The Fear Index: Josh Hartnett on his spin-off hopes and doing more British TV

Virgin Radio

10 Feb 2022, 10:02

He’s back on screens in thriller The Fear Index now, but Josh Hartnett already has his fingers crossed that the series will live on after the four-part drama ends. 

The Fear Index, which starts today (Thursday 10th February) on Sky Atlantic, sees the actor play Dr Alex Hoffman, a scientist formerly of The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), who launches a system that exploits fear in the financial markets and operates at lightning speed to make big returns.

The book it's based on, by author Robert Harris, and the four-parter are both set across the same 24 hours, during which Alex suffers a brain injury after a break in at his home, and the big pitch meeting to investors to get his AI technology off the ground takes place.

The break-in is investigated by detective Jean-Philippe Leclerc, played by Call My Agent star Grégory Montel, and Josh reckons it’s Leclerc’s character who should live on in a different show.

Josh told virginradio.co.uk: “We've been talking about this since production, put it out there, we need a spin off called Leclere.

“Greg's entire persona is a joke of some sort. If you don't get it, he just looks at you, and you think 'oh s*** I must've missed something'. He would crack me up. 

“There were times where we'd meet up for a drink after work, and Greg would be there first and you'd just watch him for a minute, like he drops something, he'd knock into a waitress, he'd pick it up and look around like he'd lost his parents and you'd just be like…this guy, he's Clouseau!”

With The Fear Index out now, it’s not yet known if the limited series could continue either with a sequel or a new story entirely, but for Josh, he would happily return to another British TV production. 

Josh, who is married to Surrey-born actress Tamsin Egerton, was asked about working on this side of the pond and if he'd like to do it again, and responded: “One hundred percent. I'm very happy to be working on this English production and would be excited to work on more. 

“I was very lucky to work with Arsher [Ali], Lelia [Farzad], Greg, amazing actors doing totally different things, such a diverse group of people in their approach and yet we were able to have a fun and comedic time on one of the darkest things I've ever worked on. 

“There was no way I could've done this without their help to get through it because shooting six days a week in lockdown, we needed each other...it's a dark subject matter. If this is any indication of what it's like to work in British TV I'll be back ASAP.”

If you want to hear more from the Hollywood leading man, you can check out his chat with Chris Evans on The Breakfast Show with Sky here.

Virginradio.co.uk also got the chance to sit down with Josh’s co-star Arsher Ali, who told us about the ‘weird’ time on set and why he won’t watch himself on TV.

The Fear Index is available now on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV.