Share on Facebook
Aaron Eckhart is an American film and stage actor famous for his performance as Harvey Dent and Two-face in blockbuster movie “The Dark Knight.” Here are 50 interesting facts about the actor
- Eckhart’s first feature film “In the Company of Men,” was ranked as one of “the 25 Most Dangerous Movies,” by Premiere magazine.
- His performance as Chad in the film “In the Company of Men,” won him Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance and Satellite Award for Outstanding New Talent.
- He is the first and only live-action actor in the history of “Batman,” movie franchise to have played both Harvey Dent and his alter ego Two-face.
- Aaron Edward Eckhart was born on March 12, 1968, in Cupertino, California.
- His parents – James Conrad Eckhart is a computer executive and Mary Martha Eckhart is a children’s book author.
- He along with his two elder brothers, were raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- His family relocated to Ripley Survey, South East England, when he was just 13 years.
- He went to American Community School, famous as ACS International School, where he started his acting career as Charlie Brown in a school production.
- For high school senior year, he attended American International School of Sydney, where h further developed his acting skills.
- About his early days in the acting career, he once admitted that he had done a terrible production.
- During his senior year, he quit schooling for a job at Warringah Mall movie theatre, which also gave him time to enjoy surfing and skiing for three years in Hawaii and France.
- He first enrolled for a film major at Brigham Young University, Hawaii, but graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, in the year 1994.
- In his time at the Brigham Young University, he appeared in the Mormon-themed film, “Godly Sorrow,” which marked his professional debut.
- He was cast in several of Neil LaBute’s original plays, while he was at the university. However, after his graduation, he relocated to New York City, and took up various occasional jobs, including bartending, bus driving, and construction work.
- He was even featured in TV commercials, which are his first official television roles. Following the commercials, he was cast as an extra in the TV series “Beverly Hills, 90210.”
- A few years later, in 1997, he was approached by LaBute, with an offer to star in his film adaptation of stage play, “In the Company of Men,” which was a critical success, winning Best First Film Award at the New York Film Critics Circle.
- Desson Howe of The Washington Post praised his performance in the movie and said that Eckhart is the "movie's most malignant presence" and that he "is in chilling command as a sort of satanic prince in shirtsleeves".
- His character Chad was also nominated by the American Film Institute for the list of 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains, but did not make it into the top 100.
- He received the Best Actor Award at Taormina International Film Festival, along with the nomination for Most Promising actor at the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards.
- He met actress Emily Cline in the sets of “In the Company of Men,” and started dating her. Though engaged, the relationship did not last long and the duo separated in 1998.
- The next year, he starred in another LaBute feature film, “Your Friends & Neighbors,” in the role of Barry. The movie scored an average rating of 7 out of 10 at Rotten Tomatoes and 70 out of 100 on Metacritic.
- In preparation for his role as Barry in the movie “Your Friends & Neighbors,” Eckhart had to gain over 30 lbs.
- It was in the year 2000, that he gained wide exposure, through his role as George in Steven Soderbergh's drama, “Erin Brockovich.”
- His performance in the movie was well received and Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman, wrote that Eckhart "may be playing a bit of an ideal [...] but he makes goodness as palpable as he did yuppie evil in 'In the Company of Men'."
- His character George, was based on Erin Brockovich-Ellis's Mexican-American biker boyfriend Jorge. Later in an interview he said that before he took the offer for the role, he had not worked for nearly a year, and that it wasn’t a vacation also.
- He learned to ride a motorcycle for his character George. He bought his own motorcycle, after this movie.
- He was initially considered for the role of "Leonard" in the 2000 movie “Memento.”
- He was cast as Thomas Mackelway in E. Elias Merhige's psychological thriller “Suspect Zero,” which received negative reviews.
- However, Eckhart’s performance was favored by critics and Newsday wrote that Eckhart was a "classically handsome leading man ... but Merhige demands of him complexity and anguish."
- His next project was the role of Nick Naylor in the 2005 comedy-drama film “Thank You for Smoking,” which was based on Christopher Buckley’s satirical novel of the same name.
- He received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. He was also nominated for the Best Actor Award at the St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association as well as Independent Spirit Award for his performance as Nick.
- His performance was praised by critics, including a contributor of USA Today, who wrote that Eckhart gave a "standout, whip-smart performance" citing that as Nick Naylor he kept him "likable even in his cynicism."
- He was named as one of the 100 Most Beautiful People in the year 2006, by People magazine.
- He dated country music songwriter and member of SHeDAISY, Kristyn Osborn, from 2006–2007.
- He played the role Nick in the 2007 movie “No Reservations,” a remake of the 2001 German romantic comedy, “Mostly Martha.”
- During a scene in which he was cutting onions, he accidentally sliced off one of his fingernails, but did not notice the blood, until Abigail Breslin screamed.
- He was cast as Bill in the comedy movie “Meet Bill.” For his role he had to gain 30 pounds and even donned a fat suit for the role.
- He portrayed the character of Harvey Dent in the Christopher Nolan's “The Dark Knight.”
- It is reported that Nolan decided to cast Eckhart, after watching his portrayal of corrupt characters in the films “In the Company of Men,” “The Black Dahlia,” and “Thank You For Smoking.”
- It is the highest grossing film of Eckhart’s career and his performance was well received by critics.
- Roger Ebert said that Eckhart did an "especially good job" as his character in the feature. Premiere magazine also noted that he "makes you believe in his ill-fated ambition ... of morphing into the conniving Two-Face."
- He prepared for the role by studying split personalities and described his portrayal of Harvey Dent as “simultaneously coming from and being apart from the same world as Batman,” and that the challenge was "looking for the similarities and the tension between the two; to find what's similar to Batman and then what's opposite to him."
- He claims that he modeled his performance in part after Robert F. Kennedy, both in terms of his initially polished, dashing appearance and his preoccupation with revenge.
- In the entire movie, he was asked by director Nolan not to perform any tics or slurping noises while portraying the character of Two-Face to make the character less "showy".
- He was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Award at Saturn Award as well as the Best Villain Award at Scream Award.
- Following the success with “The Dark Knight,” movie, he played the role of Burke in the movie “Love Happens,” and the character of Howie Corbett in “Rabbit Hole.”
- Eckhart was personally hand-picked by Nicole Kidman to play her husband, Howie in the 2010 movie “Rabbit Hole,” an adaption of David Lindsay-Abaire's 2005 drama of the same name.
- His performance in the movie as Howie earned him nominations for Best Actor at San Diego Film Critics Society as well as Independent Spirit Award.
- He was Darren Aronofsky's choice for James Gordon for the doomed Batman: Year One project.
- He has a number of projects in the pipeline including “Incarnate,” “Bleed for This,” “My All American,” “London Has Fallen,” and “Sully.”
