While preparing for Netflix's offbeat mystery thriller "Below,"Josh Hartnett was ready for the sloppiest kiss of his life: taking part in the traditional Newfoundland "screeching-in" ceremony, involving a kiss on the lips from a codfish and a shot of potent local rum.
But the“40 Days and 40 Nights”star admits his first fish kiss wasn't nearly as haunting as the six-part series (now streaming), which centers on a fishing town battling a mysterious killer lurking beneath the North Atlantic.
"Of course, I was screeched in the first week I got here last June. You kiss a cod," Hartnett, 48, tells USA TODAY. "I expected a sloppy one. Like, they were going to pull the stinkiest fish possible and shove it in my face, and I'd have that flavor all over
my face for weeks."
To his slight disappointment, Hartnett's fish kissing partner was fresh from the freezer.
"It was a frozen fish, so there was no smell," Hartnett says, shrugging. "It was just like kissing little puckered cod lips."
Josh Hartnett earned his boat license before filming
There are far bigger chills in "Below," which stars Hartnett as Calvin Penney, a stubborn fisherman fighting to save his family and struggling coastal community from the sea creature terrorizing the Newfoundland coast. Charlie Heaton ("Stranger Things") plays his son Wade, while Mackenzie Davis("Blade Runner 2049") portrays a visiting marine researcher who joins the fight against the prehistoric predator.
Hartnett immersed himself in Newfoundland life, arriving solo weeks ahead of filming – before his wife, actress Tamsin Egerton, and their four children joined him– to soak up the local culture, history and the accent for the five-month shoot.
"I got my sea legs," says Hartnett. "I even got my license to drive a 40-foot boat. The physical stuff was fun. But it was a lot of online tests. Like an endless driver's test."
He spent time with local fishermen, learned to tie fishing nets and listened daily to the long-running radio program "The Broadcast" to absorb the rhythms of Newfoundland speech. The distinctive accent posed a challenge for Hartnett and his international castmates.
What is the accent in 'Below'?
"It's such a specific accent, and it has many different variations," Hartnett says. "For example, Fogo Island was basically its own world for a couple hundred years. The accents there were very specific from the region of Ireland that they came from."
The cast experimented with different versions before settling on a shared family accent.
"It was trial and error. Our job was to find one that worked for both the show, the specificity of the place, but also for an audience. We had to find one that people could understand," Hartnett says, adding that the cast drew compliments from the locals. "It was heartening to hear people say, 'Many people have tried and not many people have succeeded.'"
Helping the cast stay on vocal course was dialect coach Allison Kelly, who monitored accents daily and also played Hartnett's deceased wife in photographs.
"Everyone here wore a lot of hats," Hartnett says. "Each of the [local] actors here had like, five jobs. So they were historians, or poets, or novelists. Everyone working had other qualifications."
Hartnett's haunted hotel wasn't a 'Poltergeist' experience
Created by executive producer Jesse McKeown, a Canadian writer who considers Newfoundland his second home after marrying into an area family, "Below" is a dream-filled, haunting tale. The series blends supernatural horror, local folklore and family drama against a backdrop of rugged coastlines, isolated fishing villages and the frigid North Atlantic water.
Even beyond the locals' love for ghosts stories, the beautiful location could get as spooky as depicted onscreen, Hartnett says. He was especially spiritually attuned when staying at a "little bit haunted" home in the historic port village of St. Johns.
"There were bumps in the night, a lot of creeks, but nothing substantiated, I didn't get video," Hartnett says. "My family had left and it was like, 'I don't think I can sleep here.' But I became friendly with whatever spirits were there. And it was fine."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Josh Hartnett went all in for Netflix's 'Below,' even kissing a codfish
