Aaron Eckhart

He had done well enough on his own to this point, but it was only under the direction of his old college friend that he truly broke out of the mold and crafted one of the most despised cinematic characterizations of the decade. Cast in the lead of LaBute's pitch-black debut In the Company of Men, Eckhart's performance of a woman-hating, low-level executive was a cruel, but three-dimensional, villain that both repelled and fascinated moviegoers. After sticking with LaBute and gaining 30 pounds for the role of a sexually frustrated husband in LaBute's follow-up, Your Friends & Neighbors, Eckhart branched out in 1999 with a pair of memorable and entirely unexpected performances: Molly and Any Given Sunday. Cast as a caring brother of an autistic sibling in the former and a gridiron giant in the latter, his versatility began to attract casting agents. By the time he romanced Julia Roberts' eponymous character in Steven Soderbergh's acclaimed drama Erin Brockovich, Eckhart had become one to watch. He re-teamed with LaBute for Nurse Betty and Possession, but by this point, the rising star was gaining quite a reputation on his own. In 2001, Sean Penn tapped him to appear opposite Jack Nicholson in the searing drama The Pledge, and soon Eckhart was plunging headfirst into the center of the Earth alongside Oscar-winner Hilary Swank in the big-budget summer disaster flick The Core. By this time, the actor had truly established himself as a diverse talent capable of donning many hats, and following his role in Ron Howard's brutal thriller The Missing, the action flew fast and furious in John Woo's Paycheck. Eckhart next appeared in Suspect Zero (2004), which was experimental filmmaker E. Elias Merhige's eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2000's acclaimed Shadow of the Vampire.

If some fans had lamented the gifted Eckhart's turn towards overly seriously roles as of late, a scathing performance in director Jason Reitman's critically-acclaimed 2005 comedy Thank You for Smoking would serve as a refreshingly funny change of pace. Alas, the laughs wouldn't keep coming for long, as it was soon back to grim dramatics with his turn as a well-schooled psychiatrist in the dramatic mystery Neverwas preceding a turn as a determined L.A. detective whose attempts to solve a particularly confounding murder lead him down a dark path of Hollywood corruption in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide