Aaron Eckhart's Presidential Role in 'Olympus Has Fallen'

Give me the Pentagon on the line now. Olympus is falling. Olympus is falling. I'm here with Aaron Eckhart. How are you?

I'm good.

Handsome as ever, sir.

You you as well. Thank you, mate. You you Oh, she's gone. Georgie's gone now. My little lover has left me. She had left me for you and I can't blame her. After your performance in Olympus Has Fallen, you're the President.

Yeah, I play the President of the United States, uh, get, um, you know, taken hostage. Right. And, uh, and Jerry comes and gets me.

He does, he saves you. Yeah. He saves you. We've We've given away the movie there. That's all right. I didn't, you did, so that's fine. It's not my fault this time.

Well, everybody knows that. It's how he does it that's so special, you know. And, uh, his charm and his grace and his, uh, his expert fighting skills.

Brilliant movie. I was, I mean, I've literally, look, got no nails left. Is that right? Yeah. I was, it was edge of seat stuff, it really is. Keeps you going.

The script was really good and knowing that Antoine was on it, you know. That was really what sold it for me. I mean, Antoine's a brilliant director and he knows how to do action. You get the script, but then Antoine takes it with the actors and he just pushes it to its limit. Right. You know, you gotta kinda think out of the box, like how you're going to get your energy up, you know, how you're going to keep things interesting and and then you have great actors like Melissa Leo around you, who's, you know, doing good things. So, um, Morgan Freeman.

Morgan Freeman. Yeah. Uh, It's not a small name in there.

Yeah, and Dylan McDermott.

We've got a quick little game I'm going to play with you. It's really easy. Don't don't worry about this. No, it's fine, this is really easy. Um, right, if you could elect one of the following as president: Christian Bale, Johnny Depp, Gerard Butler or Tommy Lee Jones.

Well, I'd probably go, uh, with Johnny. Right. Uh, you know, not to offend the others.

But I probably would have as well. Yeah, be much more relaxed. You know. Do whatever you like. Do whatever you like. Yeah. America. Go have fun. If you were being held hostage, pick one to join you: Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Jessica Alba or Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Why not? All of them. Yes, please.

Same answer as me. We think alike. Pick one person to coach you in a boxing fight: Morgan Freeman, Nicholas Cage, Ben Affleck or Al Pacino.

Oh god. Well, I'm torn between Morgan and Al. Al would be my cutman. Okay. Yeah, and Morgan would train me, right? Yeah, yeah. So he'd be on the side saying what's going on. Yeah. I would be like, you know, "You're doing good, kid, you're doing good!" Yeah. "Kid, hit him with the left! Hit him with the jab, jab, jab!" And Morgan would be in there, you know, and then Al would give me the water, like fresh. And then I would get up, stumbling and I think that would be fun.

There's a movie in that. Yeah, I saw it. I was just playing with my. There's a movie in that.

Yeah, there's a movie in that. You write it.

I'll write the movie. You're coming for the junket. It's like magic's happening on this sofa right now. And is it more pressure obviously as an as an actor, you have to, you know, research your roles and stuff like that. When you get a role as president?

Well, I mean, we're so familiar with the President, you know, both professionally and personal with the 24-hour news cycle and all that sort of stuff. I guess really what was more important to me was how I felt about the President. What I felt made a good president or, um, you know, what are the core values? You know, honesty, trustworthy, you know, confidence. Is he a good leader? How is he under duress? How do you make decisions? You know, because in this movie it's very complicated because not only has something happened to my wife, the first lady, but then my son is somewhere other than where he's supposed to be. Right. But all that is, you know, is, uh, in service to the main story, which is, you know, Jerry's character, you know, what he's going through and the Secret Service and saving the day.

There is a scene in the film that I loved, um, you and Jerry are, uh, Gerard Butler is you've got a nice boxing scene. You two are boxing. Was it you two boxing?

Oh yeah. Right, it is.

Because you never know nowadays, you know, it could be doubles and stuff but it was you two.

Um, we did it. We, you know, what happened was we choreographed it. You know, he's going to throw a left and I slip it like this. And then when they said action, we just threw punches at each other. Don't you? Yeah. As it would happen. If you put a put a Scottish guy and an American in a ring, it's going to happen. Punches will be thrown. I mean, Jerry was like, I go, "Jerry, it's supposed to be a left!" You know, like this. And boom. And then I would just go boom. So.

Brilliant. And you are quite a bad-ass President. You're tough. I if I if I could choose a president, I'd want someone similar to you. That could hold their ground in a fight.

Yeah, we'd kick ass.

Yeah, kick ass. Are you always doing that in roles, though? You seem to you you always seem to be whatever you do, you're a tough guy. Is that Do you put that in your contract that you want to stay in shape? So you want to fight in the movie? Yeah. Even though I'm playing the President, I want to be a fighting President.

Well, yeah, I mean, Antoine actually came up with that. You know, um, yeah, but yes, it is in my contract. I mean, it works on a lot of levels because it it creates a relationship between Jerry and I. You know, it makes us physical. I look for any opportunity I possibly could to kick somebody's ass or kick somebody in the marbles or.

Well, you that was similar the last time you sat on this sofa. Is that right? With You scared me. Yeah, I've forgotten what it was that you had learned, but it was some like taekwondo or some really aggressive. Yeah. Fighting thing, which scared me a little bit.

That I always am doing. If I take a role, whatever it is, I try to learn a new skill. You always feel like you have to develop a skill. Otherwise things get boring. Plus you can kick somebody's ass. Right. Yeah. That's very important. No one's going to. Right now I see you as an object. More like a fruit. Sexy. I see you like Get me out.