Josh Hartnett 'Late Night w/ Conan O'Brien' 10/19 transcript

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Conan: All right, everybody. We are back. It's all good, my babies. My first guest starred in such films as "black hawk down," "sin city," and "pearl harbor." Now, he can be seen in the new movie "30 days of nights." Please welcome josh hartnett!

[ Cheers and applause ]

Conan: All right. Thanks for being here.

Josh: Thanks for having me.

Conan: Ladies, please, I'm here all night.

[ Laughter ] Thanks so much for being here.

Josh: It's good to be here, conan.

Conan: To have you on the show -- you know, this movie "30 days of night." First of all, it looks very cool. It's a great idea for a film. A vampire movie set where the sun doesn't come up, which is, of course --

Josh: Perfect.

Conan: Yeah, it's in -- it's in alaska.

Josh: It's in alaska.

Conan: And it's great idea for a movie. Very scary. And I hear you shot it in new zealand. Is that right?

Josh: Yeah, we shot it -- well, we shot it in the summertime so, we had to get the snow.

Conan: Right.

Josh: South island in new zealand is mountainous and there was snow up there.

Conan: Right. Probably pretty cold -- on thing -- one of the only things I know about new zealand is that it's, sort of, the capital in the world of extreme sports.

Josh: It is.

Conan: Did you do any of that stuff while you were there?

Josh: Well, you know -- yeah, I did. A little bit. But, actually, I was on vacation before. I was in new zealand, my little sister was going school in sydney. And we all met in new zealand for vacation for christmas, a couple years ago.

Conan: This is the whole family?

Josh: Whole family.

Conan: Yeah.

Josh: Our last family vacation or, you know, we'll see, to date.

Conan: Yeah.

Josh: And -- and we went down to the place where bungee jumping was created and --

Conan: Lake bungee.

[ Laughter ] I don't know. I have no idea.

Josh: Bungee bridge. And we went up there and we did our first bungee jump, me and my brother. It was a narrow canyon and really scary.

Conan: I have never -- I have never done bungee jumping and have no interest in bungee jumping.

[ Light laughter ]

Josh: Well, why not?

Conan: Well, first of all, I think I'm safe. My hair would cushion the blow, if I --

[ Laughter ] But -- no, I just -- I'm not that kind of person that wants to see what it would be like to fall to my death and then be rescued at the last second.

[ Laughter ]

Josh: It's life affirming. You feel like, you know, you can go out take on the world after that, you know?

Conan: Yeah. As long as there's an elastic cord tied to your ankles.

Josh: Exactly.

[ Laughter ] Exactly. But you do -- there's a thing that you can do where you step off backwards. And they made me do this the second time, because it was all, like -- it was all girls up there who were actually running the bungee experience. And they, kind of, egg you on, try and push you to do more and more elaborate and stupid things. And --

Conan: Just like women in real life.

[ Laughter ]

Josh: Yeah.

Conan: Sorry.

Josh: Smart enough.

Conan: You had that coming! "Go ahead! Do it! Do it!"

[ Laughter ] Later -- "I'm in jail!"

[ Laughter ]

Josh: They're smarter than us, and they don't play fair.

Conan: Yeah. Well, so -- so, first of all, the first jump you did the classic one we've all seen, where you just lean forward and you fall.

Josh: Dive.

Conan: The dive.

Josh: Yeah.

Conan: What's the second one?

Josh: The second one I did was called a reverse elevator. Back -- where you stand backwards and you just, sort of, step off. And you fall and you're looking up at the bridge as it recedes in your, you know, in your view. And you realize that that was the last stable place that you may have ever set foot and -- because you don't see anything beneath you, then you snap around and you hit the water, at the very last minute. And you dunk about --

Conan: And you pay to do this?

[ Laughter ]

Josh: Like I said, it --

Conan: I love the idea of falling and you see the girls looking down at you.

[ Laughter ] Sucker.

Josh: Yeah, you see one of them, like, with a knife.

Conan: Yeah, yeah. We're both verbitter.

[ Laughter ]

Josh: You -- okay. So, that's new zealand. One of the byproducts of the job that you have, which is a great job, is you get to travel the world. And you shoot in different locations. You also do promotion all around the world for the different films you've done. That must get very strange. I mean, promotions here in the states and you go on these talk shows must be weird enough. But when you go to these different countries and you're promoting a film, sometimes you must wonder where am I? How did I get here?

Josh: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I shot a show in japan a few years ago that was actually insane. You know, I mean, you guys have seen "lost in translation" where they -- where bill murray goes on the show and -- with the dancing and the weirdness and he's just, kind of, sitting there.

Conan: Right.

Josh: Well, I was on a show where they did a game show with me and robert rodriguez, and we had no idea what the rules of the game show were, but at one point --

Conan: There's no one there explaining to you in english?

Josh: Well, they were trying to, but the translator couldn't keep up with -- I mean, they did it all very quickly.

Conan: Right.

Josh: So -- so, I don't know what the rules are. Apparently, something is going on behind us and everybody is laughing. The whole audience is laughing. So, I want to see what's going on behind us. As soon as I turn around, like, an alarm goes off and, like, a guy comes running out with, like, a, you know, hammer or something.

[ Laughter ] And a wig. And he has this afro wig and he comes up and puts it on my head and that's, like, the afro wig of shame.

[ Laughter ]

Conan: It sounds like a dream I've had.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[ Laughter ]

Conan: So, you're being punished, and then you have to wear that the rest of the show?

Josh: Had to wear it the rest of the show and don't even know -- I still to this day do not know what I did wrong.

[ Laughter ] I got to get -- I got to get -- I got to get a translator. I have the tape.

Conan: Yeah, it' just -- yeah. There's probably -- maybyou won the game. Who knows? They may owe you 900,000 --

Josh: I won the free wig.

Conan: Yeah, yen. Who knows.

Josh: I gave it back, because I was a chump.

Conan: Now, this movie that you're here to promote "30 days of night." A little bit, like, there are moments in it like "sin city," where there's that, sort of -- i don't want to use the incorrect term, but green screen. There's a feeling of things are animated. Things are added later.

Josh: Some of it, yeah.

Conan: Does that make it easier in production, where they say, "let's just do this a then we'll add this stuff later on." Or does it make it more difficult as an actor?

Josh: Well, it's, kind of, like doing a play, I guess, because you have to use your imagination. There's no fourth wall. So, you're just, kind of -- you're exposed.

[ Laughter ] Anyway, but you --

[ Laughter ]

Conan: You just blew your own mind.

[ Laughter ]

Josh: I did. I did.

Conan: That was cool to see.

[ Laughter ] Let's bring a wig out here, and hit him with a hammer!

[ Laughter ]

[ Cheers and applause ] That's this show.

Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Conan: This show probably weirder than that show. But like -- well, you also had a very different look for this film, too.

Josh: I did. I did. I had a beard in the film which was a fake beard, because, you know, because -- well, whatever.

[ Laughter ]

Conan: I can't grow a beard.

[ Laughter ]

Josh: We were jumping -- we were jumping around in the schedule. So, we couldn't really -- I couldn't grow anything for it 'cause we'd ha to shave and then put it back on at the end of day.

Conan: Right.

Josh: But they made the beard out of yak hair, which was really weird.

Conan: Why do they do that?

Josh: Because it's curly, I guess. And so -- and so, they just --

Conan: I've never heard of that. Are you sure they're not just having fun with you?

[ Laughter ] "Here's the beard. It had to be made of yak hair."

[ Laughter ]

Josh: They wouldn't tell me that. They tell me it was made of human hair, you know.

Conan: Oh, right, right.

Josh: Some, like, eastern european --

Conan: Did you tell it was yak hair? Does it look like regular --

Josh: It was -- it was, you know, curly.

Conan: Yeah.

Josh: So, I guess I assumed that they were telling the truth.

Conan: Right.

Josh: You know. It was the worst, because it had, you know, it was laid you on and it would fall out. And if you were eating, you'd get pieces of yak hair in your food.

[ Laughter ]

[ Audiences ews ] So, it's like yak dna. And nobody tells you where the yak hair comes from on the yak.

[ Laughter ]

Conan: Somewhere there's an angry, bare-ass yak.

[ Laughter ] Watching this interview. "Hartnett!"

[ Laughter ] Cool breeze. What do you want from me?

[ Laughter ] All right. We have a clip here from "30 days of night," which is a very, very cool idea for a film. And I think -- and I don't think there's much to say here other than I think this is you and your partner fleeing --

Josh: Running away from vampires.

Conan: Running away from vampires. Yeah, pretty good. Let's take a look at this clip from "30 days of night."

[ Car engine revs up ]

[ Tires squealing ]

[ Car engine revs up ]

[ Screams ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

Conan: You should check it out. "30 days of night" is in theaters. So, go see it. And, josh hartnett, always fun talking to you. Thanks a lot for doing it.

Josh: It's nice to talk to you, conan.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Conan: Josh hartnett, everybody.