Josh Hartnett’s ‘Penny Dreadful’ character is "full of mystery".
The 35-year-old actor rose to fame in blockbuster films such as ‘Pearl Harbour’ and ‘Black Hawk Down’ but later left Hollywood to pursue grittier roles, and he’s now set to star in the new horror series based in 19th Century London.
He said: "I play Ethan Chandler, the only American in the piece, and you don’t really know why he’s there in the beginning and he’s full of mystery, and then after the first couple of episodes you want to ask him why he’s sticking around, because so many supernatural things are happening."
The series is named after a form of British fiction from the era, which focused on lurid and sensational subjects, and features a number of characters from classic fiction including Dracula, Dorian Gray and Frankenstein, but Josh claims little is known about Ethan until late in the first season.
Speaking on ‘This Morning’ earlier today (11.05.14), he said: "What’s really nice about this character is you don’t really know anything about him, empirically, until further into the first season, which is eight episodes long. So that’s eight hours. I’ve never done anything like this before."
‘Penny Dreadful’ – which also stars Billie Piper, Eva Green and Timothy Dalton – starts on May 20 at 9pm on Sky Atlantic.
Josh Hartnett is ‘full of mystery’ in Penny Dreadful
