Aaron Eckhart Love Happens Interview

With numerous credits to his name, Aaron Eckhart has earned considerable acclaim for his roles, including the love interest of Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich, for director Steven Soderbergh. However, it was his portrayal of a love-scorned, vengeful man in Neil LaBute’s controversial film In the Company of Men that first drew him attention. Notably, this incendiary film became one of the highest-grossing independent films of 1997.

Eckhart recently starred in Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight, in which he played Harvey Dent/Two-Face for director Christopher Nolan. He was also seen in Jason Reitman’s directorial debut Thank You for Smoking, for Fox Searchlight, which earned him both Golden Globe and Film Independent Spirit Award
nominations for his work, and starred opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones in No Reservations, the Scott Hicks remake of the 2001 German film Mostly Martha, released by Warner Bros. in 2007.

His other recent films include the indie films Bill, opposite Jessica Alba, and the Alan Ball drama Nothing is Private. Eckhart will next be seen in Bruce Robinson’s adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s novel “The Rum Diary,” alongside Johnny Depp, and opposite Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole.

MoviesOnline sat down recently with Eckhart to talk about his new movie, the romantic drama Love Happens, which also stars Jennifer Aniston. When a self-help author arrives in Seattle to teach a sold-out seminar, he unexpectedly meets the one person who might finally be able to help him help himself.

Dr. Burke Ryan (Eckhart) is on the precipice of a major multimedia deal, but the therapist who asks his patients to openly confront their pain is secretly unable to take his own advice.

Eloise Chandler (Aniston) has sworn off men and decided to focus on her floral business. However, when she meets Burke at the hotel where he's speaking, there is an instant attraction. But will two people who have met the right person at exactly the wrong time be able to give love another chance?

As each struggles with the hurt of love and loss, they realize that in order to move forward, they need to let go of the past. And if they can, they'll find that, sometimes, love happens when you least expect it.

Aaron Eckhart is a very talented and versatile actor and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about his new movie:

Q: Can you talk about what it was about this character that resonated with you?

AARON ECKHART: I read the script and I thought as an actor that it really was a challenge to play everything in the movie. You know, you dealt with grief, the death of a wife, the inability to lead an honest life afterwards, the inability to love again. It had so many fun things as an actor to play that attracted me. I thought it was well written. I figured I hadn’t done something like this before and then Jen was in the movie and I thought it was a challenge for me as an actor.

Q: It seems like we’re a country that doesn’t deal with death very well. You see with the Town Hall debates, the mere mention of end of life issues sends people into terror. How do you think this movie will affect people?

AARON ECKHART: Well, I hope that having gone through my research for this movie, I hope that it will resonate with people who have had these issues, you know, that are dealing with grief, who can find some sort of …not that this movie is… it’s certainly not a self-help movie or anything like that but it does give an outlet to people who are grieving. And, if there’s anything that comes of this movie besides pure entertainment value, I think that that would be a thing that I would want to have resonate that way. You know, studying grief and all that sort of stuff and talking to people who have been through that is just so heartbreaking and heart wrenching and it’s really a lifelong thing. It doesn’t stop and there’s no timetable and it reoccurs on birthdays and holidays. I’ve never dealt with it myself, so I count myself lucky, but I’m sure people in this room have. So, I felt like I wanted to honor them as much as I could in the movie. I think the script does because Brandon’s mom had died and he was very close to that.

Q: The movie paints Burke as being a bit of a fraud, but do you think that he is helping people somewhat?

AARON ECKHART: That’s an interesting question about religious gurus and Sunday morning, Sunday night religious guys. Is everything they do, even if they’re self-serving, are they still helping people? I do believe that they are. I believe people gain solace from them and comfort and get strength from them. I think Burke is helping people. I mean, you can tell by the energy in the crowd. You can tell by the respect and admiration they give him and how they come up to him afterwards? That’s evident. Now, I think that it makes for good drama that he be kind of a slick guy who’s trying to brand himself in the media and make a good living off this and everything. But, the thing I really liked about the movie was that I was conscious of not making him too “Thank You for Smoking.” I wanted him to have a heart. Even when he was manipulating or he was slick, I wanted him to have a heart and know in his mind that he was going too far or this wasn’t really who he was, that he was somehow contradicting his true nature.

Q: Was that not in the original script? Was that something you developed with Brandon?

AARON ECKHART: I think it was more slanted, especially as the development process went on, that they wanted to make this guy an out and out car salesman. And, it was very important that he not be a car salesman, that he show a flicker of consciousness of what he was doing. He was aware that he hadn’t come to closure with his wife’s death and that he was sort of living a lie. I think because of that I think the audience is more able to believe that he could fall in love and that he could repair himself.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about working with Jen? Are your processes the same for preparing for a scene?

AARON ECKHART: Well, Jen is such a better actor than I am. She is just so effortless all the time. I really get jealous of people like Jen because they seem just to do it. You know what I mean? And her timing and how playful she is and yet can turn on a dime and just be so thoughtful. I don’t know. I guess my process might be a little bit more laborious than hers. I don’t know her process, but she seemed to have it at her fingertips at all times.

Q: There was a moment that appealed to me when he was going to the airport and the woman was reading his book. He saw that she recognized him and there was that little smile. How do you react when you’re in those kinds of situations?

AARON ECKHART: Let me tell you a situation coming to here from [Louisiana]. I’m doing a movie in Louisiana. I went to the Shreveport airport and walked into the magazine section and there was only me and the magazine shop. And the girl behind the counter looks at me and she goes, “I knew it!” and I looked at her and I go, “What?” She goes, “I knew it!” I was standing right by a magazine that I was on the cover of, like it was set up, and I looked at her and I go, “What?,” and I look and the magazine was right there. She goes, “You cut your hair.” That is dead what happened and what else can you do but laugh? I was going to buy her the magazine and sign it. It just was too perfect. I laughed with her and looked at the magazine and we talked about it and I told her what I was doing and stuff like that. That’s fun times, you know, going through airports and that. I can see it bubbling in their minds, you know, like that, so I’ll get to it real fast. I’ll either go (winks and smiles) or I’ll go “I know” (nods), something like that, so that he or she gets the pleasure of that and yet we can keep on moving. Do you know what I mean? It gets a little more difficult when people ask for pictures and that sort of thing because then that attracts attention. So, if that were the case where she saw me going up the elevator like that, I would do the same thing.

Q: On the same topic of public recognition, I think you’re the only actor so far that we haven’t seen paired in the press with your co-star.

AARON ECKHART: With Jen.

Q: What happened?

AARON ECKHART: I’ve never had an on set relationship. I’m not interested in it. It’s not something that attracts me at all. I mean, I feel like I’m there to work. We work so much. It’s funny, you’re always being asked to fall in love with beautiful women who are talented. I just worked with Nicole Kidman this year and did my last movie with her and now I’m working with Bridget Moynahan. You know, it doesn’t attract me. I don’t know why. I find it to be so much more fun being friends, because then you don’t introduce that whole other thing, that responsibility of being in love with the person or feeling what they’re thinking. Filmmaking is hard enough without having to worry about your co-star. I don’t know how they do it actually. People seem to fall in and out of relationships so easily. I just don’t do that.

Q: Your character tells this lie which is revealed by the end of the film. Were you concerned at all that that might alienate some viewers?

AARON ECKHART: Yes. In fact, I think that went through a few rewrites, what I was actually going to say. I felt strongly that it should be worded I think closely to the way it is now. I thought it should be honest, true, I killed my wife. I don’t know if that’s in the movie or not. I think there was a moment when they took that out and I fought for that to be back in. I felt like he had gone through the journey and his being honest would gain him more votes than lose him votes because Burke is asking everybody to be honest, deadly honest, and to face their demons. I felt that if he felt that he killed his wife, then that’s what he should say and I think people ultimately would respect him for that.

Q: How does one prepare himself to work with, on the one hand, Martin Sheen, and, on the other hand, the cockatoo? That’s got to be a weird head space to get into.

AARON ECKHART: They’re both pros. That cockatoo is no ordinary cockatoo as you could see in the last scene. He literally did exactly what he was supposed to do. Now, in my scenes, we had a little bit more trouble. That damn cockatoo, he was so funny, and his wranglers were… What you don’t see on the other side, it’s funny about movies and I don’t know if this will be on the DVD or not, but here we are by this river. I’m sitting there on my hands and knees talking to a cockatoo. There’s a camera there and a whole bunch of people. Then, there’s wranglers on either side of me yelling at the cockatoo while I’m trying to do the scene. And, I try to concentrate and say my words and they’re going, [makes cockatoo sounds] and jumping all over the place. It was a nightmare. But, I felt like I had some good moments with him. I felt like we really were communicating.

Q: Was he a giving actor?

AARON ECKHART: He was a giving actor. He stayed off camera. He didn’t come into my trailer, but that’s okay. He actually did some very, very funny things. I think a lot of that was im-proved. I would be like, “Wow, what are you doing to me?” and all that sort of stuff. That probably didn’t make the movie. It was funny. Martin was hilarious with the cockatoo in the kitchen. He played with that cockatoo. (Laughs) He played with that cockatoo. Okay.

Q: One year after Dark Knight, is Harvey Dent still dead. Is there any chance he could pop back up?

AARON ECKHART: Well, I suppose there’s always a chance. I don’t know anything. Chris hasn’t called me so I’m going to seek other representation until further notice.

Q: Have you shot “Battle: Los Angeles” yet? Is that coming up?

AARON ECKHART: We start tomorrow.

Q: Can you tell us about that?

AARON ECKHART: It’s going to be outrageous. This movie is going to be so great. I go out on a limb in saying that, but we’ve trained hard for this movie. I’m coming dead right off boot camp into it. I’m going to start tomorrow. The director, Jonathan Liebesman, is great. We got a great shooter and he’s going to do it like “Blackhawk Down” meets “Alien” so it’s going to be real Marines stuff. We have been in boot camp for 3 weeks. We know our stuff. And, he’s going to film it in a very documentary style. So, it’s going to be no ordinary “Aliens” movie, I guarantee you that.

Q: How long was the boot camp?

AARON ECKHART: Three weeks.

Q: That seems like a lot.

AARON ECKHART: Well, I’m ready.

“Love Happens” opens in theaters on September 18, 2009.