As a character, the Spirit has more history but far less traction in the popular memory than Spider-Man or even Wolverine. The character was created in the 1940s by Will Eisner (a beloved and influential icon in comic book circles) and ran as 16-page inserts in Sunday newspapers with a charming meld of the private-eye noir and Hollywood's screwball comedies.
Macht, like most people his age and younger, had never heard of the Spirit until this movie project came along. He also found it a major challenge to step into the throwback, Lew Archer-style dialogue for an anachronistic movie that blends the fedora era with cellphones and cloning. It's not that easy to say lines such as "I'm going to kill you all kinds of dead" for an audience that might smirk at the wrong times.
"I had to roll that voice over in my head again and again and find the way to say things like, 'This is my city,' " Macht said. "You say it as honest as you can. That's where it had to come from. You work out to get the physicality that's right for a guy who could take on the job of crime-fighting, but the trick is finding the gravel for the voice. As soon as you throw that hat on you say, 'All right, this is it, go with it, be honest.' "
One thing Macht had going for him was his fedora experience. On the set of "The Good Shepherd," he said, De Niro was "absolutely obsessive on the curves of the hats" and Macht took note. "It's got to be a certain way, and if it's not that way, it's wrong. Believe me, I spent a lot of time making sure I got the hat right."
Walking down a steep slope on the trail, Macht said that with all the superhero films coming out of Hollywood these days he isn't sure if he should try to land another role, such as Captain America, which is ramping up now as a film project. Miller is also making a Buck Rogers movie and, well, Macht has said he is ready any time the director calls.
"I don't mind doing the green-screen stuff at all, and in fact it's a lot like black-box theater, which I did plenty of in New York," Macht said. "These are the movies they're making now, and this one is my turn in one. This whole big thing is on my shoulders and on Frank's shoulders. And I'm ready for that."
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geoff.boucher@latimes.com
