Actor Eckhart is playing himself

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NEW YORK

It took Aaron Eckhart a decade to go from being accosted in the street by viewers angry with his dead-on portrayal of one of film's great misogynists to playing a leading man whose smiling visage prominently graces a top studio's film poster.

But it always made sense that the character actor with the movie-star looks would one day become a big star — just not one of those types whose off-screen personality should be confused with the characters he plays, though it happens often enough.

"No Reservations," a romantic comedy co-starring Catherine Zeta-Jones that opens today, was the kind of movie the 39-year-old actor had been trying to find for some time.

"To play a Machiavellian or a bad guy or an arrogant snob, it's only so much fun to do that," the actor says. "I felt like I had more to offer."

Mr. Eckhart is best known for playing those bad boys. His breakthrough role came in Neil LaBute's startling 1997 debut, "In the Company of Men." His character, Chad, with an adoring colleague, seeks to get revenge on all womankind by emotionally destroying a deaf co-worker. Mr. Eckhart has had roles in almost all of Mr. LaBute's subsequent films, which all explore the complicated emotional and moral terrain of modern relationships.

"No Reservations" was a relaxing break from that kind of intense work.

"Obviously, Neil's stuff is amazing," the actor says. "There's also a time in life when you want to breeze in and out of something. I really liked the fact this character didn't have any hang-ups. He made you laugh. A tender heart, really."

Mr. Eckhart has had roles in big-studio pictures before, such as 2000's "Erin Brockovich." His second big break came last year with his critically acclaimed work as a tobacco lobbyist in the political satire "Thank You for Smoking." Yet it seemed he had to give himself permission to become a big star.

"Doing comedies and falling in love and getting the girl is fun," he says, "but I had to come to grips with the fact I can do that and I'm not a bad person for doing it. I'm not going into the realm of selling out. There's a certain independent bravado that people have, especially if you do the festival circuit, that mainstream movies are somehow evil and you're a traitor for doing it. It's not true. You still have to show up and work."