Josh Hartnett would welcome more film production in Los Angeles

TORONTO – Josh Hartnett says he’d welcome more film production returning to Los Angeles but stopped short of endorsing U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to bring the industry home.

“It would be nice to get more production back into Los Angeles to support those crews,” the actor said during an interview ahead of Thursday night’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere of the Netflix miniseries “Below,” which he stars in alongside Vancouver actress Mackenzie Davis.

On Monday, Trump called on Congress to approve federal tax incentives intended to encourage film and television production in the United States, arguing that productions have increasingly moved to Canada and other countries.

Trump first floated a 100 per cent tariff on movies produced outside the U.S. in May 2025, writing on Truth Social that the industry had been “stolen” by other countries and calling it a “national security threat.” He echoed a similar tariff threat last fall, though a formal policy has not been enacted.

FilmLA, an organization that tracks film production on behalf of the city’s film office, said in a research report in April that “there is still significant work to be done to bring filming and jobs back to the region.”

Its report for the first quarter of 2026 showed there were 5,121 “shoot days” in the city, an improvement from the previous quarter but a 3.3 per cent decrease from the same period last year.

Hartnett said production in Los Angeles has dropped enough that it has become difficult for many film and TV workers there.

’‘From people that I know who have lived in Los Angeles recently and have moved away recently, the production, the amount of production in Los Angeles has dipped so much. It’s impossible to sustain the kind of culture that existed there beforehand. It would be nice to get more production back into Los Angeles to support those crews,’’ said Hartnett.

But the actor said he enjoys working around the world and would not want the industry to return to a model where productions are confined to soundstages.

“Below” was shot in Newfoundland, and the actor says he was quickly welcomed into the community, with people on the production eager to show him around and share their own perspectives on the province.

“The fact that we get to exist within the culture while we’re making it … it’s everything to me,” he said. “It helps inform the work and it also, I think, changes the nature of the filming process to an extent that it’s just nothing like what you would get from being just on a sound stage somewhere.”

The “Black Hawk Down” and “Oppenheimer” actor pointed to other projects he has made in places including Hong Kong, India, Australia, the Philippines and the African continent.

“Below” follows a small coastal community threatened by, among other things, a mysterious sea creature. The six-part series was created by Toronto-born writer Jesse McKeown.

Davis, meanwhile, was more direct on the Canada-U.S. trade war, crediting Prime Minister Mark Carney and ordinary Canadians for pushing back against Washington.

“I’m proud of Mark Carney and I am proud of Canadians for standing up to bullies,” said Davis, who plays marine researcher Fonda Howander in “Below” and also starred in “The Martian,” and “Speak No Evil.”