The fight of his life

Aaron Eckhart doesn't shy away from controversy. The furore surrounding Neil Labute's desolate 1998 debut, In The Company Of Men, was such that he was verbally attacked for playing Chad, a man who sought revenge on women by tricking a deaf secretary into believing he wanted to date her.

Clearly undeterred, he has since made a career out of tapping into the contentious, nastier end of the male psyche, and is now about to star in another infamously provocative piece - David Mamet's 1992 play, Oleanna.

Written in direct response to the political correctness gripping the US's university campuses, it anatomises the insidious interplay between language and power through the relationship of a female student and her male tutor. Such was the stranglehold of the PC movement at the time that male audience members spent the first performances cheering on the tutor.

'Both writers refuse to apologise for their characters,' Eckhart says slowly.

'They don't beg the audience's approval. It's pretty dangerous, putting characters like this out there but, when you get away from playing brave parts, you don't perform so well. It's in my best interests to play characters like this.'

By rights, blond, blue-eyed Eckhart should be a bona fide movie star by now, but his best work is away from the mainstream and his commercial films have mostly sunk without trace. He's learned that compromise has its cost. 'I was involved in a small, independent film project a few years ago with some exceptional people, but I had no money. So I walked and did a big movie for a lot of money. I was solvent again, but creatively it left a big hole. I'm certainly not doing this play for money, for example.'

Oleanna marks Eckhart's first stage appearance in eight years. He did it because he fell in love with the writing - the quality he also admires most about Labute: 'Good scripts in films are rare.' He has a fair amount of sympathy for John, the arrogant, beleaguered tutor. 'John and I are getting along just fine,' he grins. 'We share a lot of things. He just wants to help. He takes a chance, and it's used against him.'

Whether Oleanna will prove as urgent 11 years on in its first major London revival, not least given the cultural difference between London and the US, is a crucial point. Eckhart says he and his co-star Julia Stiles can't discuss the play without fighting about it.

A few months ago, however, Naomi Wolf accused her former university tutor, Harold Bloom, of sexually harassing her 20 years previously - and was largely mocked in the British press. Oleanna, though, is as much about language as it is about sexual conflict. 'The rules governing language use are in constant flux,' says Eckhart. 'The problem is not everyone knows all the rules.'

Eckhart is a practising Mormon, and his speech is peppered with the language of self-belief and faith in others. He says he is drawn to the tough, corporate US depicted by Labute and Mamet because 'I'm not a kid any more', but, by the same token, says as he grows older (he's 38) he wants to start doing more 'human' drama about families.

Most of all he just wants to keep getting better. 'I feel I've only just done my apprenticeship,' he says. 'I've only just started to fight.'

Oleanna previews tonight and tomorrow, opens Thu until Jul 17, Garrick Theatre, Charing Cross Road W1, Mon to Sat 7.45pm (Thu 7pm), Wed and Sat mats 3pm, £15 to £35. Tel: 020 7494 5085. Tube: Leicester Square