Being the keynote speaker at seminars across the country means he's always on the go, never allowing himself to become involved in anyone else's life. But that changes when he meets a pretty florist in Seattle (played by Jennifer Aniston) who he has obvious chemistry with.
Eckhart said he read the script and knew it would be a challenge to play everything in the movie. "You know, you dealt with grief, the death of a wife, the inability to lead a life, an honest life afterwards. The inability to love again and then to love again, and I mean it had so many fun things as an actor to play that attracted me. I thought it was well written. I figured I hadn’t done something like this before, and then Jen was in the movie and I thought it was a challenge for me as an actor," said Eckhart at the film's LA press day.
The central issue of dealing with grief is one that Eckhart researched before tackling the starring role. "I hope that it will resonate with people who have had these issues, that are dealing with grief, who can find some sort of, not that this movie is…it’s certainly not a self-help movie or anything like that…but it does give an outlet to people who are grieving," offered Eckhart when asked what he hopes audiences take away from Love Happens. "And if there's anything that comes from this movie, besides just pure entertainment value, I think that that would be a thing that I would want to have resonate that way."
"You know, studying grief and all that sort of stuff and talking to people who have been through that, it’s just so heartbreaking and heart-wrenching, and it’s really a lifelong thing. It doesn't stop and there's no timetable, and it reoccurs [at] birthdays and holidays. It’s just I've never dealt with it myself so I count myself lucky, but I'm sure people in this room have. And so I felt like I wanted to honor them as much as I could in the movie, and I think the script does because [writer/director Brandon Camp's] mom had died and he was very close to that."
Since he's not open and honest about his own grieving process and its root cause, you could consider Dr. Ryan to be a bit of a fraud. But he does help people, so he's not completely selling a batch of BS to his audiences. "It’s an interesting question about religious gurus and Sunday nights, Sunday morning religious guys selling it. Is everything they do - even if they're self-serving - are they still helping people? I do believe that they are, and I believe people gain solace from them and comfort and get strength from them, and I think Burke is helping people," explained Eckhart. "I mean, you can tell by the energy in the crowd. You can tell by the respect and admiration they give him, by how they come up to him afterwards - that's evident. Now, I think that it makes for good drama that he be kind of a slick guy who’s trying to brand himself in the media and make a good living off this and everything. But the thing I really liked about the movie was that I was conscious of not making him too Thank You for Smoking. I wanted him to have a heart. Even when he was manipulating or he was slick, I wanted him to have a heart and know in his mind that he was going too far or this wasn't really who he was, that he was somehow contradicting his true nature."
That introspection and the character's good heart were aspects of his character Eckhart developed with writer/director Camp after he was offered the role. "I think it was more slanted, especially as the development process went on, that they wanted to make this guy an out and out, you know, just a car salesman. And it was very important that he not be a car salesman, that he shows a flicker of remorse or, not remorse - that's not the word - a flicker of consciousness of what he was doing. He was aware that he hadn’t come to closure with his wife’s death and that he was sort of living a lie. And I think because of that he was more, I think the audience is more able to believe it, he could fall in love and that he could repair himself," said Eckhart.
Working with Jennifer Aniston and a Feathered Co-Star
Asked about working with Jennifer Aniston, Eckhart replied, "Well, Jen’s such a better actor than I am. She's so effortless all the time. I really get jealous of people like Jen because they seem just to do it. You know what I mean? And her timing and how playful she is, and yet can turn on a dime and just be so thoughtful. I don't know. I guess my process might be a little bit more laborious than hers. I don't know her process, but she seemed to have it at her fingertips at all times."And nearly every male who stars opposite Jennifer Aniston gets linked to her romantically in the press, even when there's not one iota of truth to the hook up. Eckhart is one of the few actors who didn't get that treatment in the media while working opposite Aniston on Love Happens. Commenting on that, Eckhart said, "I've never had an on-set relationship. I'm not interested in it. It’s not something that attracts me at all. I mean, I feel like I'm there to work and we work so much. It’s funny. You're always being asked to fall in love with beautiful women who are talented. And I just worked with Nicole Kidman and I just worked with, this year, just did my last movie with her and now I'm working with Bridget Moynahan. You know, it doesn't attract me. I don't know why. I find it to be so much more fun being friends because then you don't introduce that whole other thing, that responsibility of being in love with the person or feel what they're thinking. I mean, filmmaking is hard enough without having to worry about your co-star. Unless, you know, I mean I don't know how they do it, actually. People seem to fall in and out of relationships so easily. I just don't do that."
