Paul Bettany Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

iconic characters off the pressure a Knight's Tale this is a very long time ago brian helgeland had found a tape of me auditioning for another movie and he went oh I want this guy and so he flew over and he screen tested me and the studios went I don't get it then he wrote A Knight's Tale and he wrote a character for me and it that wasn't the lead but was a really great character and hooked me on tape and he showed it to the studio and they went I don't get it so then they put me with the actress and he said I don't get it when I'm not making the movie and because he had had prior form of actually not making a movie I guess they then said fine you can let him be in your picture and that's the true story of how Brian Helgeland forced me into the studio system so we were in Prague just having a ball because we you know I thought everything was possible and and I had a grueling really fun cast and it was everything that you could imagine it was mayhem Heath was the most alive person that I've ever met and that's very puzzling to imagine him not around I still can't quite picture him not around somehow because he was just so alive and all of the nonsense that I've read subsequently about darkness and it's just in no way meets the human being that I knew and fell in love with everybody fell in love with Heath he was pretty naturally good at making you adore him a beautiful mug it came together again because Brian Helgeland Ron Howard was looking for an actor and I've made a movie called gangster number one and Ron Howard wanted to see something of me in a movie where I wasn't playing a psychopath Brian was cutting his movie in and he should run some footage of me not being a psychopath gangster and then I got a call and I flew out to New York it was super romantic because it was snowing and it was amazing and and then I and when an audition for him and he gave me the job very old-fashioned way I don't know how young actors do it anymore were just soft tapes because you can go into a room and you can try and win people over and be charming and make them want to spend time with you and you're already halfway to getting the job before you then badly read the character in the scene the twist at the end about my character I absolutely knew because I read the script in those days people let you read scripts so I would be the thoughts of publishing a script online so yeah I read I knew exactly what was happening mastering commanded the fast I didn't work we shot Master and Commander in a tank in Rosarito Mexico and it was an amazing time Peter Weir is a fantastic director and we went to sea for a couple of weeks but mostly we shot in that tank it was a really great experience it's also you know a great experience living in Mexico for five months was amazing I loved Stephen he's a great character to play he's sort of the polar opposite of me and that he is crazy well-educated and got so many personal resources that you feel he's one of those people that you feel if if he was put in solitary confinement for ten years he would come out pretty much the way went in having had some really interesting thoughts about things whereas I would be a gibbering neurotic mess The Da Vinci Code again it was Ron Howard Ron Howard's always putting his hand out and helping me out he needed somebody to play a psychopath this time and I guess he remembered there against number one thing he's in but we were friends by that point and he's so lovely to work for he really understands actors he gives you so much space to explore and doesn't rain you in and and then just comes in and gives you some ideas about and he's a phenomenal director and I loved creating that and I had a brilliant makeup artists called Veronica McAleer who did my makeup and created that look kneeling on the floor whipping myself with a whip was peculiar making Tom Hanks fart on my first day in a fight because I punched him in the stomach and he farted I didn't know what to do I was like what do you do when you've made the lead in the movie far and so I sort of pretended it didn't happen and he was like what's wrong with you what's wrong with you some funniest thing ever his son he's awesome actually I was supposed to make that before Master and Commander and it got delayed because I really really wanted to go and work with Peter Weir and they made it okay for me to do that Peter colt I spent eight months training to learn to play tennis because I've never picked up a tennis racket Pat cash formal Wimbledon champ taught me how to play tennis I'd never done a romantic comedy before it's really difficult it's just really really it's hard it's hard to be that relentlessly charming the whole time and maybe something that another actors better at than me as I was trying to sort of channel and carry grounds or Hugh grew up maybe the problem is my second name's not grant because they seemed to have such a deafness of touch and a sort of unerring accuracy with delivering that kind of light charming champagne comedy it is more about John February thankfully he played my agent brilliantly yeah it's so brilliant at improvisation and he's so naughty we were doing a scene where I'm trying to sneak it all lying in bed he's keeping an eye on me and I'm trying to sneak out to go and see my my girlfriend he rolled over and asleep and I was just had just married Jennifer my wife and he rolled over in her sleeping that night listen II can hear in the movie he's cheeky I got a phone call from John Favreau saying I need the voice of a sort of personality less robot and I thought of you immediately so I said yes and then I ended up doing Jarvis and then that was a great gig because they just gave me a bag of money for coming in at the end and doing what 45 minutes voice work and it was awesome and when you haven't been able to tell the story in camera and whatever CG hasn't worked and then you've had reshoots to try and explain this you can just have jarvis go the bad guys are coming over the mountain and every and you're done so it was a great job because everybody was really happy at me doing very very easy thing and they gave me money which is which is always nice people eventually this big Hollywood producer told me that my career was over and I was done in the business and that I should pop my bangs and sling my hook and go home and I kind of stood up to him in the room and said you know what people have second and third acts in this town and then but then I went outside my legs were like jelly and it's that pound on the on the pavement sidewalk and I said maybe he's right maybe my career's over and my my phone went and I answered my phone I didn't know the number and I said hello and it was Joss Whedon and Joss Whedon said you want to play the vision in the Avengers and I went yes so that's how that happened then how the part you know came to me so like a Star Wars I I got very lucky again it's Ron Howard I heard Rahm was taking over the movie I texted him saying hey run have you ever spent long winter evenings wondering why you're not in the Star Wars franchise I have and he's sent me back lol I'll get back to you and he did and I thought I was gonna be a stormtrooper or something you know just cuz I wanted to say I was in Star Wars because it was so important to me as a kid and he may be the main bad guy in Star Wars and like two weeks later I was flying over to to shoot that was an amazing experience for me because we're in in 1977 I was six years old I went to see Star Wars it was like when Dorothy steps out of black-and-white into Technicolor in Wizard of Oz I was taken from this sort of gray rainy miserable 1970s London and transported to another galaxy and I just thought I don't know what that is but I want to be a part of it and 40 years later Ron Howard made that possible and so on so i'm he has saddled me with a debt that I can never actually repay him hey guys thanks for bothering to listen to me talk about these characters thank you keep watching but not that closely [Music]

Channel: GQ

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Keywords: paul bettany, heath ledger, a knight's tale, ron howard, paul bettany solo, paul bettany star wars, paul bettany 2018, paul bettany interview, paul bettany gq, paul bettany a knight's tale, paul bettany a beautiful mind, paul bettany master and commander, paul bettany da vinci code, paul bettany wimbledon, paul bettany iron man, paul bettany jarvis, paul bettany the vision, paul bettany voice, vision paul bettany, gq, gq magazine

Id: nGIwJ53XpxU

Length: 9min 46sec (586 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 01 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I love this guys voice as JARVIS. His voice is iconic.

[u/[deleted]]

Ill always see him as sir Ulrich Vonlichtensteins herald... ALWAYS, greatest medievil movie ever.

[u/nomadwrangler]

That is a great little interview. I really like him, but he often comes across prickly. Here he seems pretty genuine and humble. Makes me think that being an actor has got to be one of the worst/hardest jobs. If people like Bettany are being told they are done and need to quit acting then who the hell actually should keep acting?

[u/Sehllae]

Loved that he got to become a bigger part of the MCU after giving us the voice of JARVIS. He was also one of the best parts of Solo and this interview is incredibly touching when he speaks about Heath Ledger.

[u/LawOfMuphry]

Joss' decision to turn JARVIS into Vision was inspired. Really can't imagine anyone other than Bettany in the role.

[u/aguilaj]

7:55 "My legs were like jelly" Vision is Thanos confirmed

[u/GreatAmerican1776]

He was so good in Solo

[u/InvalidZod]

I like the way he got Solo.

"Really would be cool if I was ever in a Star Wars movie.."

"...Gimmie 5 minutes"