Aaron Eckhart (D.A. Harvey Dent) recently spoke with the L.A. Times and his comments revealed a little more about his current character, as well as the eventual transformantion to Two-Face.
Before you read any further, I have to warn you that some of his comments may result in you figuring out some key plot elements.
You have been warned!
In talking about Two-Face, it sounds as though this version of the character will be more of a vigilante and less of a criminal (theft and whatnot). It sounds as though Two-Face is focused on hunting down criminals. Not unlike Batman, though more than willing to cross the lines that the Dark Knight won’t.
This is not surprising. When Batman underwent relaunch years back, Harvey Dent was one of Gordon’s initial suspects for the alter-ego of the Batman. He was a man that ended up being an ally of both Batman and Gordon. His disfiguration and transformantion into Two-Face was hard on both Wayne as well as Gordon.
“The difference between Batman and Two-Face is how far they are willing to go and how they make their point,” Eckhart said. “Otherwise, we’re talking about vigilante crime-fighting. That’s what Batman is all about. He has a strong sense of justice. And 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.”
“My guy identifies with everybody in the movie,” Eckhart said. “Really, all of it is more than an adventure tale, it’s somewhat of a mirror of our times. It 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.”
In talking about what folks might expect visually:
“That’s right, people don’t really know yet,” actor Aaron Eckhart said with grin. “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. I can’t talk about it beyond that because I don’t want to give away too much of the plans by Chris.”
“There are fans on the Internet who have done artist’s versions of what they think it will look like, and I can tell you this: They’re thinking small; Chris [Nolan, Director] is going way farther than people think.”
The Dark Knight lands in theaters on July 18th.
