Aaron Eckhart goes from handsome, crime-fighting Gotham City D. A. Harvey Dent to horribly disfigured Harvey Two-Face in The Dark Knight. And co-starring in the Batman sequel was the wildest ride of his career.

It may be his first summer action premiere, but Eckhart feels right at home in this haunted film that reaches beyond its comic book origins.

How did you feel looking in the mirror wearing your Harvey Two-Face make-up?

“Very much like some of the victims I met in a burn unit. I saw what happened to them physically, the toll that fire took on their skin and body. And also what happens to them psychologically, how they feel about themselves when people are looking at them. They feel monstrous and out of place.”

What did it take to create your look for the film?

“I was in the make-up chair early and left late. If somebody offered me a movie where I had to completely wear prosthetics again, I would think twice about it. What made it tolerable was that Heath Ledger and I were both in the make-up trailer together. We had a lot of fun because Heath brought in his iPod which had more songs than iTunes. We had some laughs together.”

Didn’t you and director Christopher Nolan hope that the way you looked would be a secret until the movie was released?

“Chris especially wanted to preserve the surprise of seeing both The Joker and Harvey Two-Face. Heath and I had to wear hoods over our heads when we moved around between scenes because paparazzi were lurking. We looked like monks followed by a bunch of people giving us water and snacks. They got a picture of Heath as The Joker early on but never one of me as Two Face.”

But now there are pictures of both of you everywhere on the Internet.

“It does suck when people reveal things. It really takes a lot of steam out of a director like Chris Nolan, who has spent so much time protecting what he wants people to see in the theater and not on some Web site. When somebody like a crew member gives it away, I can’t tell you how it hurts. Sometimes you could see the sense of betrayal in Chris’s face.”

You co-starred with Jack Nicholson in Sean Penn’s The Pledge. He also played The Joker. How would you compare Heath and Jack as actors?

“They’re both brilliant and capable of surprising you. Jack’s performance in The Pledge was full of the unexpected.”

You’ve managed to keep your off-screen life pretty private. Don’t you want those magazine covers?

“I hope I’m a little bit of an enigma. When you do a lot of press, you are in danger of losing your identity as an actor. You become conscious of your image and you start taking choices that support it because you don’t want to fail. That’s not what I’m about. I want to go out and fail as much as I can. I try to at least get a little bit of magic in at one point during each film. I might suck in most of it, but if I have one point of magic then that’s all right.”

What do you look for in a role?

“It sounds frivolous or trivial, but my first question is ‘Who’s the girl?’ It really just goes down to that — if I can see myself relating to my leading lady.”

Is there a leading lady in your life?

“I have a girlfriend, but I don’t know if getting married is a goal of mine. I don’t think a wish to be with someone forever will be fulfilled, but I’ll let you know.”