‘Never Really Vibed with L.A.’ (Exclusive)

Josh Hartnett found solace for his family of six living outside of Hollywood.

The movie star, now 46, lives with his wife, British actress Tamsin Egerton, 35, and their four kids in the Hampshire countryside of England. Hartnett tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue why he chose to move away from Los Angeles years ago.

“Hollywood is more than a place; it’s like a state of mind. If you’re around people who are constantly talking about the movie business, your life is going to be pretty much one note. And I’ve never wanted that,” he says.

“I’ve always wanted to be around … people generally doing lots of other things that would bring my mind off of my work and force me to grow in different directions,” continues Hartnett. “To me, that’s the spice of life.”

Hartnett’s chilling new role is in the thriller Trap, the latest from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan. The filmmaker has said he connected with Hartnett over their shared desire to live outside of L.A. (Shyamalan raised his family in Philadelphia.)

“Night, I think, was more interested in me because I lived outside of Hollywood. I think he was kind of thrown when he found out that I live in the countryside in England. He’s like, ‘Really? What do you do for fun?’ ‘We feed the goats,’ ” Hartnett says with a laugh. “There’s lots of fun, normal things to do, but we also have animals.”

“We’ve got all this sort of stuff going on that is outside of, I guess, what the normal expectation is of an actor in Hollywood,” adds the actor, who rose to fame with early-2000s roles in Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down.

The Oppenheimer actor says, “I just never really vibed with L.A. because I’m not a big fan of sitting in the car all day.”

Hartnett’s eldest daughter turns 9 later this year. “Our kids are getting older, and all that stuff is terrifying,” he says. “I don’t want them to get older too quickly. I want to keep them as little, squishy kids.”

Aside from being “really hardcore Swifties,” his kids are also into horses, says Hartnett.

“What’s fun about being a dad is that your kids introduce you to new things that you didn’t know you’d ever be interested in. You end up doing things that you never would do for yourself,” he says. “Right now my kids are very into riding horses, so I’m learning about that stuff. I’m excited to learn more things [with them].”

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Are they aware of their parents’ famous work lives? “They’re aware, but I think only through osmosis just going to school and everybody else talking. We don’t bring that home,” explains Hartnett. “Dad has to go to work, and they do know what I do — they have come to sets — but they don’t understand the thing yet. And I’m glad that they don’t.”

The star adds, “We’ll try and keep them away from it as much as possible because we want them to have normal upbringings.”

Trap is in theaters Aug. 2.

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