I know you love Paul Bettany. I do too, although I’m not going to sit here and claim that I was always Paul’s number one fan-girl. I’ve always had warmth for him, but it’s only in the past few years where I’ve been like, “Yeah. The Bettany is incredible.” It’s not just that he’s handsome in that particular way that I find unbearably hot – blonde with a hint of ginger, light eyes, tall, rangy build, the elegance and athleticism of a cat. It’s not just that he seems solid and grounded, with a seemingly great marriage. It’s not just that he’s a great dad. It’s not just that he’s a wonderful and underrated actor. Okay, it’s all of those things and so much more. THE BETTANY IS INCREDIBLE.
So, Paul is promoting two new movies… or two films that are about to come to England, thus, he gave an interview to The Guardian. Usually, I dislike The Guardian’s celebrity interviews, because I have to wade through half an article of verbose fluff to find any good quotes. Not so with this piece on Paul – which you can read in its entirety here. Anyway, he’s promoting Margin Call, that ensemble film about the recession, and Broken Lines, where he plays a “former boxer, broken in body and spirit after suffering a stroke. Pale and rheumy eyed, he spends much of Broken Lines cowed and meek, dabbing at the at the corner of his dribbling mouth before suddenly erupting into snarling, desperate rage.” Here are some highlights from the piece:
Paul on emergencies: “Oh, let me turn this off,” he says, pocketing his iPhone as he shakes my hand. “Oh no, I shouldn’t turn this off. Don’t judge me,” he pleads, “I have a very small baby. Do you have kids? They’re great, great – the first three years they just scare the s–t out of you.”
On Broken Lines: “A lovely event really, because it was my best friend’s [Dan Fredenburgh] movie. It was sort of delicious, like being a student – I turned up, worked relentlessly for seven days and then went home.”
On Margin Call: “The camaraderie and purity of intent was really edifying and both films really turned my head around: I’ve rekindled a love for making movies that had been made totally irrelevant by the complete, mad, romantic love you feel for your children. There comes a time when you realise you’ve subjugated all these personal, selfish desires. And I do need to express them. Which has been a real revelation for me as I turn 40 and hurtle towards my dotage. I won’t bang on about it any more but I felt a sort of awakening.” He raises his coffee cup and adds: “He said pretentiously, sipping his double espresso.”
Moved by other actors‘ performances: “It’s so embarrassing to talk about but there are some performances I’ve seen that have really moved me,” he says. He compares them to “the way you’ll hear a song or read a passage in a book that makes you somehow adhere a little more to the surface of the world as it spins. You feel like you won’t fly off.”
Working with Lars Von Trier on Dogville: That, he says, “was a hideous experience”. “I did it because Stellan f–king Skarsgård fibbed to me! He said, ‘You gotta turn up, it’ll be fantastic, it’s like a party all the time.’ And after three weeks and not one bit of fun, I said, ‘Stellan, what were you talking about?’ And he said, ‘Man, I was making it up – I just couldn’t face doing it without you.’” He mimes murderous exasperation. “I found it a peculiarly unsatisfying experience because [Von Trier] has no interest in you being any part of the cerebral process with him. You’re absolutely his puppet. But no, I don’t want to be too down on Lars. He is extraordinary and he is a sensation.”
He’s made bad movies, and he uses “inelegant” again: “Listen,” he says good-naturedly, “I’ve made some bad movies, but some of those bad movies have been other people’s dreams, so it would be sort of inelegant to tread on all that. I’ve made movies because I’ve thought, ‘God, I really want my kids to have a house in the country.’ It’s depressing, not being in charge of one’s destiny. So what you have the power to do as an actor is the power to say ‘no’. You don’t have the power to say ‘yes’.”
No more action movies for Paul: “I think it might mean no more action films! I mean, I love action movies, I love all sorts of movies, but there are just too many of the f–kers and too few movies for grownups. Action movies are incredibly vain. You get all fit and feel more stupid with every push-up.” In illustration, he mimes a pair of scales with his palms and frowns at his descending right hand – “reading less, reading less, reading less” – and then at his ascending left – “better abs, better abs, better abs”. “It’s hard,” he says, “to do sit-ups and read Remembrance of Things Past.”
Juggling film schedules and family life: “It’s so weird, so difficult and occasionally heartbreaking. I have a rule that we’ll never go more than two weeks without seeing each other.”
Upon hearing his marriage described as “one of the strongest marriages in Hollywood.”: “Oh my f–king God!” he says. “Really? Well, the thing is, we’ve been married for eight years, which is like 50 years in Hollywood years. So I suppose it suddenly becomes really intriguing – ‘How do they do it!’ I loathe the movie business. I love making films but I loathe the business. And it sounds so sort of mealy-mouthed: I’ve made a career in the film business, I’ve made money out of the film business, it’s been really good to me. But it’s kind of repulsive. And I hate to be one of those actors moaning about how films were better in the past, but f–k me, films were just better in the past. Know what I mean? The 70s – f–k!”
[From The Guardian]
Well… I’m not sure how I fear about Paul’s last answer. I know he’s hedging and he’s deftly walking the line between rudely sh–ting on his industry and being a bold truth-teller who has been a working actor for a decade and a half. If Megan Fox had said this… well, she wouldn’t have been able to hedge so “elegantly”. (Sidenote: Don’t you love when Paul uses “elegant” and “inelegant”? God, I love Englishmen.) Perhaps Paul should take his own advice and stop complaining? Or is that too harsh?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
