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Josh Hartnett On How ‘Trap’ Concert Scenes Were Really Filmed

8 August 2024, 20:10 | Updated: 9 August 2024, 09:43

Josh Harnett on filming a horror movie at an ACTUAL pop concert 😱

By Kathryn Knight

Josh Hartnett told us all about his new movie, ‘Trap’ which he described as a ’90’s throwback thriller’.

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Josh Hartnett joined the Capital Evening Show with Jimmy Hill to discuss his new movie Trap, which follows a father and daughter at a pop concert that turns sinister.

Given that the majority of the film plays out at a concert, we had to grill the star on just how they filmed the movie and whether it was a real concert.

Josh, who plays Cooper, confirmed: “It was an actual concert!”

He told us: “Saleka, who’s Night’s [Shyamalan] daughter and an R&B singer, plays Lady Raven, a pop singer, and she had to change genres and create 14 original songs for this piece. And she performed them all for the audience and there was thousands of extras there everyday.”

Josh Hartnett and M. Night Shyamalan at the Trap premiere
Josh Hartnett and M. Night Shyamalan at the Trap premiere. Picture: Getty

Josh said the extras became ‘genuine fans’ of the music, which helped the concert experience become more immersive while filming.

He said: “They were fully engaged, they were given the music a couple of days before so they could get to know it. People became genuine fans.”

“It was remarkable to watch their enthusiasm build over the course of the production as well,” he continued. “We were shooting that bit for at least a month and we had a stadium that whole time and it was filled with extras and the energy that plays between the performer on stage and the audience is really active in this film and that’s a really unusual thing to be able to pull off and on top of that making the film within it.”

Josh Hartnett stars in 'Trap'
Josh Hartnett stars in 'Trap'. Picture: Getty

On whether being immersed into a real life concert was helpful to get into character, Josh said: “It’s helpful and also distracting because the character I’m playing and what we’re doing within it is not necessarily in tune with what the audience is doing.

“It’s helpful in the way, if you want to place yourself in that situation you don’t have to do much work.”

Josh explained that he didn’t realise how passionate a fanbase could be until he took his daughters to see Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour.

Trap | Official Trailer 2

He recalled: “And I thought at the time, Night’s direction to the extras was kind of over the top and I was like, ‘they’re not going to be crying and freaking out’ and then I took my daughters to the Eras Tour a couple of weeks ago and I watched the audience, how connected they were with Taylor swift. I was like, ‘oh they got it correct.’”

Trap is in cinemas from 9th August.

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