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Aaron Eckhart of Suspect Zero Interview
Exclusive interview by Daniel Robert Epstien, contributing editor
Aaron Eckhart first rose to fame as the lead in two films by Neil Labute, In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors. Since then, his stock in Hollywood has been rising, playing opposite Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich, Jack Nicholson in The Pledge, Ben Affleck in Paycheck and Hilary Swank in The Core. His latest is Suspect Zero, a psychological thriller directed by E. Elias Merhige (Shadow of the Vampire) and co-starring Carrie-Anne Moss and Ben Kingsley.
UGO: Since you got to work with [director] E. Elias Merhige, did you ask him to explain his first movie?
AARON ECKHART: [laughs] Which one?
UGO:Begotten.
AARON: I have to say that I haven't seen it.
UGO: What was it like working with Ben Kingsley?
AARON: Sir Ben Kingsley to you, sir. [laughs]
UGO: We heard that you had to call him "Sir."
AARON: Yeah, but it was out of respect. He's a legendary actor, and he deserves his name. He's intense on film, but he was a nice guy. He was a gentleman the whole time and very supportive of me and Carrie-Anne [Moss] and taught me a lot. He told me stories. I can't say enough about him. He plays a pretty good villain, but he's actually a sweetheart of a guy. I can't say enough.
UGO: Did you do any preparation for this role?
AARON: With FBI serial killers? Yeah, I'm pretty good with that. I can't play pool, but I talked to the FBI. I shot with them. I handcuffed a few people. I listened to a few stories...
UGO: Was it real criminals you handcuffed?
AARON: No, they wouldn't let me do that. [laughs] It was other agents. I went into the FBI building and just started cuffing people. I'm sort of fascinated by the whole espionage crime thing. First of all, I love international espionage. I wish I could be a secret agent. And who says I'm not? [laughs]
UGO: What was it that brought you to this? Was it the script or working with Elias?
AARON: Well, first it was the script. I hadn't met Elias. I had seen his movie, Shadow of the Vampire, which I loved. I thought it was so original and visionary, really. I read this script and I was like, "I have to do this movie." I remember having a few choices for my next film, and I just said that I wanted to do it, that's it. This character was seductive to me. [He's] a guy who goes crazy, who runs around with a gun. He lost his love and has been demoted for doing something he thought was right. I think every actor wants to be an FBI agent or cop at one point.
UGO: Do you have another film with Neil Labute coming out?
AARON: Actually, IMDB is wrong. I want to make that announcement. I'm not doing the movie Vapor with Neil. They're wrong. I wish somebody would tell them that. [laughs] Neil and I are talking; we talk a lot every day. We're just finding the right thing. I think we want to do something that he's written that can surprise people again, that can really tear the bottom out of it. We got a good piece; I think we're trying to find another actor to do it with.
UGO: What did you think of The Shape of Things or The Distance from Here?
AARON: I didn't see The Distance from Here, but I saw The Shape of Things in London. I love it. I love Neil's work. I just read two of his new plays that are coming to New York. They are going to evoke emotion from you folks, guaranteed.
UGO: In most of your movies, you play sort of the bad guy...
AARON: I'm a good guy in this movie, man! I want to make that clear.
UGO: Talking about Labute's films. Not really sinister, but how do you feel about playing those roles?
AARON: Well, I enjoy doing Neil's work. He's such a great writer and gives me the opportunity to do them, and I trust him and feel safe with him. Some guys can go out there and play the sweetheart all the time. Like Cary Grant was always the sweetheart, even when he was the bad guy. I guess I can do it. I don't like playing one-dimensional bad guys because it's boring, and it's boring for the audience. I'm able to give dimensions to the bad guy, to make it feel like he has a mother and that he liked to blow out the birthday candles, play with toys, and can also slit people's throats. I think that's important, but I don't want to make a career out of it.
UGO: Did anybody make it clear how this movie was going to be shot, with all the different things going on?
AARON: Elias tried to explain it to me once, and I couldn't get through it. I was just like, "OK." You never really know that stuff as an actor; it's completely out of your control, in terms of editing, and music, and film stock, shot selection, what takes they use. You're totally out of the loop. So when I saw this last week for the first time, I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know how he was going to shoot Sir Ben Kingsley. I didn't know how remote viewing was going to play into it. I was so pleasantly surprised. I thought it was just kick-ass, how he did Sir Ben, all the black and white, all the infrared filming and the angles and stuff like that. I can't get enough of that.
UGO: How about the fact that the movie was on the shelf for a year? Did that disappoint you?
AARON: Some movies get rushed out right after you make them, and I'm not always happy with that. A film has its own life and takes its own time. That's something that the press, the trades and IMDB grabs onto, and I don't think it's the most important thing. Why is that fascinating? It took that much time. I really don't know. I went off and did a play, and I did another movie, and so that's not a question for me.
UGO: Is this kind of role something you're looking to do again?
AARON: Well, you mean a sequel? Well, let's see if this thing does anything. Suspect One. Another Suspect. Didn't Emilio Estevez do that [referring to Another Stakeout]? But in terms of the intensity of the role and the pleasure of doing the role, I would do that again, sure. The role that I'm doing now is really intense and mind-blowing. You can always find that in my material. I don't do comedy so much, although I would like to do a comedy. I'd like to do a romantic comedy.
UGO: Who would be your leading lady?
AARON: There are so many, although but I've got a certain one in mind right now. There's a few that I'd like to work with.
UGO: So you're looking for more good guy roles?
AARON: Yeah, I'd like to get the girl and at least make it through the film. I'd like to be there at the end. I'd like read the whole script and not just the first ten pages. But yeah, I'd like that. I'd like to do more family dramas. I'd like to be a father. I like multi-dimensional films. I like to watch those, but I also like to watch humanistic films and films that are dealing with something important.
UGO: What about a flat out action movie?
AARON: Yeah, I think I'd be good at that. With The Core, I got close to that. I feel like that's right up my alley and that I can do it, and do it well. I feel like I'm a natural athlete and all that kind of stuff. You just find the right one. I think people like Harrison Ford have really set the bar in terms of that genre.
UGO: Do you find yourself not getting offers for comedies?
AARON: I get all sorts of scripts, which is really weird. I just did a little thing on Frasier, if anybody saw it. I can do comedy, and I do have a funny bone. It's whether or not you're going to take them. It's so much harder to say yes to a comedy. You're like, "Can I do it? Am I going to look stupid?" And then, "Is the director good?" And then, "How are we actually going to play this?" Whereas in a drama, you pretty much know down the line that if you have a good director and a good script, then you know what you're going to do. Drama, in a lot of ways, is more forgiving in terms of audience. Comedy is a little harder, but I think I can do it.
UGO: Do FBI agents really get transferred to lesser cities?
AARON: Yeah. New York and L.A. is where you want to be; that's where they have the most agents and the most excitement. It would probably be interesting to see all the FBI agents right now in the city. Dallas is a good post, but to go to New Mexico -- nothing is really happening in New Mexico, although you do have the nuclear research facility there and other things. But it's a demotion. Not to say that Albuquerque is not a fantastic city. But the craziest thing was when I was shooting the scene where I was going to catch the trucker, I looked down and saw a rattlesnake going though my legs and coiling on my foot. I said something and then ran. It was caught all on film.
UGO: What happened?
AARON: Nothing. But the Native Americans, they won't kill a snake. Even if it bites you, they won't kill a snake. They think it's lucky, which was cool.
UGO: Did you work a lot with Native Americans?
AARON: We were on their land most times; they were there and granted us permission. In fact, that mesa, where I have that big fight, is reputed to drive men crazy. It had some sort of thing going on with it.
UGO: Could it be because you were on that rock in a 100-degree desert?
AARON: It had something to do with that. I was completely insane and tired and wanted to go home to my mommy, yes. That had something to do with it, too.
UGO: What do you have coming up?
AARON: Doing a movie called Never Was, which is in Vancouver next month. It's Ian McKellen, myself, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Brittany Murphy and Alan Cumming. It's about a man who thinks he's king of a place called Never Was, and I'm his psychiatrist.
UGO: When you work with stars like Ben Kingsley or Nick Nolte, do you take anything away from them?
AARON: It makes me feel very proud and honored. I often think about my days in New York City. For five years, I didn't get one job, went on thousands of auditions and literally did not get a job on a soap, not a movie, not TV, not nothing, although I did do some commercials, thank God. It makes me feel good that I've now worked with Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, all the great actors that I've worked with.
UGO: How did you and Labute first get together?
AARON: We did plays in school together, and then he moved to Indiana working at a psychiatric hospital and teaching theater during the day. I was here, starving and paying enormous rent. He called me up and said, "I got 25 grand, let's make this movie." Well, what else do I have to do?
UGO: Are we going to see a Dick Clark special with your commercials in them?
AARON: The great thing about me and my commercials was they were national commercials; I always got the money for them, but you could never see me in the commercial. I was in the background. I wasn't on a McDonald's commercial or anything like that. I was the guy, in the hat, in the background, but they always paid me, which was great. I did mostly beer commercials and computer. But never where they would have me speaking, which was getting me down. I think it was a hint, a warning, or a sign.
UGO: What superhero power would you want to have?
AARON: That's such a good question. I would like to walk really fast. Fly, see through things, I don't know. Yeah, I'd like to fly.
UGO: Would you remote view?
AARON: I would like to do that. I would remote view my career probably, and see what's going on. Remote view my death. I could do that. Actually, I can remote view; so can you guys. That's the point. It's a science, it's not a phenomenon. This guy can teach you how to do it. There are certain steps you go through to prepare yourself to remote view. You can see the future. You can see the past. You can go back and pick your favorite historical figure and see how he died, what he talked like, what he wore. I said, "Why don't you go win the lottery?" And he goes, "Well, I'm doing this for good. But you could do that." If this gets in the wrong hands, I may have to use my superhero power of walking very fast to solve the world's problems.
UGO: Has he found any bodies?
AARON: He has.
UGO: So why doesn't the FBI take him seriously?
AARON: Because the FBI is taxpayer funded. The FBI is about nuts and bolts. It's all about witnesses and procedure and walking the streets. This guy is all about, "I'll tell you where they're buried by closing my eyes and drawing and writing down some words." It's difficult to convince these streetwise cops that this actually works. They're skeptical, naturally. But he has shown me how he went through a case, how he saw the girl's body, how they found it. He knew the weapon they used, he knew who did it, and they got the guy - the whole nine yards. And it happens more than once. I will say this: In my humble opinion, knowing nothing about it, I do believe that they have remote viewers working on where Osama Bin Laden is. I am absolutely, 100%, convinced of that.
UGO: What's your favorite movie franchise out of The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars?
AARON: Whoa, they've all had some good ones and some bad ones and some I haven't seen...I think I saw the first Star Wars. But I'm a big fan of everybody in those movies. I love the first Star Wars, and I love the first Matrix.
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