Aaron Eckhart, the Mormon?

[MikeWaters]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magaz...149237,00.html

And was it like that in real life? Did you want to be the insider, accepted, not alienated? 'Well I've changed my life for sure, there's no doubt about it. I've quit drinking. I've quit smoking. And I don't think I was the best person when I was drinking.' As he grew up with a Mormon background, guilt was always part of the drinking. He says it made him aggressive, he got into fights. He managed to stop both by hypnosis. 'I never thought I could give up smoking. Do you know both were impossible to give up, but neither of them was hard. Right now, if you asked me which one would I rather do, I wouldn't want to do either. I smoked when I got up and I smoked when I went to bed. Now I have a cup of coffee in the mornings I feel better, cleaner, and I think I'm a friendlier person.'

Do you think alcohol was making you a morally ambivalent person? 'I think I was trying to make my way and work out my own philosophy. Drinking was a way to cover up some insecurities and I figured I didn't need it any more. I didn't use the hypnosis as therapy. It was pretty cut and dried. But I wouldn't be afraid to do that if I needed to clear something up.' He looks me in the eye so I can see his purity of intent.

'Everything really is good now... I used to drink whenever I went out. It's interesting to see how much Hollywood and that kind of Hollywood thing revolves around drinking, and I don't just mean Hollywood, it's socialising. When I was in London I stayed at the Charlotte Street Hotel. At 5.30pm at night everyone was drinking.' Eckhart would avoid all that and go over the road and eat alone in Thai Metro.

So how did your social life change? 'Dramatically. I have no reason to be out past midnight. Friends that I thought were friends, I don't associate with them. Not because I dislike them, I just have no reason to be with them.' Because drinking was the bond? 'Yes, drinking, partying, chasing, you know, all that sort of stuff.'

His parents are Mormons. His father got a scholarship to Brigham Young University, and converted while there. 'My parents were raised in small towns in Montana. They went there, converted and got married, so they were an island of Mormonism in their own families. I value the church very much. As you get older you find your own way. I am in the process of finding my own way.'

How would you classify your religion? 'I would say universal law is my religion. Being good to people and also knowing how the world works.' You mean reap what you sow kind of stuff? 'Kind of,' he says, pulling a face. 'But I would like to think of it all in a less punishing literal sense. I've always found this a bit difficult. I've told my mum this. There is a darker side of religion. The punishment issue. The hellfire and brimstone. People concentrate on that more than they concentrate on the joy. Kids get scared. That's what they remember. Not the Sermon on the Mount.'

Maybe it's just my imagination, but I think he might call himself a Mormon someday in the future.

[Venkman]

I like him. He was great in Thank You For Smoking.

I read an article on him a while back (when he was still smoking and drinking) and he said he couldn't call himself a Mormon anymore because he wasn't living the lifestyle and didn't want to be a hypocrite. But he was still positive about Mormonism. Seemed like a stand-up guy.