Greg Kinnear and an obsessive inventor

(CNN) -- Conjoined twin. Hamburger promoter. Haunted TV star. Pestering ghost.

The list of unusual roles goes on for Greg Kinnear, but now he has one more to add -- intermittent windshield wiper inventor.

His new movie "Flash of Genius" is based on the true story of Robert Kearns, a man who spent years trying to get the Ford Motor Co. to acknowledge his idea, rejecting millions of dollars, and his family, in the process.

"I love the story because it seemed like such an inconsequential device ... something that we could have lived without," director Marc Abrahams said. "The fact is it wasn't about that all, it was a battle for his dignity, for justice."

CNN talked to Kinnear about how he chooses his roles, the pressure he felt playing Kearns and how he became an actor. The following is an edited version of that interview:

CNN: Your new film is about a windshield wiper inventor. I think the obvious first question is, why should people go see this movie?

Greg Kinnear: Well, I think people who love great stories will be drawn to it. It's a true story and an amazing journey about a man who invented the intermittent windshield wiper and spent his entire life pursuing the Ford Motor Co., getting the Ford Motor Co. to acknowledge that they stole his idea.

And he's not a perfect character. He's abrasive, prickly, suspicious -- all the things you don't find typically in the "David and Goliath" story. Quite often in movies we portray those types of characters in these sort of heroic colors, and I really thought the script did a nice job of painting a real human being. Watch Kinnear and Abrahams talk about the movie »

CNN: Your character, Robert Kearns, is obviously very complicated. What is going on inside his mind during this long fight?

Kinnear: He was offered millions and millions of dollars by Ford along the way, at a time that was doing great damage to his personal life and family. And he refused to take it because what he really wanted was for them to admit that they had stolen his idea, which means that his personality, his agenda, was based on principle [over] greed.

That makes it a bit of a nostalgic story, I guess. We live in a day and age where we have game shows about people taking the money, and this man was clearly driven by just bigger issues. This is a guy who was mad as hell and wasn't going to take it anymore.

CNN: How was it different playing a real person versus a fictional character? Did you feel any extra pressure?

Kinnear: Of course. At the same time it wasn't like playing Nixon. It wasn't like people were going to say, "Hey, that's not how the man who invented the intermittent windshield wiper sounds." We had a pretty open slate in that way.

But I did feel that given the integrity of his fight and given the fact that we were doing a real story ... we wanted to accurately portray the spirit of what that was about, and the tenacity of the man.

CNN: You've taken on a lot of challenging parts in the past, like as the father in "Little Miss Sunshine" and Bob Crane in "Auto Focus." What attracts you to these kinds of roles?

Kinnear: I guess I'm attracted to duality in human nature. That people are one thing but have a current of maybe other elements running through them.

There's no harmony in most people in a way, and I'm attracted to it, and I think it makes for good storytelling. Those kinds of characters are the ones I root for -- God knows I'm imperfect. Characters that have that sort of element about them feel familiar.

CNN: You went to college to earn your broadcasting degree. How did you switch over to being an actor?

Kinnear: I was doing "Talk Soup" years ago, which was a show where we would look at highlights of god-awful daytime television and have a little fun with it. And Sydney Pollack, who was an amazing director who died actually earlier this year, was making a movie called "Sabrina" and needed somebody to play Harrison Ford's brother.

Apparently he was on a journey to find the most unlikely human being to play that role and uncovered me. It was a great opportunity and he really gave me my first shot and my first break in film. I had always had interest in it, but it came about in a very odd way.

CNN: You got your start on "Talk Soup" and you were once on a "Friends" episode. Do you ever consider returning to television?

Kinnear: Man, was I tired. My daughter had been born 48 hours before I did that ["Friends"] episode.

I don't know ... wouldn't rule it out, I suppose. I have some resistance to the repetitive nature of just doing that kind of work. But I have friends obviously who were involved in shows like that, and it's also kind of nice. They were able to have a family life and not moving around so much has its benefits, I suppose.

All About Greg Kinnear