Actor Aaron Eckhart was in town last week promoting his newest comedy, “Meet Bill.” This movie, about a man stuck in a job and a marriage he doesn’t like, is of a special interest locally because it was filmed right here in St. Louis.

The movie also stars Elizabeth Banks as Bill’s wife, Timothy Oliphant as the Channel 11 news guy Bill’s wife is sleeping with, and Jessica Alba as the girl whom Bill befriends in order to make his wife jealous. He is led along in his existential crisis by a nameless high school student whom Bill is supposed to be mentoring.

Eckhart, who has starred in movies including “Erin Brockovich” and “Thank You for Smoking,” is in the midst of a busy year.

He faces the release of four movies, including the epically anticipated follow up to “Batman Begins,” Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight.”

After graduating from Brigham Young University (BYU)-he says he appreciates the values he learned growing up as a Mormon but no longer officially identifies himself as such-he rose to fame by starring as a titanic cad in fellow BYU student Neil LaBute’s “In the Company of Men.”

Eckhart is confident and very handsome, but has a way of making others feel comfortable and normal. He spent half of our interview asking me questions about my future (which I have omitted for the sake of avoiding undue boredom on the part of the reader), but just as easily spoke about his personal and public life.

“Meet Bill” is now showing in theaters around St. Louis (including the Chase Park Plaza).

Student Life: What have you been up to today?

Aaron Eckhart: I went gambling and, as soon as I’m done with this interview, I’m going again.

SL: How did you do?

AE: I still have a home. I still have a car. I don’t really gamble, just a couple bucks.

SL: You typically play characters with surface charm that may hide something else underneath. Bill is not like that at all. Why did you decide to do the movie?

AE: That’s the reason to do it right there. It’s a different guy. It appealed to me, and I’d been wanting to do a comedy. When I read the screenplay, I laughed. And you know, there’s a lot of issues that you’re dealing with in this movie.
I feel like a lot of people-you’re too young to feel this way, but you will-get to a certain point in their life when they look at their life and say, “This isn’t what I want to do, this isn’t what I want to be.”
You know, I think a lot of people call it a mid-life crisis or whatever, but that change takes place or it doesn’t take place, and I think this transformation that Bill has is important because he gets the cajones to deal with his life and try what he wants to try. Most people don’t. Do you know what I mean?

SL: Sure. He just allows himself to keep doing something he doesn’t like.

AE: Exactly.

SL: Why do you do what you do?

AE: Because I fell into it in high school or after college. I needed a job, or I thought I would be this.
“Well what do you want to do?”
“Well I want to do…whatever.”
“Why don’t you do that?”
“Because I have a house payment, I have three kids and this is what I have to continue to do. Could I get a car, medical insurance?”
When you start asking people, you find out that they’re really non-fulfilled and unhappy. That unhappiness displays itself in devious ways.
For example [in the movie] my wife is [with] the news guy. I have a 14-year-old kid I’m mentoring, but I would rather do anything than mentor this kid. That relationship is kind of cool ’cause he’s the kid who has no name, he’s out of nowhere, he’s from nowhere. He seems to have the means to do anything and the wisdom of someone older and [he] shows me, or Bill, that life can be exciting. That’s why I did the movie, to play the relationship with that kid and I wanted to do physical comedy.

SL: Did you form some idea of what Bill was looking for?

AE: You have to do that. You look at your own life. Bill definitely had an idea of what he wanted. He’s looking for ways out. What he really wants is freedom.
He says, “I want freedom from my father-in-law, I want freedom from the club, freedom from having to provide for this lifestyle.”
That’s why he spends most of his time hanging out with a 14-year-old and a girl that works at the underwear shop. Just the relationships that Bill has at the end of the movie are indicative of the desire to get away from what he has become, which is this preppy upper-middle class snob.
He’s not that. He’s not playing sports anymore…doesn’t find his wife particularly attractive, she doesn’t find him attractive, and, when I look at my life, when I look at other people’s lives, I can relate to that.

SL: Hopefully you’re in a place that you want to be.

AE: Yeah, I’m happy being an actor. I feel more than ever…that being an actor is what I’ve always wanted to be, since I was 15, so I never had that feeling that Bill has, or that some of the people at your school may have. How old are you?

SL: I’m about to turn 24.

AE: Yeah, see when I was 24, I was, let’s see, I was living in New York. This was right after college-didn’t know anybody, didn’t have any money, just went to New York, and, you know, kicked it. I started working my ass off.

SL : What’s next for you? Other than “The Dark Knight,” obviously.

AE: I just did a movie called “Traveling,” kind of a romantic dramedy, that I did with Jennifer Aniston, and I play a grief counselor. I think it’s going to be a good movie. Now I’m unemployed, looking for a job like you. Well you have a job, right?

SL: Well, yeah, it pays six bucks an hour.

AE: I do a little better than that. I am going to promote ["Meet Bill"] and promote “Batman.” I’ve got a movie this fall called “Towelhead.” Well it’s not my movie, I’m in it.
I’m thinking about what I’m going to do, what movie I’m going to take, whether I’m going to take a movie.

SL: What would be the alternative?

AE: Something photo-journalistic, maybe-I love photography. I could travel. I could try to do something useful. “Batman” is going to take most of the summer.

SL: How involved are you with this crazy marketing campaign?

AE: Not at all, really. They tell me where to be, where to show up. It’s a little more involved than that. The real stuff is going to hit in June and July; then we’ll fly around the world, open it up in, like, Shanghai, London, that sort of stuff.
Actors have very little to do with-

SL: the end of things?

AE: Anything. The first end, the back end. All actors really do is act.

SL: When you came in to “Batman”, you’re playing an established character in Harvey Dent. Did you have much say in the character?

AE: Well, they already had a script, and I knew that Christian [Bale] was doing it, and Heath [Ledger] was doing it and Gary [Oldman] was doing it, Morgan [Freeman], the whole deal. They told me “Chris [Nolen] wants to talk to you,” and I went up to his office, and we chatted like we’re chatting now, and then they called me up and said, “Chris wants you to read the script,” and at that point, I guess it means “Chris wants you to do the movie.” And then we made the movie.

SL: But did you have a lot of say in the characterization or did Chris just have that written already?

AE: I think the story is the story, and Chris has his ideas, but he wasn’t afraid to let you do it, if we had an impulse or an idea. You know there’s an old saying that 90 percent of making a movie is casting, and between Heath and Christian and Maggie [Gyllenhaal] and me and Gary, we’re always trying things, we’re always fiddling around, and a good director will let you do that.

SL: Is there a difference between a movie as big as “The Dark Knight” and something smaller like “Meet Bill”?

AE: “The Dark Knight” is one of the biggest movies ever made. But I’ll tell you the truth-I’ll answer as an actor because I’m not involved in the logistics. As an actor with a director like Chris, the answer is no.
The locations are better, the toys are better, but other than that there’s no difference. You’ve got to act, you’ve got to have a camera, you’ve got to have a director, but other than that, no.

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