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Aaron Eckhart looks for the monster's humanity in 'I, Frankenstein'

Aaron Eckhart has some advice for monster-movie and Mary Shelley purists.

Aaron Eckhart, whose career is long and various but who isn't a top-tier star, gives the Frankenstein monster a new twist, 200 years in the future, in "I, Frankenstein."
Aaron Eckhart, whose career is long and various but who isn't a top-tier star, gives the Frankenstein monster a new twist, 200 years in the future, in "I, Frankenstein."Read more

ORLANDO, FLA. - Aaron Eckhart has some advice for monster-movie and Mary Shelley purists who might quibble with "I, Frankenstein," his version that features Eckhart as the monster almost 100 years in the future.

"Get on Twitter," he chuckled, suggesting the best place to complain. "They already are! Believe me."

None of that 19th century piecing together of human body parts, harnessing of lightning and jolting a creature to life in this "Frankenstein," which is in theaters today but was not made available for critics for review.

The monster in "I, Frankenstein" is 200 years old and called "Adam." He's survived into a future dystopia where he gets caught up in human-zombie wars.

Sure, it's a genre picture, Eckhart said. But if he were to take to Twitter himself to try and sell it, here's his 144-or-so character pitch:

"It's a monster movie with a human soul. Fans of this genre may care about that, but a lot of people just don't. They care about the action, the effects. If I'm selling this movie on a tweet, it's 'Man in search of his purpose.' "

Eckhart found that to be something he could relate to. At 45, he's never broken out as a headliner, a box-office attraction who can open a film based on his name alone. His screen presence is formidable, thanks to a deep voice, soulful eyes and a face that Seattle Times critic Moira Macdonald once said "looks as if a computer designed it. . . . His jaw is absurdly square, his nose long and aristocratic, his eyes are small but glitter intelligently."

He broke into movies with the help of playwright-director and friend Neil LaBute ("In the Company of Men") and has had scattered success in the 15 years since.

Supporting roles in blockbusters, from "Erin Brockovich" to "The Dark Knight" films (as Harvey "Two-Face" Dent), and leads in more daring fare such as "Thank You for Smoking," "Towelhead" and "Rabbit Hole," have never added up to an escape from B-movies or actioners ("Olympus Has Fallen").

Still, he takes on even the genre pictures with as much good humor as he can muster.

"I've never been an actor who lets himself get shoved into a corner," Eckhart said. "I don't really have a body of work that shows me as who I am and what I believe. I'm not showing that. I've never been one of those actors."

He's serious enough to work out a backstory to his character, even if that character is as iconic as Frankenstein's monster.

"He's been rejected by his father and has to work out his place in the world," he said. "He's a survivalist, made that way by being cast out by his father to live in the mountains. He basically learned from the animals. In Mary Shelley's novel, he's always on the edge of society, on the periphery looking in. In our movie, he's had 200 years of learning and gaining skills and becoming articulate."

Eckhart is one of those character actors who typically turns up in several films a year. This year will be no different.

"I'm making a lot more movies in 2014. Hey, it's not like I love to work or anything. I just can't afford not to."

If he's forced to find a through-line to a career that takes him from cynical villains ("The Rum Diary") to stoic soldiers ("Battle: Los Angeles"), sad-eyed romantics ("Love Happens," "Rabbit Hole") to characters with a message ("Towelhead"), it is this - a shared humanity.

"If I'm going to go to all the trouble of making the movie and you're going to go see it, is there a lesson to be learned from the film about how you can become a better person?

"Movies are about entertaining, first of all, the fantasy that we lose ourselves in. But they're also about storytelling and growing. So I look for the humanity in the character, the lessons we can learn from his journey."

Even if the character is covered in makeup, a 200-year-old monster.