Josh Hartnett, who plays Jeremy Crawford in Colleen Hoover‘s Verity, says his 12-year-old goddaughter wanted Timothée Chalamet in the role instead. Directed by Michael Showalter, the adaptation also stars Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson and opens in theaters on October 2, 2026.
Why Did Josh Hartnett’s Goddaughter Want Timothée Chalamet in Verity?
Appearing on The Tonight Show, Hartnett reflected on the immense BookTok mania surrounding Hoover’s best-selling psychological thriller and revealed he was completely unaware of the book’s massive fanbase until his young goddaughter gave him an unvarnished reaction to landing the male lead.
“My goddaughter, who was 12 at the time, she’s a very mature 12-year-old, she read the book, it’s not really for 12-year-olds, but she’d read it, she absolutely could not see me in that role,” Hartnett laughed. “She was like, ‘You can’t be Jeremy. You’re like a thousand years old.’ She wanted like Timothée Chalamet or somebody to play him, you know?”
Despite her vocal campaign for Chalamet, Hartnett defended his claim to the part, jokingly pointing out that the character is literally written in his 40s in the novel.
In the film adaptation, Hartnett plays Jeremy Crawford, the devoted husband to incapacitated author Verity Crawford, played by Hathaway. Desperate to fulfill her remaining book contracts, Jeremy travels to New York to hire struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh, played by Johnson, inviting her to their secluded home where psychological chaos quickly unfolds.
While Hartnett will undoubtedly face intense scrutiny from devoted readers, the bigger questions remain how the movie will handle the ambiguous truth between Verity’s manuscript and her letter, and what major changes have been made from the book.
Read More: Verity: Plot, Cast, Book Differences, and That Infamous Manuscript Explained
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