After so much online buzz surrounding his role as Harvey Dent/Two Face in The Dark Knight, actor Aaron Eckhart isn’t letting the success of the latest Batman film define the future of his career. On the heels of The Dark Knight, Eckhart goes in the opposite direction of the super hero subgenre to star in director Alan Ball’s adaptation of author Alicia Erian’s Towelhead, about a 13-year old Arab girl’s coming of age in America as she adjusts to racism in her new home and her newly discovered sexuality.

This week at the Toronto Film Festival, we were on hand at the official Towelhead press conference to find out what like is like for Aaron Eckhart post-Dark Knight, how he approached the challenging scenes with young actress Summer Bishil, and how he chooses his projects.

Aaron Eckhart on whether he was a fan of Alan Ball’s work and what he was like as a director:

"Yeah, I was a big fan of Alan’s with Six Feet Under and, obviously, American Beauty. He’s a great writer and he adapted this book wonderfully. So when I got the script, knowing that Allen was in control of this and he was going to direct this movie, I felt that the material, we were in good hands. He really, as a director, he’s sensitive. He humanized these people, really, took difficult situations and - I thought it was a good opportunity to show kind of what happens to a - You know, I’m not a woman or a girl - as she’s going through puberty and having a complex view of life at home and outside."

Eckhart on getting around the fact that he’s doing creepy things because his character doesn’t believe he’s doing creepy things:

"When I’m making a movie I divorce myself. Or more, I just don’t think about the real life consequences of this. I’m just thinking about my character because there are no real life consequences with this. I mean I’m not going to be arrested when I get off of the set. So, really, what I’m thinking about is my in the moment time with Jasira, whether we’re fighting over something or we’re having diner. To me that other stuff doesn’t enter my mind. I guess those moral questions or value or ethical questions, I have to come to grips with them before I sign onto the movie. Once I sign onto the movie, I feel like I’ll just leave those behind until I’m with you guys, talking about them."

On the way his life has changed since The Dark Knight:

"Well, I’ve been around for a few years now, and every movie I ever make they say it’s going to change your life. And I always say, ‘Okay, we’ll see,’ and this is no different. The only thing this movie - not the only thing - this movie is wonderful for me. I love it and I love participating in it. But the one noticeable thing is that kids recognize me more. You know, I get fan mail from eight-year-olds, and that I really enjoy because the movies that I’ve done haven’t really reverberated too much with the kids. It’s fun for me to talk about the makeup and talk about Batman, the suit and the car, and also to talk with all of the family, because the mothers and the fathers, they’ve grown up with Batman through their life. Everybody has an involvement and now you see the kids getting involved in Batman, and for me to be a part of that and also to talk about Heath is fun for me to do.

"I feel like because of Heath’s unfortunate death, that he really isn’t there, obviously, to talk about his character and the fun that he had making the movie and all of that. And the kids, I think, really wanted to hear what Heath would’ve had to say. So it’s fun to talk about his character as well."

On guiding or navigating his co-star, Summer Bishil, through the difficult scenes:

"Yeah, that’s a very good question. You know, that started with Alan in rehearsals, right when we met. When I met Summer, obviously we read the script, so we knew that the material was sensitive. So right from the beginning we tried to build a lot of trust together and be sensitive about things. Alan was very tender and weary of the situation. But Summer is such a mature girl, she is so talented, so smart. I mean she was facile with the crew, with Alan, everybody just had a great time making the movie that there wasn’t really a lot of awkwardness on the set. I mean obviously what we did, we just went through the mechanics of things.

"I would say, ‘I’m going to put my hand here now.’ In rehearsals, when we were just about to shoot, ‘I’m going to put my hand here. I’m going to leave it here.’ I did it pretty much by the book and that was more, for me, so that I could feel good about the scenes. She was okay with them, she was just laughing and having a good time. But in my situation I felt like it was a bit dangerous for me as a person, even though she was eighteen and it was all above board. She’s playing a thirteen-year-old, so therefore you have to treat her like a thirteen-year-old because the audience is going to see a thirteen-year-old. So we did it pretty much by the book."

Aaron Eckhart on choosing projects:

"I take movies because when I’m reading the script I can see myself as that character doing those things and feel like I want to do those things; Certainly to the challenges in this movie of trying to make this guy a human being. I mean that, as an actor, is a challenge in creating empathy and doing these things. I’m saying to myself, ·I can do this. I want to try to do this.· So in terms of choosing the biggest hits - I mean I haven’t done that. So that’s probably not my priority. I always feel like I have enough good material with good people to work with. I’ve never felt like I was out of the game, because I don’t put that kind of pressure on myself. There’s a lot I want to do. I don’t always get the scripts I want to do and sometimes I do get them, like Thank You For Smoking or this movie I have coming out called Traveling, with Jennifer Aniston. Those were two roles when I read them I said, ·I will do these movies for nothing. I have to do these movies because the characters are so right for me.·"

On whether he gets star struck:

"I have tremendous respect for the people that I work with [whether] it’s Summer or it’s Peter, or if it’s Morgan Freeman or Michael Caine. I love to hear stories. When I was doing The Dark Knight, I could not get enough stories out of Gary [Oldman] about the films he’s been in or the actors that he’s worked with, or Michael Caine or Morgan, I love to hear stories. That’s what I’m really in awe of is the stories. I was in awe of Heath acting. He was somebody who brought something that I hadn’t seen in a long time [and] someone who had taken it to another level. That’s what I’m in awe of."

Aaron Eckhart on working with Brian DePalma:

"I love DePalma. I had a blast working with Brian. Brian is an old school director, he shoots what he sees and he likes it and he moves on. What I most enjoyed about Brian was - most mornings he would knock on the trailer door and come in and chat about life with me in the middle of the woods in Bulgaria. He loves filmmaking and yet he has the patience of, you know, a nat. [laughs] He loves his actors, he loves the words, he’s mouthing the words as you see him. Talk about stories, he just had so many interesting stories for us, and the direction he would give us, and the way he would give direction. Brian has obviously worked with the biggest and has done it, so he has a shorthand. I mean he doesn’t like to go into a lot of character crap, you know what I’m saying? [laughs] He just kind of puts I out there. The stuff he would say to us was so funny. You have to respect someone - And the respect that the crew had for Brian, I just love him. I love his personality and love him as a filmmaker."