Mr. Beaks Enjoys The Company Of TOWELHEAD's Aaron Eckhart

Aaron Eckhart is having a good year. Even though - as he states very plainly in the below interview - his time in the Christopher Nolan's Batman universe has come to an end, his performance as Harvey Dent/Two Face was more than enough to wipe away unpleasant memories of Tommy Lee Jones's mugging in BATMAN FOREVER. Most importantly, he set the moral compass of the film as the man who would be Gotham City's JFK, which made his face-scarring fall from grace all the more tragic. Eckhart doesn't have too far to fall as Travis Vuoso, the married Army reservist who goes gaga for thirteen-year-old Jasira Maroun (Summer Bishil) in Alan Ball's astringent, but strangely affecting TOWELHEAD. Though Travis may despise Jasira's father (he views Mr. Maroun's Middle Eastern heritage as evidence of a full-fledged support for Saddam Hussein), he is utterly infatuated with this little girl who has inadvertently discovered sexual ecstasy in the pages of his (poorly hidden) nudie magazines. Desperate for any kind of genuine connection (and bereft of shame), Travis risks what little he has by pursuing a highly improper relationship with Jasira, which, rather predictably, does not lead to suburban bliss. While Eckhart's been blessed with leading man looks, he's always been most interesting when subverting his inherent likability. Perhaps this is because we were introduced to Eckhart through Neil LaBute's classic IN THE COMPANY OF MEN, in which he terrorized a beautiful deaf girl for sport. It's a fascinating dynamic: even when he's playing a gem of man in ERIN BROCKOVICH, we're waiting for the wolf to cast off his nice guy disguise and devour the innocent female. I guess that's the price of being a brilliant asshole so early in your career. Of course, Eckhart couldn't be more charming in person, which is, in a way, terribly distressing. That it's magic hour when I walk into his room at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons makes me all the more suspicious; as he reclines on a couch, idly watching the U.S. Open, the sun streaming in, bathing the golden boy in a messianic glow (so not embellishing any of this), I find myself consumed with the desire to remake THE NATURAL. Not a bad idea, actually. With Eckhart as Roy Hobbs, we could finally get away with Malamud's original ending.

Beaks: It's been a year since TOWELHEAD debuted in Toronto.

Aaron Eckhart: Yeah, it has been a year. I don't know if this is a summer movie. I was just talking to somebody about this; you really have to pick your spots these days because every weekend is tough, especially in the summer. To find a spot for your movie is really difficult.

Beaks: This summer especially. There's one movie that kind of threw everyone off.

Eckhart: Yeah. (Pause) Well, there were a lot of movies that were huge this summer. INDIANA JONES was huge, IRON MAN was huge. It was a good summer for movies.

Beaks: True. In any event, it's great to see you back playing these characters with really complex shadings. But while there was a very tangible decency to Harvey Dent in THE DARK KNIGHT, Mr. Vuoso is pretty reprehensible from the outset.

Eckhart: Yeah, I think doing it is more difficult because you're doing it with a thirteen year old. There are reasons why that's illegal. (Laughs) In terms of an actor in the filmmaking, it was not a hard process because you were working with such a great director who created such an atmosphere of trust. There was such a good relationship with Summer and Peter, so it was a lot of fun making the movie. But when it comes to having to physically do what we had to do, and sometimes say what you had to say was difficult because... it's not always pretty. You have to put yourself in that position with a thirteen year old, and hopefully... that won't happen anytime soon. Going to work is sometimes a little more complicated than other times.

Beaks: I can imagine. Alan said that you did your two most difficult scenes with Summer early in the shoot. Did it help to just get it over with?

Eckhart: What I think it really has to do with is how you're getting along with Summer, and what kind of relationship we built. Having to do it in the last week, we would've had six weeks to get to know each other; having to do it in the first week, you obviously haven't had a lot of time. Sometimes that works for you. But... I think it was more me than her. I think she was fine with it; she was so well-adjusted and good natured about everything. For me, being the older one, I felt a responsibility. I was the one touching her, so I felt like I had to tread lighting. So we really did everything mechanically: I told her that I was going to do "this", and then "this", and "this". We'd repeat that, and then when we did action it'd be like (Claps) "Did we get that?" (Laughs)

Beaks: But the character, since we see him struggling with these desires, he doesn't necessarily seem like a complete monster.

Eckhart: No. I think that Travis is a guy like a lot of us out there in the world who made a choice, and now he's living with that choice. He finds himself in a dead end, things are pretty monotonous, there's not a bright future, dreams haven't been realized... so life is pretty dull. Then there's that point in your life where all the vibrant colors of love and all of those senses are awakened; I think that's what happened when he first saw Jasira. It's like a man having a reawakening. When you see a family in a restaurant and they're not talking, and the kids are annoying; then all of a sudden a pretty little waitress walks up, and suddenly the father has something witty and interesting to say. That's kind of who Travis is.

Beaks: What's the difference between playing a struggling-to-be-decent guy giving into his desires and a more unrepentant scoundrel like Chad in IN THE COMPANY OF MEN?

Eckhart: Chad was a predator; he was a manipulator. Travis certainly is not. Travis is a guy who's just looking for a way out. In no way [are his actions] premeditated. I think it just comes over him. I think he's overtaken by his senses, which is a very human thing. He feels the guilt and the pain of it while he's doing it, but can't stop it, and that gives him further guilt. I have to play this part... (Pauses) I want my character to fall in love with her. It's a love story to me. When I'm Travis talking to Jasira, and I'm telling her that I have to go to Iraq or that I'm not a bad man, I'm winning her over; I want her to love me; I want this to be a healthy union, not just a one night stand or whatever it is. Travis is feeling, "I want this to be a relationship. I want this relationship. I have this relationship over here, and it's not satisfying to me." Whether or not he actually believes that, in that moment he does, and I think that's important. Chad is a whole different thing, but the thing that is similar is that you have to believe that you're doing the right thing. Whatever character you're playing, you have to believe that whatever action you take is the right thing. If you don't, then you don't believe in your character, and that's no fun for the audience. I think it's much more fun when [Travis] is playing a little game with [Jasira]: "Pay the toll". I think everybody's done that with their kid or whatever. If you can relate to it, it just goes so much further and has a deeper effect. I wish there had been more of that, frankly. I improv-ed that. "Pay the toll." I wish I'd done more of that. I should've taken the chances to do more because everybody can relate to that; it also makes Travis human, which gives us a little empathy, a little pathos. It also makes it seem like he's redeemable, which is very important.

Beaks: You think Alan would've been open to those kinds of suggestions?

Eckhart: Oh, absolutely. Obviously, everybody respected the writing and the structure of the story, but there's always-- you can always cut that stuff. You don't know what it's going to lead to. You might try one thing, but it leads to something else. When I did "Pay the toll", I knew it was good; it just felt like the thing to do. It really deepens and enlivens the relationship.

Beaks: And now the obligatory question: can you conceive of any way in which you might be back in--

Aaron Eckhart: (Laughs) No.

Beaks: Not a chance?

Eckhart: No. I'm dead. I couldn't even get the words out of my mouth. "Hey, Chris, am I--?" "No. You're dead. You're dead."

Beaks: Because there has been a discussion amongst some fans about how he's never seen in the coffin.

Eckhart: Well, it'd be easier than anything to bring him back, but... it's like Chris said on the tour. He wasn't thinking about the next movie when he made [THE DARK KNIGHT]. All the vegetables were in this stew. I think that this franchise has shown that it doesn't have to bring back characters. I mean, there's still Catwoman. I've heard Angelina Jolie really wants to do Catwoman; I think that's a fantastic idea. I'll be a happy audience member this time. And what's gone on with Heath and everything... I think Heath was the one that was going to come back. And since he can't... (Pauses) You know, Chris hasn't said that he's going to make another one.

Beaks: True. He's been on vacation. I spoke to David Goyer at Comic Con, and he said there have been no discussions.

Eckhart: (Smiling) He never said he's going to make another one. I'm sure they drove the Brinks truck up to his house and dumped money on his lawn. But I think Chris wants to go out and make other movies, too. And he should. He's an independent filmmaker at heart. He's got a lot of ideas.

Beaks: He's also got THE PRISONER somewhere in development. Maybe there would be something for you in that?

Eckhart: Give him a call. I mean, I'd love to work with Chris again. But he and Christian [Bale] have such a great thing going.

TOWELHEAD opens in limited release September 12th. It will expand on September 26th.