Josh Hartnett: More Than Eye Candy

(CBS)  "Lucky Number Slevin" is a highly stylized thriller, already being labeled a sort of "hip Hitchcock." It's a story full of twists and turns, running through a gritty underworld life of crime and revenge.

Josh Hartnett plays the part of Slevin, who, through a case of mistaken identity, finds himself in the middle of a crime war between two rival mob bosses in New York City.

Joining The Early Show Thursday, Hartnett told co-anchor Harry Smith that one of the thrills of working on this film was the opportunity to act with the movie's other stars, Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley.

"They're geniuses," he said. "To be able to walk around and joke around with Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley and talk about their lives in film is just unreal. They're both legends of stage and film."

Hartnett, 27, admits he spends much of the film dressed in little more than a towel but says he thinks the film will help reverse his pretty boy image. "I think this will fight it," he told Smith. "I definitely didn't spend a ton of time at the gym. I get beat up quite a bit in the film. It's not a glamour part. That's what I like about it."

He also confirmed that he turned down the part of Superman and its rumored $100 million paycheck, saying he did not want to be pigeon holed.

"I turned down the movie basically because I didn't want to be branded for life. I felt like if I was going to play Superman, I would always be Superman to everyone else. And I want to be an actor for a long time," he said, adding, "I didn't want to wear the tights."

In fact, Hartnett has spent considerable time figuring out how to take control of his career and spent a couple of years at home, mapping out his plans.

"I wanted to find roles that really fit me as a person, that seemed exciting for me to play," he said. "And what scared me about my position was that I was being offered a lot of movies and I was being offered a lot of money but I wasn't being offered different roles, new roles. I felt like I was going to be quick rise, quick fall. I wanted to stick around."

Next up for Hartnett is "Black Dahlia," also starring Scarlett Johansson, who was recently voted one of the sexiest women alive. "She's a terrific actress," said Hartnett, who has been rumored to be romantically linked to Johansson. "The movie's amazing and, yeah, she was great to work with."

"Lucky Number Slevin" opens nationwide April 7.