defying workplace stereotypes on "WKRP in Cincinnati," died on Sunday at age 79, according to her publicist.

Anderson, also remembered for her much-publicized storybook marriage to actor Burt Reynolds in 1988 and their tabloid-fixated divorce six years later, died at a Los Angeles hospital "following an acute prolonged illness," her family said.

"We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear wife, mother and grandmother," the family said in a statement, adding that she was surrounded by loved ones.

Anderson, a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, and natural brunette who competed in local beauty pageants and got her showbiz start in community theater, dyed her hair platinum blonde after moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s.

A flurry of television work followed, with appearances on such prime-time series as "The Bob Newhart Show,Police Story,The Incredible Hulk", "The Love Boat" and "Three's Company."

She had auditioned for the role of one of the two female lead characters, Chrissie, on "Three's Company," but the part ultimately went to Suzanne Somers.

Anderson's big break came soon after when she landed the co-starring role of Jennifer Marlowe on "WKRP in Cincinnati," persuading the show's producers to let her play the part against the stereotype of a bubble-headed blonde.

Instead, her character was written as the deceptively shrewd receptionist who refused to take dictation or fetch coffee but turns out to be the smartest person in the room, keeping the fictional Ohio radio station afloat despite the shortcomings of male bosses.

The show ran four seasons, 1978-1982, on the CBS network, and earned Anderson two prime-time Emmy nominations.

She also played two real-life, ill-fated sex sirens of earlier Hollywood eras in a pair of made-for-TV-movies - "The Jayne Mansfield Story," co-starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as her bodybuilder husband during the 1950s, and "The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd," set in the 1930s.

In all, Anderson starred in six television series, seven feature films, 19 television movies and two mini-series during a four-decade career she chronicled in her best-selling autobiography, "My Life in High Heels."

She and Reynolds first met in 1981 as guests on a television talk show, began dating a year later and co-starred in the 1983 race car-themed romantic comedy film "Stroker Ace." They wed in 1988, she for the third time, he for the second.

Anderson is survived by her adopted son, Quinton Anderson Reynolds, and her fourth husband, Bob Flick, a member of the 1950s-60s folk-singing group the Brothers Four.