Josh Hartnett has admitted that he struggled to deal with the pressures of fame and said he received an "unhealthy" amount of fan attention early in his career.
The 46-year-old star, who is best known for his roles in Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down, said he found the intense scrutiny and relentless public interest overwhelming.
Hartnett was 27 when he decided to move back to Minnesota. He now lives with his wife, actress Tamsin Egerton and family, in the UK.
When asked if there was a certain moment that triggered the move back home, he told The Guardian, "People's attention to me at the time was borderline unhealthy."
When asked to elaborate, he said: "Well, look, I don’t want to give this a lot of weight. There were incidents. People showed up at my house. People that were stalking me."
Another incident involved, "a guy showed up at one of my premieres with a gun, claiming to be my father. He ended up in prison."
He added: "There were lots of things. It was a weird time. And I wasn’t going to be grist for the mill."
Hartnett, who is currently promoting his new movie, Trap, where he plays a father taking his daughter to a concert that is secretly a trap set for him since he lives a double life as a serial killer, said he didn't want his life "to be swallowed up by my work".
"'I just didn’t want my life to be swallowed up by my work. And there was a notion at that time you just kind of give it all up.
"And you saw what happened to some people back then. They got obliterated by it. I didn’t want that for myself," he said.
Trap is set for release on 9 August.
