Aaron Eckhart Discusses Two-Face Role In ‘The Dark Knight’

The promotion of The Dark Knight is now being ramped up a notch, with new trailers hitting the Internet, and cast interviews seemingly happening all over the place. But without the actor who plays the main protagonist to focus on, that being The Joker, played by the sadly deceased Heath Ledger, the attention has turned squarely to Two-Face.

For those who don’t know, Two-Face is the other bad guy in the movie, okay so he isn’t as dastardly as The Joker, but he’s pretty rotten nonetheless. Aaron Eckhart is the actor charged with bringing the comic book character to the big screen, a role he seems to have relished.

Not much is known about the part Two-Face plays in the film, except that The Joker is his nemesis, and he goes after him with a passion. Unlike Batman however, his is a passion for revenge, and he’ll do anything to get that.

Eckhart gave a long interview to The LA Times over the weekend, in which he discussed the role, and the movie, but refused to give much away.

“I can tell you that, basically, when you look at Two-Face, you should get sick to your stomach. Being the guy under all that, well, that was a lot of fun for me. It’s like you would feel if you met someone whose face had pretty much been ripped off or burned off with acid.”

“The difference between Batman and Two-Face is how far they are willing to go and how they make their point… Harvey Dent has an extremely strong sense of justice. His fiancée is killed. He’s horribly injured. But he is still true to himself. He’s a crime fighter, he’s not killing good people. He’s not a bad guy, not purely.”

“[The film itself] deals with some fundamental questions of what’s going on in society. To me, this film is about how Batman feels about justice, how he takes care of the city, how he feels about the Joker when he meets him and sees what he is capable of doing. How he feels when Harvey Two-Face takes matters into his own hands. It’s not simple, and it gets ugly. I think people will be surprised.”

As the release date of July 18th draws ever nearer, I find myself wanting to see this film more and more. I even re-watched Batman Begins the other day (and I rarely watch films twice) to get me more in the mood.

While Bale’s performance as a fully functioning Batman has its appeal, the main reason is to see the parting shot Ledger left the world. And after hearing from Eckhart, I also want to see the Two-Face sub-plot unfold. Roll on July.