Crave Online: When they asked you to play Harvey Dent, did you think it would be Two Face right away?

Aaron Eckhart: No, I didn't. I actually was very happy that I got to play Harvey Dent who was sort of the opposite because I really loved playing Harvey Dent, the leader of Gotham City, the political future and the crime fighter and the Internal Affairs, and having this relationship with the other characters in the movie, all the dynamics that were going on there. It was fun to do the press conferences and act like an important person. So I really did enjoy that and all the dynamics that Chris allowed. I was surprised that Harvey Dent was in the movie so much, to be frank.

Crave Online: When you know that there is a tragic outcome for the character, whether it's explored in this movie or not, do you have to avoid playing to that?

Aaron Eckhart: I honestly didn't think about that. I guess as an actor you train yourself, you have all the information anyway. You know how the script reads and how it ends all the time so you just don't think about things like that. The interesting and more difficult thing about this in playing Harvey Two-Face was just finding the right tone for him because I frankly didn't have a clue, in conjunction with the other characters in the movie, keeping the tone in the ballpark of the other characters, Batman and what Heath was doing with The Joker. Those were questions that I had for Chris because Chris has the whole thing in mind.  I said, "How is this? Is this where I need to be? Should I go bigger or should I go smaller?'" So we did a lot of different variations and then Chris cut it the way he wanted to cut it. But who knows one's fate in comic book movies.

Crave Online: Well, there are some lines early on that foreshadow it, but they're really underplayed.

Aaron Eckhart: Yeah. I don't even, at this moment, do not know what you're talking about. So therefore I've cut it completely out of my mind.

Crave Online: Did you ever think some of the material was so intense or grotesque that it could be R rated?

Aaron Eckhart: I don't mean to contradict you guys because I don't like being a contrarian, but I actually thought it was pretty subtle. Imagine what they could have done. That's what I was thinking. That's another thing about the tone of the movie was, are we going to go outer space with this or what's the makeup going to be like? Do you want to get humor out of this? Look at Heath. Sometimes humor is mostly scary in a psychological way. So now I don't think we really should discuss how the makeup is applied or what it is because I really feel like people go there with a fresh, open mind and not have the baggage of the technique or the how it was done aspect. I think it's better for them. But I thought that, in the way that it was played, just right down the middle, straight, not too big, just play it like it's not even there. Tat was the whole objective of it, I think.

Crave Online: Did you find the character of Harvey Dent to be as heroic as everybody thought he was, or did you think there was always darker corners of him?

Aaron Eckhart: What's interesting is there are so many issues and I don't know what I can say and what I can't, but I think Harvey's darkness was, and I'm sure that law enforcement plays with this all the time, is they feel like they love the law but they're constrained by the law. Sometimes they can't deal with what they know is right the way they want to. I felt like that's where Batman came in, because that's what Batman's all about. Batman's about doing extraordinary things in extraordinary circumstances, and at this point Gotham City is so mired with the cancer of corruption and criminality, that Harvey really is the only one that's willing to take it on publicly. So I'm sure that Harvey dreamed of doing what he might later be doing as Harvey Two Face. I think it's frankly probably pretty liberating in the end. It's like when The Joker asks Batman to betray his one cardinal rule. Will Batman do that? What other route is there for Batman to get the information that he needs? It's so pertinent today in terms of what's going on with torturing people and all that sort of stuff. How far are we willing to go to get the answers? I think Harvey struggles for that. I think Harvey would like to use Batman's tools. He wants to be part of the club I think.  That's where he goes dark.

Crave online: What were your impressions of Heath Ledger?

Aaron Eckhart:  I had a great time working with Heath. Unfortunately I didn't get to know Heath better than I did and I didn't work with him as much as I wanted to, but Heath is one of those actors that other actors admire and want to be. To be so young and to be so good and to be so smart is rare. He just loved this character of The Joker. It was his baby. He cared about The Joker very much, making the decisions and really thinking about him and creating him, and creating his look, really putting his stamp on it. It was fun because I was in the trailer while Heath was doing his makeup, I would do my makeup. So we got to have that time together and for him to play around with his makeup and me and do the funny faces and the noises and kind of do whatever that brought to us. When we were doing our scene in the hospital, he was amazing.

Crave Online: What does that do to your performance since he's clearing doing something extraordinary?

Aaron Eckhart: You have to step it up. You have to. I mean, I'm not sure either one of us really knew what we were going to do that day in the hospital. I mean, Heath really drives that scene so he knew probably better than me. I was going to go off of him and he started going and I just held on. Then my creative juices started going. Heath was accommodating to me and I to him, so we worked really well together, and I thought came up with something good. Heath is that actor that makes you proud to be an actor. Like, after that scene, I was proud to be an actor. I said, "This is why I love to act."

Crave Online: Were the scenes improvised? Did the director just let him act? I thought everything had to be all planned out for a movie this size.

Aaron Eckhart: No. Chris did give us personal freedom. I know that there's stuff that I did with Heath in that scene that's not in the movie that I thought was pretty good, but you know you can't put everything in. I felt that if Gary had a good idea, or if I had a good idea or Maggie did, that Chris was there and was listening, and would incorporate that idea. He was not steadfast. I mean, obviously he has to have the movie planned out because it's such a big movie, but he did allow for our creativity. I don't think Chris could have stopped Heath if he wanted to, so that's the good news, that Heath felt that he could. Look, as an actor, giving such a brave performance, as a director you have to let your actor go because Heath needed Chris's trust and felt like Chris would let him do whatever so that he would open up and do things, and let his unconscious come up and his creativity and his imagination, and give the great performance that he does. If Chris tried to shut him down, Heath wouldn't have been able to give that performance. That's why Chris is the great director that he is. He's able to balance the actors with the technical aspects of filmmaking and make this huge, entertaining movie as well as a profound, psychological thriller.

Crave Online: Is there anything specific that you have taken away from the experience of being in this film?

Aaron Eckhart: I have to say Heath is foremost on my mind when I think about this movie, which is a good thing. I think that Heath will give me strength as an actor, opening it up and being vulnerable and going for the fences and stretching myself as an actor by virtue of his performance. I think that my time with Heath, however small, will always live with me and make me be a braver actor.