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Both Aaron Eckhart and Carrie-Anne Moss are familiar to fans of science fiction and suspense; Eckhart's last project was John Woo's Paycheck, and not so long ago he commandeered a drill to the center of the earth in The Core; Moss' name was permanently etched in Hollywood granite on the strength of her performances in the Matrix films alone. At the same time, neither actor has encountered such a curious blend of the real and imagined worlds as in their latest picture, Suspect Zero.
Eckhart stars as Thomas Mackelway, an FBI investigator drawn into a case that revolves around the apparent existence of "suspect zero," a killer so named because of his or her apparent lack of identity—specifically, that the killings follow no discernible pattern. Moss is Fran Kulok, Mackelway's former partner and lover, who is drawn back to his side to help catch this faceless murderer. Eckhart and Moss recently spoke with Science Fiction Weekly about their experiences on the film, about director E. Elias Merhige's innovative inclusion of "remote viewing" and about keeping yourself sane when your character dives off the deep end.
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Aaron, because the movie is so dreamlike, does the final product resemble what you were expecting?
Eckhart: I think it reflects the script and what we set out to do. Obviously film is a director's medium, and that's the general. He's the captain of the ship, he's got it all in his head, and then they go and cut it. I mean, obviously he knew more about that than I did when we were filming it, [but] I really enjoyed watching this movie, I really enjoyed making the movie, and I really enjoyed being a part of Elias' vision. I didn't know exactly what was going on at all times in terms of how he was going to cut it and how lyrical it was going to be and all of that sort of stuff, but I love it.
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Did you do any "psychic training" for this, like the "remote viewing" in the film?
Eckhart: I went out with the remote viewer, but I didn't have training sessions because I didn't need to know how to do it in the movie. I went out and spent time with him and he remote viewed in front of me. He did a current case that he was working on, and drew and got the key word and all of that sort of stuff and got me believing in it, but I actually never tried it myself. I [also] went around and played around with the FBI for a while, which was cool. You know, we went to target practice and went up in Westwood and checked them out, which I thought was really fun.
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Was there any one part of that experience that made you believe in this phenomenon?
Eckhart: He was working on a case where a young girl had been abducted here in California, and everybody was out looking for her, and he broke down that case to me right in front of me and determined that she was dead and where she was and stuff like that. And I thought, you know, even though it's a fifty-fifty chance whether she is or she's not, I felt like this guy had a pretty good idea what he was talking about, and he believed in what he was doing. He did it right in front of me in a crowded hotel lobby. I was pretty impressed with that, and I thought that if I ever had somebody go missing or something like that, I would definitely give this a try.
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Was the remote viewer you spent time with as tortured as the ones in Suspect Zero?
Eckhart: He had a lot of pressure, but I think the burden that was on his shoulder was the burden of knowing things that he couldn't convince other people of because it was gotten in a way that was unconventional. It was not within the boundaries of conventional law enforcement. That was his burden, I thought, him knowing where somebody was but he couldn't get to them because it was on private property or he couldn't get the permit or warrant from law enforcement because he couldn't show them evidence that you could show to a judge. I felt his burden was knowing things that other people would not believe; I talked to the FBI after I was with him, and they said we do not condone that, we don't use these guys, I don't know what he is talking about, the guy is a lunatic, blah blah blah. I said, "You know, but you guys do use them, because it's documented that they do," not that a foot soldier would know that. But it's interesting to see how law enforcement is much more meat and potatoes, and these guys are over here working in truffles.
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How difficult was it to come to terms with your character's uncertainty between the intuitive and empirical worlds of his investigation, especially since the real agent disavowed the usage of remote viewing?
Eckhart: It's really kind of that whole question about intuition and not being able to trust something you can't see. Especially when it's new to you, if you're having delusions or [hearing] voices or having any sort of confusion, the first thing to do is not to follow that, it's to distrust that, and that's what I think is happening here. It is an inherent distrust for anything new, and I think the FBI or law enforcement in particular is very apprehensive about condoning anything like that because of the way the public takes remote viewing. They're not going to accept that; if you say to the wife or the mother of a kidnap victim, "We're going to go remote view," [the public will say,] "What the f--k are you talking about? Get some officers out there!" In this movie, the wonderful thing is that our two worlds do coincide to get the man.
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Did this role give you any new acting challenges?
Eckhart: Yeah. I don't want to sound pretentious or anything like that, but it took me to places that I had never been to before as an actor, on and off the set. I felt maybe sometimes during the making of this movie I did lose my mind. Where it [specifically challenged me], I'm not really sure, but I did feel that I was in character for the movie.
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How hard was it to rebound from those feelings after the cameras stopped?
Eckhart: Sometimes it's difficult, especially if you have to go to places that are unpleasant or that if you have to get yourself so worked up [in the film] that it drives you crazy. Some actors can do it, but I seem to have to hold on to it for a while, and it can create problems.
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Did your co-stars help you remove yourself from those feelings?
Eckhart: Yeah. Carrie-Anne Moss just was a breath of fresh air, just the greatest, she kept the set loose, kept it nice and, you know, had that great female energy on the set, was really kind of a good place for me to go. We would sit next to each other and eat lunch together and talk and stuff, and I think she really saved me from some intense moments and stuff like that. I really thought she was a great actress and so, just so simple and so beautiful. I really can't say enough about her and how much I'm thankful that she did the movie.
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