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In the Company of Julia
Aaron Eckhart on Erin Brockovich
By Pam Grady
Best known to moviegoers for his turn as the despicable yuppie misogynist in Neil LaBute's In the Company of Men, actor Aaron Eckhart is virtually unrecognizable as Julia Roberts' love interest in Erin Brockovich. Hulking on his Harley and sporting long locks and a full beard, Eckhart, as bearish biker George, hides the soft heart of Mr. Mom under a Hell's Angel veneer.
With his short, blond hair standing up in tufts as if he just rolled out of bed, a clean-shaven, amiable Eckhart sat down with a group of reporters in a New York hotel room to talk about Erin Brockovich, the joy of working with Julia Roberts, and why Steven Soderbergh is not Oliver Stone.
Q: Did you ever meet the man your character is based on?
Aaron Eckhart: George? No. I appreciate all that he did in letting me do this part and all that kind of stuff. I asked Steven [Soderbergh], "Is it necessary that this happen? Are you basing this on some kind of behavioral characteristic that I have to know about? Is George so special in some sort of way that I need to mirror him in any way?" He said, "No," and I said, "Well, I'd rather not meet." Not that I would rather not meet him; I just felt like it would confuse me a little bit.
Q: Talk about an odd couple! What did George see in Erin?
AE: I have no idea, but she was good-looking. I guess a lot was geographic: He lived next door to her. He was willing to do the dirty work, plus, I think, at that time George was ready for a relationship. I think when you see a good thing, you have to stick to it. That's something about relationships. If you're there long enough, it's going to happen and I think that's what happened to George. He just stuck in there. They're obviously not still together.
Q: She married somebody else?
AE: Yeah, I believe she did.
Q: You're playing opposite Julia Roberts. You probably had some expectations...
AE: We had the same size trailer! She's great. First of all, this is a Steven Soderbergh film with Julia Roberts in it. So I'm thinking, "Okay, how is this going to go?" It could play out a couple of different ways. I think that Steven made this film and [it] was about something. It is a Julia Roberts film but I feel like there's so much there in terms of representing these people and [the town of] Hinkley. The lawyers, the lawsuit, the humanity of it all, the dynamics of love, and what is most important in our lives when everything boils down. I think that is what this film is about. The fact that Julia Roberts plays it wonderfully
what can I say? She was terrific to work with. She was generous, she was superbly prepared. She was right there the whole time and from an actor's standpoint you couldn't ask for a better partner. I would love to work with Julia again in some kind of romantic drama.
Q: Notting Hill 2?
AE: Notting Hill 2? No, we're going to be a little bit more original than that. I guess I try not to get caught up in [my co-stars'] personalities and who they are. You go home and go to your mom, "I'm doing a Julia Roberts film. I'm doing an Al Pacino film. I'm doing a Sean Penn film." But after that, you can be really bad in a Julia Roberts film. So I tend not to worry about that. I worry about getting myself prepared for the role. Once you get down to it, people are people and you have a job to do.
Q: What's it like working with Soderbergh?
AE: He's calm. Funny, witty, he's in control. He's quiet, he's endearing. He's passionate. He is supportive. He's everything that I think a director should be. He lets you play, which is fun. There are different kinds of generals in this world. There are the kind that are yelling and screaming at you and who rule by fear and there are those who rule by love. Steven falls under that latter category.
Q: You were last seen in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday. Did you shoot Erin before or after that film?
AE: I shot it right after. I got the part when I was doing Any Given Sunday and we shot it right after, maybe three weeks or a month after. It was so different, you don't even know. Any Given Sunday was like imagine three-and-a-half months in Miami on the Strip with Oliver Stone. It was literally what I think war is like.
Q: Is Oliver the kind of general...
AE: I could not say. I would not say. I just feel like he has a different directing style. Neil [LaBute] has a different directing style. Oliver gets the job done. He gets performances out of people and he is passionate. He knows something about subtext and action and about what's going on in the scene. You can relate to that and you feed off Oliver's passion. But he does direct a different set than Steven does. They are just obviously two different people. Both very effective.
Q: Your roles for Neil LaBute were certainly anti-romantic leads. Were you purposely trying to find a role of a nicer guy?
AE: It's not a conscious thing. I would certainly play one of the great bad-guy roles out there. I don't distinguish between good guy and bad guy, just don't do it. Anybody who does is going to play a one-dimensional, superficial bad guy or a good guy. Everybody's got good qualities and bad qualities inside of them the yin and the yang, the light and the dark, the blah, blah. It's just what you choose to focus on, that percentage of you that you choose to exploit. I think for those other films, I needed to exploit maybe the kind of sociopathic tendencies of my character. I think for Erin Brockovich, I had to exploit the more nurturing father for that. So I feel like they all have the same energy, just in different ways. When you see bad guys that are just bad, I think it's bulls**t, it's boring. Who wants to do that? Because you know what? Bad guys can be real nice to their moms. I'm reading a lot about serial killers right now. Danny Rolling, who did the Gainesville massacres they say he's the nicest guy in the world. At one point or another they can be nice to whoever they're dealing with. They can be seductive. They can be well-rounded, knowledgeable, charming. I think that's the best kind of character you've got more interesting, anyway.
Q: You had no worries at all about your character in In the Company of Men? So many actors would never touch a role like that.
AE: Well, but look, I was a guy who didn't have a job. I was sitting in New York City in a room about as big as this table going, "Okay, what am I going to do today?" I was originally supposed to play Matt [Malloy]'s character. I was supposed to play Howard. And because another guy dropped out and I had already started studying for the role, Neil called me up. He says, "Chad just dropped out." I'm like, "Oh, great, who's going to play Chad?" Neil calls me back and says, "Aaron, why don't you play Chad?" I'm like, "I can't play Chad, I can't do it. I can't do it." I hung up the phone and said we'd just have to find another Chad. I thought, "Am I an idiot? I'm sitting here and somebody is offering me a lead role. I can do this." So I called Neil back and said I'd do it. I didn't worry about it. I didn't think that movie would ever be seen. That movie was shot in 11 days. The fact [that] it's out on video or in the movie theaters is beyond my wildest dreams. It was a good movie.
Q: Are you a Harley Davidson kind of guy?
AE: I am now. I bought a bike, I bought a Super Glide Sport Harley for research for Erin Brockovich, against everybody's will. I had to take it to my trailer every day and on every location. I feel like I can't get off my bike every single day if the sun is shining. I have to go, "Okay, why can't I take my bike to this appointment and not my car?" Because I have to take this, that, and the other thing, so I have to take my car. But if I don't have to take anything, I take my bike. That's the way I feel about my bike. I'm, like, going through cars on freeways, I'm speeding. I have an attitude. I piss people off. I've got the loudest pipes possible, you know what I'm saying? Anything I can do to disturb people, I'm doing. When I hear Harleys go down the street, I'm like, "Son of a bitch! Somebody should arrest them." You know what I mean? You know all the Sunset Boulevard outdoor cafes? I swear, I go down there and I floor it as loud as I can. Vroom! Everybody hates it, but I love it. But I feel like if you've got the bike, you got the pipes. Let's hear it. I think the bike turns you into that.
Q: What are you doing next?
AE: I'm doing a movie called The Pledge, which is Sean Penn's movie, with a great cast. Then I'm doing a movie right after that called Angel Eyes, a movie with Jennifer Lopez. A romantic drama love story. And Nurse Betty is coming out. It's alive.
Q: Can you talk a little about Nurse Betty?
AE: I will, yes. Nurse Betty is a film that Neil LaBute did not write, but directed. It stars Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, and Greg Kinnear. Allison Janney is in it. All these people; great cast. It's about this woman played by Renee, who witnesses her husband's bad dealings and demise, his murder. She becomes delusional and goes off in search of her favorite soap opera star in Los Angeles : Greg Kinnear, who is wonderful in it. That's the story. I play her husband. I only have a bit part in it. I get killed. Chris Rock's doing his thing. It should be a good summer movie.
Q: What's your character in Angel Eyes?
AE: I play a man who has gone through a lot of pain in the last couple of years and had a lot of loss in my life. I meet this woman who helps me heal and I help her heal. It's a sensitive, tender human film about two people trying to live. I think it's going to be a nice, sensitive, sexy movie.
Q: What about The Pledge?
AE: I can't say anything about that.
Q: So, you've taken a pledge
AE: [Laughing] I am pledged not to say anything about The Pledge.
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