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“I don’t believe in genres, I believe in acting.”
One would think this would be a grand statement at the end of a rant from a theater major in college criticizing modern movies, but it’s actually a personal preference when it comes to selecting the films that make up the nearly 20-year career of Aaron Eckhart.
He may not believe in identifying a film by a label or type, but most people do, and he is familiar to fans of a variety of genres: action (“The Dark Knight,” “Olympus Has Fallen”), drama (“Rabbit Hole,” “In the Company of Men”), comedy “Thank You for Smoking,” “The Rum Diary”). And those who get out to the movies in 2016 are bound to see him in one or more of several new films: He started the year with an action movie in the spring (“London Has Fallen”), followed by two dramas in the fall (“Sully,” “Bleed for This”), and will finish the year with a horror movie in the winter (“Incarnate”).
This past weekend at the Hamptons International Film Festival, Mr. Eckhart pulled double duty promoting a featured film in the festival (“Bleed for This”) and being interviewed for “A Conversation With...” If he’s being honest—though it’s hard to tell with that same charm and verbal etiquette he brought to his Golden-Globe-nominated role as a hotshot tobacco lobbyist in “Thank You for Smoking”—he doesn’t even understand the purpose of genres.
“I think genre is categorizing something that doesn’t need to be categorized,” Mr. Eckhart said. “As an actor, if somebody dies in a movie you have to determine how you feel about that. If you’re having a relationship breakup, or you’re having a baby or whatever, it doesn’t matter what genre you’re in, you’re an actor in a movie and I’ve always been confused by that.”
Mr. Eckhart cites “The Dark Knight,” the omnipresent Batman movie where he made a star turn as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, as an example of going beyond the basics of a genre.
“It’s a ‘genre’ film, and yet it’s played straight. If you look at the script, it’s about corruption, coercion, violence, and a city taken hostage by an evil force. And, you know, look around us today. The great thing about ‘The Dark Knight’ was that it was played straight for real truth and that’s why that movie was particularly effective. It said, ‘This is what we’re going through right now.’”
He then compared Batman, the vigilante justice hero, to his character in “Rabbit Hole,” in which he played a grieving father whose young son died in a car accident.
“He has vigilante thoughts, so how different is that from Batman? It’s really not. It’s just how the story crafts it. So when I do a horror movie or an action movie, I just, as an actor, approach it like I do every movie I approach, which is, ‘What’s the truth? How do I tell the story? How do I best serve the writer and director? How do I best serve my fellow characters? And how do I tell this in the most entertaining way?’”
A common phrase that would fit the profile of Mr. Eckhart is an “actor’s actor,” someone who takes any role head on, no matter what it may be. Mr. Eckhart has his own definition.
“It means that you’re always going for the truth and it’s all about the story and you’re trying to find truth in every moment and every scene. That means you do not divorce yourself from your character at any time. I always say, as an actor, if I can find some way to not have to act, then I will do that.”
He breaks that method down in the form of the difference between two actors: Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman in 1976’s “Marathon Man.” He explained that if someone is playing a character who hasn’t showered in two weeks, then that actor won’t shower for two weeks. Mr. Olivier famously said to Mr. Hoffman in response to his commitment, “My boy, why don’t you try acting?”
Mr. Hoffman went the distance for movie roles, and Mr. Eckhart follows suit.
“If I’m out of breath or whatever it is, I’d prefer to be out of breath. I then will do what I have to do to be out of breath as opposed to acting like I’m out of breath. If I have to have a limp, I’ll put a rock in my shoe. Anything that I can do so that I can concentrate on the moment, that’s what I prefer to do. It’s about how you find reality in a scene.”
Mr. Eckhart was also presented with the Variety Creative Impact Award at his “A Conversation With...” interview for his wide range of roles over the years. His reaction to receiving the award was as varied as his filmography.
“I don’t deserve it, I’m honored to get it, but I guess I haven’t gotten used to these awards things. I’m happy that it’s a part of this festival, where they give films like ‘Bleed for This’ a chance to be seen by people who appreciate the craft of, not only acting, but making a movie. I feel like I’m sharing this award with everybody involved with the movie. This is our award.”
When it came time for his interview at Guild Hall in East Hampton for “A Conversation With...” Mr. Eckhart created his own job title.
“I call myself a ‘human behaviorologist,’ I study human behavior. Something that was taught to me about acting was ‘observe, perceive, and wonder.’ I think you can get a lot of gold out of that.”
In the case of “Bleed for This,” in which Mr. Eckhart plays boxing trainer Kevin Rooney, he watched endless footage of Mr. Rooney on YouTube and hung around professional boxing trainers to get a feel for the atmosphere of the life of training a man to fight for a living. He also shaved his head bald and gained 40 pounds in three months to look the part and would spend hours talking in Mr. Rooney’s Staten Island accent. Mr. Rooney is the second real-life person Mr. Eckhart will have portrayed on screen within a month after playing co-pilot Jeff Skiles in “Sully.”
“I’m always interested in playing real guys,” Mr. Eckhart said. “It’s a huge responsibility to have to represent them well. I just wanted to be real. Truth is truth. All I’m trying to do is communicate with what’s in front of me. We have to work harder for the truth so the audience leaves the theater saying, ‘Wow, that was real.’
“To me, truth is like a beautiful little bird that I focus on seeing. Three months or so before I start shooting a movie, my job is to get the bird in my hand. Once I do that and I arrive on set, I have to keep the bird in my hand and not have it be distracted by all the other surrounding stuff on set.”
Jon Winkler on Oct 9, 2016