Cold-blooded Josh Hartnett played 4-D chess with nail polish on The Bear

M. Night Shyamalan was right about Josh Hartnett. Beneath that inviting smile and puppy dog eyes lie the black heart of a killer. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about his recent appearance on The Bear, Harnett made nice. He talked warmly about the “sweet” Taylor Swift concert he took his daughters to, the magical carbonara in Lake Garda, Italy, and the psychological warfare his character is conducting on his future wife’s former spouse. Yes, chef. This guy’s a sicko.

In the season three episode “Violet,” Hartnett appears as Frank, the new fiancé of Riche’s ex-wife. When Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) drops his daughter, Eva (Annabelle Toomey), off at Frank’s for the weekend, Frank corners Richie with the intent of torturing his poor, stupid rival. Apologizing to Richie for not giving him the heads up about the whole marrying his ex-wife thing, Frank’s awkward demeanor is a ruse performed to make sure Richie saw the fucking nail polish adorning Frank’s fingers.

Hartnet explains that he loves working with Ebon because “he’s very reactive,” but his character “needs to feel like this is all above board” and that Richie won’t resent Frank for marrying his ex-wife. “He’s genuinely in love with Tiffany but doesn’t want to make anything difficult for his new stepdaughter, or for his wife, or for himself,” Hartnett says. “This is a really tricky thing to navigate. It’s very high stakes, all set to Taylor Swift.”

And with the magic words “Taylor Swift,” like Adrian Veidt launching a giant squid 35 minutes before Dan Dreiberg could reach him, Hartnett reveals the mastery of his plan. “There were a few things I did to maximize how intimidating he would be to Richie,” he says. “Like the nail polish.”

Eagle-eyed Bear watchers undoubtedly clocked the multicolor nail polish adorning Hartnett’s delicate digits. Richie sure did. “My girls are constantly painting my fingernails and I thought, that’s something Frank would be proud of as a stepdad,” Hartnett says. “And Richie would see it and be like, ‘Oh, this makes me feel terrible.’ I also wanted it to look like even though he has this big beautiful house, that he’s been working on it himself.”

How can Richie compete with a guy who works on the very house he owns and allows his future stepdaughter to paint his nails? If the paint is dry, maybe he could consider ripping Richie’s still-beating heart from his chest. Richie has been replaced. As usual, the point goes to Hartnett.