Cristina Córdova [2]

Aaron Eckhart doesn't like too much attention. It makes him uncomfortable, which oddly enough, isn't such an odd thing for an actor. Sure, there are artists that live for the limelight, but then there are others that live for the art (not that you can't live for both, mind you). Eckhart is not a spotlight fiend. That much is clear. He doesn't look uncomfortable, mind you, but he tells me so; and it's clear from his quiet, pensive approach that he's not out for the big headline, that he's not going to flex his muscles to impress me. If I'm not impressed by his soft-spoken, steadfast approach, by his honesty, by his glorious chin, well, too bad for me.

Now on tour, promoting his latest film, Meet Bill [3], Eckhart is going through the arduous task of interview upon interview. Somehow, he remains unresentful. Sure, it's his job (I guess), but I caught the man coming straight out of one interview, into the next, and then on his way to another. How much fun can that be? And when I questioned him, he simply replied, "I never say the same thing twice. Maybe that's a bad thing."

"A bad thing?" I asked.

Sure. "They always use the same thing anyway, so it really doesn't matter what I say."

And, yes, we do. Don't we?

"It's a vicious circle, but on the other hand if the circle works why make it a square. You know what I mean? See I've never said that before. Why make a circle a square?"

Why make a circle a square? Good question. And yet, I know he's worried that I'll take it out of context somehow. Why make a circle a square? Somehow, I'll pose a question about his new film. 'Your character is clearly confused and dissatisfied. He goes through a number of changes, and yet at the end I didn't quite get the sense that he has truly arrived somewhere new. Why didn't he blah, blah, blah?' (Eckhart likes his blah, blah, blahs.) Why make a circle a square?

I try to reassure him that I won't do this, that somehow, I'm different from all other journalists (I'm not), but why make a circle a square?

"What I say as a dry joke just comes off flat," Eckhart continues. "In print things don't translate."

And he's right. Few know that better than The Rake, I think, recalling our vain attempts at humor and sarcasm, recalling the negative feedback, all the people who just didn't get the joke.

While Meet Bill is a fun physical comedy — far better than I might have imagined, based on the seemingly cheap Jessica Alba trailers — it's still a slapstick comedy, and I'm left wondering why Eckhart is listed as executive producer, why a man with such interesting acting experience and only one production credit (a co-production credit, at that) under his belt, would take this on above a more nobel endeavor.

I'm naïve, of course, to ask the question.

"I have to say, my producorial involvement is minimal," answers Eckhart. "I don't want to pretend that I was instrumental in this movie at all. When I come on or do a movie, I guess, that's one of the perks that I get. Maybe sometimes it helps in casting. It's a gift."

—So there was no financial backing?

"None whatsoever. It frankly kind of embarrasses me that it's on there. But it's one of the things that people do because it looks good. I don't want to offend the other producers by taking credit. On small movies like this, because they don't have a lot of money to give you, this can be another incentive. That's kind of what it is. I just acted in the movie."

Now it all makes sense to me. Eckhart has no interest in producing.

"I'd rather go clean toilets than produce movies," he jokes. "What producers have to do — probably a lot of your job, too — is call people, follow up on people, try to make people honor their commitments. It's hell. You know?" (Yes, I know.)

"Filmmaking is tiresome. It's a long, arduous job, and you have to be a marathon runner to do it. For an actor, you just get in and get out. You don't have to deal with pre-production. You don't have to deal with post. You don't have to deal with the money people, the pressure, the business, selling it. I'm far away from all that sort of stuff.

"I'm an actor. I have a lot to accomplish in acting, things that I want to do as an actor. I admire people like Clooney and these guys who do the whole enchilada. They do everything, and they make a great product. It's unbelievable. And a lot of actors do that. Maybe another time. Maybe I'll direct a traffic commercial. Like a PSA or something. On the environment." (He's joking again, of course, though it may not be a bad idea.)

—So how did you come to be involved with Meet Bill?

"My agent and I were on a plane some time, and she laughed out loud while reading a script, and I said, ‘what?' And she goes, ‘Oh, this script.' And I asked, ‘Well, what is it.' And she said, ‘Bill.' It was called Bill then; now it's called Meet Bill. She handed it to me, and she said, ‘You should do this.' And I read it and laughed. They probably had someone else in mind but couldn't get him, so I came and we met and liked each other.

"It's really interesting how involvement comes around. I think it's all a scheme by agents. They show some interest, and when you ask about it they nonchalantly say, ‘Oh, this? Yeah, Brad Pitt wants to do it, but he's not going to do it.' And you're like, ‘Oh, he does!?' I'm convinced that's what happens."

—Were you told someone else was interested in the part?

"No, but there always is. Movies always go to five guys. Then when those guys can't do it, it just filters down. They'll always say that you were their first choice, but you know it's not true. But five guys can't do all the movies in the world, and sometimes you'll find a gem — like Thank you for Smoking or something like that. And then you're just like, ‘I don't give a crap who's doing this movie. I'm doing it.' And you can't believe that one of the other guys isn't doing it. That's how that movie came about, and then everybody else just kind of fell into place."

—Were you concerned at all about working for first-time directors?

"Well, it always takes a little bit of thought. In this case, Melisa [Wallack] had written it. She and Bernie [Goldmann] are from here, but they're well ensconced in Hollywood. And Bernie is a producer. He knew what he was doing. But the main question with first-time directors is, can they tell a story? Can you tell the story you want to tell? Can we all tell the story? And can we put this together to make it what we all want it to be? And then you have to take stock. You have to ask yourself, can I do it? Can I fulfill my part? Can I play this character? Do I want to play this character? Yes. Can I fulfill my role? I hope so. I'll try my best. Do I have a track record of doing that? I think so.

"What kind of money is involved? What kind of pressure is involved? Ok. It's low budget. It's very low budget. It's independently produced. What are the producers going to help these guys get through it? What's their track record? So I get to add all that stuff up. Right? And usually I'm doing it like this (snap) and it's an emotional reaction: ‘I just want to do it. I don't care.'

"It's a crapshoot. That's what it comes down to. It's a crapshoot. But then again, you have to stack it against what else is around. What else have you got? You want to wait three months until the next crop of movies comes in? It's an interesting process. Obviously, I thought this was a good idea. I wanted to play this character. I liked the people. So, you just have to go, ‘Look, come hell or high water, I'm going to do this.' I worked with a lot of experienced directors who didn't do a very good job. So, what are you going to do? These movies, too, are smaller movies. You shoot them in six or eight weeks. It doesn't kill you. You just go have a good experience. For me, it was a jump into another genre that I hadn't done, which was a full-out comedy, adult comedy. I do like comedy very much."

—But you've done comedy before. How was this different?

"This is a more physical comedy. I want to be funny in this movie — physically. I mean, it's not an attractive role. I'm not really playing a lead man in it. There's a lot of danger in it. You're making fun of yourself. You're getting in a Speedo. You're shaving your body. You're eating chocolate.

"Then you have to say, ‘Well, who's going to give me a chance to play this role? Are we going to do this for 50 million dollars for awards?' Probably not. ‘Do I want to go out and try something like that?' Yeah.

"This happens every single week. A small bill will come out where you'll have an actor who plays an unexpected character in a role. I think it's great. It's a way of refreshing ourselves. And I think that the public gains a quiet confidence in the actor. And next time he comes out in an action movie or a ‘stupid romantic comedy,' they just get a little bit of extra credence. A lot of these movies are what made our careers, too. Sometimes we're most remembered for those charming little movies - like Juno. Juno is still a really small movie. I had the same issues with Jason - all sorts of questions. What are you going to do? I have to play this role. It just happened with another movie. I just finished two and half months of a movie called Traveling with Jennifer Aniston [8]. I had to play that character. There was no ifs ands or buts about it. And I was not first on that list. But we made it. We did it. Granted, it was a bigger budget. And it was with a studio."

—Certainly there must be roles you take without being quite so compelled. Was Bill one of these, or did you feel you had to play that role?

"Well, yeah, there have been movies where I've had to make my character work for me instead of being compelled to do it. There are movies where, yeah, I didn't love the character. But, you do it. You fall in love with it, try to find ways of doing it, because if you don't, you're going to be in trouble.

"There are characters that I say, ‘I don't care what I have to do, I am playing this character.' And sometimes you don't get those movies. And that's a hard thing. I really wanted to do movies that I didn't get. Or when you do get them, there are characters that you do because of financial considerations, because of social considerations, fulfilling relationships with people. You did me this favor; I'll do you this favor. I don't know if a lot of people know that. It usually comes down to paycheck, but a lot of it is your friendships. You've been good to me, so I'm going to do this movie. You know?"

—Like Neil LaBute? You've worked with him quite a bit. How did that come to be?

"His stuff is really good, so that's a pleasure. We met when I was in college. He was a PhD, and I was an undergrad. He was getting his PhD in theater arts, and I just started doing his plays. At BYU, being a Mormon school, his plays were controversial, to the extent that not everybody would do them, first of all, and they weren't even allowed on the stages. I have a dark place in me, I guess, so we got along, and I was able to say the words moderately well. At that time I hadn't read anything like that, but I could say the words.

"What people don't know is that Neil was not only writing and directing plays, but he was also acting in the plays, which helped me out a lot because I could see how he wanted the original words to be said and to be played. This is interesting when I watch other people do his stuff because nobody has seen Neil. I've only seen Neil. And I don't know why that's important, but it is important. Nobody knows that Neil can act, very well.

"That's a relationship I still cherish, and we're still going to work together."

—It seems you often play a fairly traditional role of the dissatisfied male. Are you particularly drawn to this character or to this type of drama?

"You know, I could say that that's what I'm best at, but in the end that's just what's being written out there. It's just what's being written. Forget my career. Look at every other movie that comes out. I mean, that's what drama is all about — dissatisfaction with what? And what are people mostly dissatisfied about? They're dissatisfied with what's closest to them, and that's their lives. And that's usually their wife and their children or something. And that dissatisfaction breeds boredom, and then drug addiction, and then blah, blah, blah. That's what's being written about in scripts. When you get into the tent pole movies and the bigger movies then you have a different thing. But then people ask why you're doing tent pole movie. ‘Well, because I'm sick of doing relationship movies.' That's just what's out there.

"Yesterday my agent said, ‘You were just offered blah, blah, blah and it's about blah, blah, blah.' And I'm like, ‘No, because I don't want to do blah, blah, blah.' Now we're getting into hurly-burly. That's drama. Look at TV. Why are there so many cop shows on? Why are there so many hospital shows on? Because it's filled with drama and dissatisfaction. I don't know if I'm pre-disposed to it or if it's just what's out there.

"I have a dark side, but also I have a side of reality. I like adult drama. I like adult issues. Whatever comedy or whatever I do, whatever movies I do, even my romantic comedies — like the one I just did with Jennifer — (My career isn't this great thing or whatever) I'm not playing a child. I'm not playing a teenager. I'm not playing an adult who's a child. In that, what else do you have to explore, other than some sort of dissatisfaction?

"I will say this, my next movie, Traveling... Ok, you're right, I am looking for more. I'm looking for guys who are not malicious, who are not sadistic or sociopathic. In Traveling I play a man who is dealing with his wife's death. I'd like to do more family drama, where I'm a dad with a family and kids. But how do you make that exciting? How do you write a script that makes that exciting? There's got to be an injection of drama in there. And that just doesn't happen every day. I could scream at my agent every day, ‘Get me an adult movie blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.' And my agent would just tell me there's not one out there. They're not the first thing being made. Plus, not a lot of people go to those movies, so it's harder to get those movies financed. They're looking for the market, the kid market."

—They want Meet Bill.

"That's right!"

 

Meet Bill opens April 4th at the Lagoon Cinema [11], and runs for one week only.