Josh Hartnett has praised his wife, Tamsin Egerton, for supporting his career, saying she handles the family while he is away filming. The Oppenheimer actor opened up about the tricky juggling act that comes with chasing movie roles and raising children. Hollywood schedules rarely bend for bedtime stories, after all. A busy actor, a patient partner, and a very full household set the scene for a refreshingly honest chat.

Every film credit comes with a calendar full of goodbyes, and Hartnett has plenty to say about balancing it.

Josh Hartnett thanks Tamsin Egerton for holding the fort

Josh Hartnett credits Tamsin Egerton for keeping home life steady while acting pulls him away. Fatherhood to four children demands his full attention, and so does a film set.

“When you’re away, you have to spend so much time focusing on the work that you’re making,” he said on the Scene Stealers podcast.

He then added, “Luckily, I have an amazing wife who kind of picks up the slack when I go away.”

Hartnett also explained on the Scene Stealers podcast why his family lives in the Hampshire countryside of England, Egerton’s home country, instead of Los Angeles. Many actors settle there so they can work and return home by evening, but few films are made in the city now. Distance from industry dinners also spares him tense small talk with rivals, and a lost role simply means admitting the winner suited it better.

While Egerton keeps the home front steady, an honest 12-year-old has opinions about Hartnett’s latest casting, and age is the complaint.

Josh Hartnett’s 12-year-old goddaughter calls him too ancient for Jeremy in Verity

Josh Hartnett’s 12-year-old goddaughter, a fan of Colleen Hoover’s novel, told him he was far too old to play Jeremy Crawford in Verity. He shared the story on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Her exact verdict, as he recalled, was that he was roughly a thousand years old, a tough review for any leading man. Her mental casting for Jeremy apparently skewed much younger, and the family casting call ended there.

The casting gets more fun because Hartnett plays Jeremy opposite Anne Hathaway as Verity Crawford and Dakota Johnson as Lowen Ashleigh, the writer hired to finish Verity’s bestselling series. On This Morning on September 25, he said the film’s deliberately ambiguous ending lets friends argue afterward about whom to believe. That debate now has a bonus topic, thanks to one very honest twelve-year-old. Still, Hartnett can face any critic with confidence, because Tamsin Egerton keeps the home running while he works.

What are your thoughts on Tamsin Egerton’s support and the goddaughter’s age verdict? Let us know in the comments.