Jay:  How you been?

Josh: I've been good, man, I've been good.   Yea.....

Jay:  Had a big summer with this Pearl Harbor thing?

Josh: Uh..yea, yea.

Jay:  You're not real comfortable with this, are you?

Josh:  Uh, it's different man, everything's quite a bit different.  But um, I just wanted to congratulate you on the moose skit, it was great. (Referring to a joke earlier in the show).

Jay: Well, thank you very much.  Well, you're a Minnesota guy, so see, now in your home town that would prolly be "Oh yea, big laugh." (faking an accent)

Josh: Yea, lots of moose up there. (faking same accent)

Jay: Lots of moose up there. (Laughter)  Let me ask you, I wanna talk to you a little bit about this, because you were here before Pearl Harbor opened, so nobody kinda knew who you were, then you got huge.  Were you nervous about doing that film?  Because you had mostly done little films.

Josh:  Yea, well, I wasn't quite sure if I wanted all the, uh, all the attention that comes along with it......

Jay:  But why not, why wouldn't you want that?

Josh: Because it makes me nervous, man!  You gotta walk around, and it's harder to get a cup of coffee and, you know, all that kinda stuff, but........but it's been ok, because I live in Minnesota, and people back there are very, very cool, very nice.

Jay: Well, they have real jobs.

Josh:  Yes they do, yea.  (Laughter)

Jay:  Well did you discuss this with anybody?   I mean, did you talk to your parents......I mean, a movie like Pearl Harbor, before it even comes out, when you get the script, you know, just look at the budget, this is gonna be the big la-de-da movie......

Josh:  Yea, yea I did.  I talked to my dad actually, who is one of the most together people I know, and he gave me some advice right before I got out there, and it was just, uh.....or right before I was gonna do the movie, I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to do it, and he said, you know, that regret can be permanent, you know,  if you don't do it then you might regret it, you might, uh.........and that's not a good thing.  And then, but he said, uh, he said that fame can be temporary.  You can always quit and leave and, uh, people will forget you, you know? (Laughter) That's what happens.  There's always somebody new, you know?

Jay:  And the great thing about this town is they will.  That's the great thing.

Josh:  Yes, yes, they do, they do.

Jay:  So how has your life changed?  Is it different?  Like when you go back and you hang out with your buddies in Minnesota, and you go to Shinder's book store downtown.......

Josh:  No, no, do you go to Shinder's? (Laughter)

Jay:  No, I don't go to Shinder's, I don't know.......

Josh: Uh, yea.....um, it's not all that much different, it's just that, you know, my buddies get a little, a little pissed off at me sometimes because I draw some of the extra attention away from them.

Jay:  But isn't that good?  Isn't that good, just to nail those guys from high school? 

Josh:  Yea, right......

Jay:  See when I go back......

Josh:  But these are my good friends, Jay.  I care about my good friends.

Jay:  Yea, but those are the ones you wanna beat down!  Yea! (Laughter)

Josh:  Alright, alright.....

Jay:  But see, when I go back, and I meet my high school buddies, and we hang out.....and someone comes over and says "Mr. Leno,"   and I go "Oooo, they called me Mr. Leno."  ( Laughter)

Josh:  Well, nobody calls me Mr. Hartnett, man.

Jay:  So, as you mentioned, you still live in Minnesota, so you don't like LA?

Josh:  Uh........

Jay:  You can be honest!

Josh:  Yea, it's not, you know, it's not my favorite spot in the world, but, yea......(Laughter).  I mean, no offense to anybody out here who lives in LA, but yea.......no.

Jay:  What don't you like, tell me what you don't like.

Josh:  Oh I don't know man, it's just not my kinda town, I guess.  I'm more of a New York kinda guy.

Jay:  You're more a New York kinda guy?

Josh:  Yea. (Cheers)  See, there's a couple of them.

Jay:  Like, when you were here, did you do any of the club scene, or any of that kinda stuff, did you do that?

Josh:  Yea, I actually got roped into going into a couple of clubs at one point, and uh, and.........yea, I went to the Sky Bar at one point.   (Cheers)  Yea, a couple people really like it, well I didn't, I didn't.......yea.  (Laughter)  I mean, it's a fine, it's a fine establishment, but uh, they didn't really uh.......

Jay:  A fine establishment?

Josh:  Yes, yes, quite it is.

Jay:  Well, I mean, what happened? Was it the people, was it the atmosphere?

Josh:  Well, actually there was, there was this girl that came up to me about after maybe being there for 20 minutes, and I was really wigging out, I was like,  I'm no good at that public kinda hanging out stuff......anyway, so I'm sitting there, and this girl comes up to me, and she's like "I have not seen anybody famous yet.  I've been here for 2 days, and I have not seen anybody famous yet." (Laughter)  Lementing to me, and I had done a couple movies at that point, and I was like "I'm really sorry.......(Laughter) I don't know what to say about that, but, uh....."  But she didn't, I don't know why she came up to me to say that, but she didn't know who I was, and, uh........and that's fine, you know, it's......("Awww" sound from the audience)

Jay:  Awwwww

Josh:  Uh, yea, thanks, Jay.

Jay:  There you go, awww.  I'll remember! (Stroking his arm: Big Laughter)

Josh:  Yea.......

Jay:  Hey, tell folks about "O", cuz actually, I have to say, I'm a big fan of little movies.   Pearl Harbor is very nice and "boom boom" and all that, but this I liked.  I mean, I thought the acting was superb, especially yours, cuz you don't play the good guy in this one, you play the evil guy, which to me is always much more, more fascinating, but tell people a little more of what the story's about. 

Josh:  Well I play a pretty bad dude......I play Iago, basically, and for those......pretty much everybody knows what Othello is, right?   The play Othello?  But uh.....

Jay:  Well it's a modern, a modern Othello.....

Josh:  Somebody giggled up there!  Othello, ha!

Jay:  Don't forget, you're in LA.

Josh:  Yes, uh......I'm not gonna live that down, am I?  Uh, anyway......yea, so, Othello, set in modern times, in a high school, and the director is Tim Blake Nelson, and it's just about, it's a story about evil, and, uh, deceit, and, uh, and......I get to be pretty evil.

Jay:  Pretty evil guy.  What were you like in high school?  Were you a troublemaker, were you, uh......

Josh:  Was I evil?

Jay:  Well, not evil, but just......did you have an attitude problem?

Josh:  Uh.......maybe a little bit, I guess

Jay:  Little bit.  Like, did you get in trouble?

Josh:  Well, yea, I used to get in a lot of trouble, but, uh......

Jay:  Like for what? Like what were you doing?

Josh:  Just for, you know, just trying to be me, you know, everybody's always trying to......

Jay:  I mean, was it, was it kid stuff, were you raiding drugs from Columbia? (Laughter)  What were you doing, I mean what did you do?

Josh:  No, not from Columbia, no.  (Laughter)   Uh, Canada is much closer to, uh, to Minnesota.  No, uh, I just kind of, uh.......I don't know, man.  I got caught robbing a Dairy Queen once. (Laughter)

Jay:  Robbing a Dairy Queen?

Josh: It was, uh, it was......I was 16, I was young.......we were actually, we were trying to make a short film, and it just kinda, um.......about robbing a Dairy Queen, and my buddy.......(Laughter)  my buddy, my buddy worked there, and, uh......so he let us, he let us use his place.....I told this once before, and I got a lot of crap for it, but, yea, my buddy worked there, and, uh......some lady across the street didn't know that we were actually, you know, making a short film.

Jay:  Making a film, right, right.  So did she call the police?

Josh:  Yea, she called the cops, (Laughter) and the cops came with, uh, unmarked cars, and it's a good thing we were taking a break and we were all eating like Dillybars or something, so (Laughter)......if we'd had our like fake, you know, yellow pistols in our hands, we probably would have all been goners, but we're ok.

Jay:  Well, there you go.  Well, that's what you do when you're in high school.  What's the clip we're gonna see, this is the scene with, uh......

Josh:  Well, the clip is, uh, it's actually from a scene where I'm trying to get, Mekhi Phifer plays Othello, and I'm trying--

Jay:  Well he played, uh......I mean, excuse me, I think maybe.......he plays the basketball star, to make this......

Josh:  Yea, it's a modern adaption, it's set in high school, it's set with basketball as a backdrop instead of war, so he's, you know, he's a, he plays O, you know, his name's Odin, it's a different thing then Othello obviously, but generally the same thing.  So anyway, I'm telling him, uh, I'm telling him, I'm tying to get him interested in, uh, in getting really pissed off at his, uh, at his girlfriend, so......

Jay:  Alright, lets take a look, just to see......

( They show a clip from "O")

Jay:  Ooooo........Josh, terrific job.  The movie is "O", it opens on the 31st.  Josh Hartnett!