Aaron Eckhart

0:01Frankenstein. The rose of truth. I was given life 200 years ago. I am like none other. Thanks for doing this, Aaron. You're welcome. You don't want to notice about the Golden Globes the other day? You squinting into the prompter. You had a little dineer face going on. I'll talk to you in a little bit. Yeah, there it is. A little bit. Yeah. That's what happens when you get old. Oh, is that... that's not what I meant. No, no, but it's true. It's meant to be a couple of words. I guess I was trying to read what was on the... I guess I was just trying to not screw it up, you know. So what I'm doing right now? Yeah. So two years ago you filmed this movie. What was it like to go in there and see the CGI progress as like... I'm sure as you're doing 80R, you're seeing the movie unfold before you're out. Yeah, and Stuart, the director and the writers, you know,

0:49emailing me and sending me stuff. It's... Oh boy, those guys put in a lot of work. And I really do on a daily basis. And to see the evolution, it's extraordinary, you know, especially having filmed it and knowing that it was all green screen and then hearing what Stuart's saying, okay, we're going to do this with the ceiling and do this with the gargoyle. And then to actually see it come to fruition is amazing. Those guys really put a lot of work into it. When I was watching the movie, I know it's a very silent role for you. Like you say... you have very few lines. I don't know if you counted when you're going through the script or your agent did or something. There's not many. But I remember... I had Gary Oldman on the show a few years ago who did Tinker Tailor Soldier Spine and he told me, it's liberating to not have to communicate all the time. Which was, did you feel that? I love it. Absolutely love it. I would love not to say anything in the movie.

1:35Robert Redford just did a movie like that, didn't he? Of course he was in the middle of Ocean on a boat. That stuff. But yeah, it is. I think that writers I know for sure, but directors as well, they don't trust their actors enough to communicate with their tool, which is their body and their eyes and their emotions. It can do so much and that you don't need all the words. In fact, sometimes a lot of times the words get in a way. There's great stories of Steve McQueen getting a script and going, nope, that's not going to... nope, nope, nope. And just going like this. And then you look at the movie and we don't need any more words. He was a very laconic actor. It depends on the role obviously and what you're going for.

2:21But it is, what should I say, it's refreshing not to speak all the time. Do you prepare for a role differently then? I mean, obviously the physical stuff with the movie like this. No, you just have to get in touch with the material, what it means to you. What did this mean to you? Well, I mean, rejected by his father, cast out, unwanted, unloved, ugly. You know, I felt that way. I think every kid seeing this movie feels that way or is going to feel that way. What's the purpose of my life? Why am I here? Am I important? Would anybody miss me if I were gone? You know, that's what this is dealing with. So that's what I concentrated and focused on. Those questions and try to put that into the character. Did you look to De Niro or maybe not De Niro, worse Karloff more to...

3:07Like, there are scenes where you try to not embody them, but like... No, I'll tell you why. Because everything that he was doing came from Mary Shelley's. I want... You got to go to the source. You can't get from... I never look at film actors or television or film unless it's a reality show or to get my gold. You got to go to the source. It's more effective. It's pure or more pure. So that's what I did. So you said he's more of a victim though in that Mary Shelley book, but he's not a victim in this movie. So how do you separate that? Well, I don't think he's a victim. I think he's a... I think he said he's less of a victim. Did I say this? On Fergus Center, Lionel, or something.

3:53Oh, I see. Well, I can't be responding before we said it yesterday or even five minutes ago. I don't see he's a victim. And he certainly doesn't act like a victim. Yes, he wants revenge. I mean, he wants to kill his father, but he ends up burying his father. And he's conflicted and confused why he has feelings of love for his father and yet he hates his father. That's interesting stuff as an actor. I can't answer any questions about it because I don't know any answers, but it's fun to play. Yeah, there's another quote that you said now. I don't know if you can take this one. But I thought this was really interesting. The actor's job is to ground the story and make it real for the audience. And it's such a like otherworldly experience. How do you do that? Yeah, you just do, you know, make it personal to you. And if this isn't working for you and the script's not working for you, you have to substitute and just use actors' tools to make it real.

4:45But I feel like you have to treat every death. It's a death and what does that mean to you. You have to give the audience. You have to tell the audience what it means to you. And if they see what the stakes are to you, then they're going to have a better experience in the theater. And so I try to be, it's an actor's job to be as specific as possible and to know what everything means. You know, what does not send, you know, something little is, you know, what this apartment, what does this mean? You know, everything, you know, what is seeing a woman for the first time and kindness mean to him. You know, how does that make him feel and really getting specific with that? It gives the audience a better film. I gotta let you go so we do something called Five Questions. Five quick questions, one word answers.

5:30Script or improv? Oh, a good script. Leonard or McCartney? Leonard, I think, probably. Staeder screen. Both. Hitchcock or Kubrick? I think if I'm on a desert island, I'm going to say Kubrick. Cool. In one word, I Frankenstein. Ride. You cannot save the human race. Nothing can stop their demise. Thousands of them.