Aaron Eckhart is back in the action sphere with Chief of Station. Though better known to some for his more dramatic fare in the likes of Thank You For Smoking, Sully and Bleed For This, the Golden Globe nominee has been steadily building his resume in the world of action-thrillers, ranging from his acclaimed turn as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight to co-starring in the first two Fallen movies with Gerard Butler and 2023’s Rumble Through the Dark.

In Chief of Station, Eckhart stars as Ben Malloy, a veteran CIA station chief whose life is thrown into upheaval when his wife is killed in an apparent accidental explosion at a restaurant. After retiring and trying to rebuild his relationship with his on-the-rise tech guru son Nick, Ben learns his wife’s death was actually an assassination, and he must go back into the world of espionage he left behind in the hopes of getting closure and bringing the people responsible to justice.

Alongside Eckhart, the ensemble Chief of Station cast includes Black Widow‘s Olga Kurylenko, I Am Number Four‘s Alex Pettyfer, Chris Petrovski, Laëtia Eïdo, Nick Moran and Nobody‘s Daniel Bernhardt. The movie hails from stunt coordinator-turned-director Jesse V. Johnson, best known for his works on the likes of the Scott Adkins-led Savage Dog, the Tony Jaa-starring Triple Threat and, more recently, Boudica: The Queen of War.

In honor of the movie’s release, Screen Rant interviewed Aaron Eckhart to discuss Chief of Station, his love of the spy genre, diving into performing his own fight sequences, getting to work alongside Daniel Bernhardt and his upcoming reunion with Johnson.

Eckhart Was Intrigued By Playing A Pro With “A Personal Stake”

While the movie is an action thriller at its core, Eckhart found the nature of Ben being a “veteran spy chief who’s controlling events” all while having a “personal stake” in the situation intriguing. Combined with his love of doing action and “the spy game“, the Golden Globe nominee found a lot to love about the role:

Aaron Eckhart: I love that as I get older, I’m still moving, I’m still kicking, I’m still alive. I like to do action, I like to run around, and I like the clandestine aspect of the movie. The idea of an older, veteran spy chief who’s coordinating events, who has a personal stake in the outcome of events. I like the fact of being a leader, and coordinating and controlling others. And I like the spy game, I’ve always loved spy movies from the ’70s, and always wanted to participate in that. And I’m lucky that I get to do a couple.

Of course, there’s always the former is being a professional, and that’s the highest compliment anybody can, in my profession — and I’m sure in yours — give is being a professional. At the end of the day, you’ve got to be a pro. And what does a pro mean? A pro means you put everything aside, and you do your job to the best of your ability, and you get the job done, that’s being a pro. No matter what life throws at you, no matter what the day throws at you.

And in filmmaking —as I’m sure in your profession — you never know what’s gonna happen, you have things, unsuspecting circumstances that present themselves where, at the end of the day, you go, “I could have lost it there, but I didn’t, because I have years of experience as a professional.” So I like that aspect of it. I’m always looking at people in different professions and say, “Is that guy a pro? That guy’s a pro, look at that guy, he’s a pro, how did he deal with that situation?”

However, in this particular instance, you’re going back to a place where you’re dealing with the guilt and the loss of a loved one. You’re dealing with your son, so it’s family, and nothing’s more personal than family. You can never redeem yourself in this instance, because the guilt will always be there. You lost your wife, and your son lost his mother, however, you can try to put the pieces back together.

Eckhart Had Many Conversations With Johnson About Ben’s Backstory

With the movie spending the majority of its 98-minute runtime keeping the pace nice and fast as Ben tracks down his wife’s killer, some of the backstory for his and other characters finds itself only slowly meted out, leaving much to the imagination. Despite this, Eckhart still took the time to have meaningful conversations with Johnson to expand on his backstory, with the star praising his director for his care of both his characters and actors:

Aaron Eckhart: Yeah, I did. Every morning, Jesse would come into my trailer, and we would talk about the scene and the day and get it really right in our minds. That’s very important to Jesse, and Jesse hires great actors, too. Alex and Olga, and everybody. Alex is just a fantastic actor, he’s prepared, and he knows what he’s doing. He’s strong, he can fight, and he’s got a great presence. He’s a good-looking guy. And Olga’s the same, you know, a pro.

And everybody was working for Jesse and working for the movie, which is very important, so we’re all on the same page. But Jesse was concerned about the backstory, he was concerned about the depth of the character and where he’s coming from. [Chuckles] That was what we’d do every single morning, he’d come in, he’d go, “Okay, this is where we are, this is what the character, blah, blah, blah.” We would talk about it. However, I will say — and I’m working again with Jesse on my next movie — is that, as a good director, you always takes input and apply that input into the scene, so it’s really a communal effort in all the characters.

Chief of Station Had A “Great Stunt Team” For Eckhart To Work With

As he continues to expand his work in the action genre, Eckhart has found himself relishing the opportunities to work with the stunt teams of his movies to perform his action sequences, with Chief of Station pitting him against frequent stuntman-actor Daniel Bernhardt. Eckhart had particular praise for the Nobody star, expressing how his love for the craft frequently gave him a sense of renewed energy on the set:

Aaron Eckhart: Well, we had a great stunt team. We didn’t have a lot of time, but we had a great stunt team. It’s all about trust. Fighting, especially actor-on-actor, because not every actor is as skilled as another, and I always say to young actors, there’s three things you got to do, you got to learn. Because you can’t learn them on the day and look good. One is ride a horse, the other one’s throw a punch, and — I forgot the third one, it was such a good build up. [Laughs]

Anyway, so Alex knows how to fight, so that was great. He was willing, and he knows how to take a punch, and he knows how hard to go and how not hard to go, so we had a great time. For example, the fight in the boat, we choreographed it that morning, so we learned the fight that morning, and we just worked on it through the day, and then we shot it last.

So, we knew the fight, it was challenging in that way in the time. However, in terms of trusting your partner, the level was very high. So, you could throw the punches, you could take the punches, you knew what they were going to do, you could see him coming. And when that happens, then you know anything’s possible, and so we were lucky in that way.

Listen, this guy loves it, what he does. He loves to act, I wish I had his enthusiasm. [Laughs] The guy loves it, he cannot get enough of it, both the acting and the fighting. So, when you have a guy like that, who’s highly skilled, who just loves what he does, and he loves the process, he loves filmmaking. I would look at him, and he’s smiling, I’d go, “What are you smiling at?” He’d just go, “I just love this crap. I just love it.” He’s infectious that way. I’m glad you appreciate him, because he ups the movie, man.

About Chief of Station

Former CIA European Station Chief Ben’s world comes crumbling down after his wife, a former operative, dies in a terrible accident. After receiving cryptic intel that his wife’s death might not have been an accident, Ben heads back into the shadowy underworld of Eastern Europe, teaming up with a former adversary to unravel a conspiracy that challenges everything he thought he knew about his wife, and the agency he worked at for more than 20 years.

Check out our other Chief of Station interview with Olga Kurylenko.