 Eckhart first gained wide exposure in 2000 as George , a pony tailed , <unk> biker , in Steven Soderbergh 's drama , Erin Brockovich . The film was met with reasonable reviews , and was a box office success , earning $ 256 million worldwide . His performance was well received by critics ; Entertainment Weekly 's Owen Gleiberman , wrote that Eckhart " may be playing a bit of an ideal [ ... ] but he makes goodness as palpable as he did yuppie evil in ' In the Company of Men ' . " In an August 2004 interview , Eckhart claimed that he had not worked for nearly a year before he was cast in the movie . " I felt like I sort of was getting away from what I wanted to do as an actor . [ ... ] I had nine months off , but it wasn 't a vacation . Sure , I didn 't earn any money for nine months , but every day I was reading scripts , I was producing my own material , I was taking meetings , I was working on my craft . " 
