Actor Josh Hartnett, who's one of my favorite actors and my wife's (wonder why?!), talks with Time about his reason for keeping out of the Hollywood limelight for some time and instead focusing on making independent films.

That break included some time off to move back to his native Minnesota, starring in a string of indie films and getting involved in politics. His vanishing act prompted a flurry of publications to wonder what had happened to him. But what happened to him is that he was just trying to make independent films, he tells TIME.

"[The narrative was] either I was so disillusioned and afraid that I ran away or that I was some punk who didn't know how good he had it," Hartnett says. "And it's neither of those. It was that I tried to take a different path towards achieving good film."

Featured image: Hartnett in the GQ Style Germany Fall/Winter 2014 issue. Photography by Cedric Buchet. Via Models.com.