“A hideous experience”: The movie Paul Bettany hated making
Even the most famous names in cinema can fall victim to having the wool pulled over their eyes. It’s a notion that gave rise to Paul Bettany experiencing one of the unhappiest productions of his career, all thanks to a single sliver of misinformation.
For almost three decades, Bettany has become one of the most reliable character actors in the business, without ever troubling leading man status to a significant degree. On the odd occasions, it has happened, though, the end results have failed to justify his elevation to the top of the pile.
Does anyone remember when director Scott Stewart doubled down in quick succession to try and reinvent the affable gent as a badass action hero in fantasy flops Legion and Priest? Hopefully not, because they were equally terrible in their own special way, and indicated that perhaps slicing, dicing, shooting, and generally annihilating faceless hordes wasn’t the best use of his talents.
Not until he became a fixture of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, anyway, with Bettany having been part of the franchise since the beginning when he voiced Tony Stark’s AI assistant in Iron Man. he was soon made flesh in Avengers: Age of Ultron, which culminated in the very first Golden Globe nomination of his career when WandaVision saw him shortlisted for ‘Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film’.
Another long-time part of the superhero saga is Stellan Skarsgård, who plays kindly scientist Erik Selvig. The two had become friends after working together on the 2001 crime comedy Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang), while the Swede was a regular collaborator of Lars Von Trier, having appeared in Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark.
When the opportunity arose for them to be reunited on Dogville, Bettany was convinced to take it, only to tell The Guardian he endured “a hideous experience” after being hoodwinked into boarding the filmmaker’s experimental surrealist drama under entirely false pretences.
“I did it because Stellan fucking Skarsgård fibbed to me! He said, ‘You gotta turn up, it’ll be fantastic, it’s like a party all the time,'” Bettany admitted. “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.'”
Bettany explained that he “found it a peculiarly unsatisfying experience” because Von Trier “has no interest in you being any part of the cerebral process with him.” On Dogville, he was “absolutely his puppet,” which isn’t the way he likes to work.
Dogville was polarising as the director’s work routinely tends to be, and while Skarsgård had no issues linking up with him again on Melancholia and Nymphomaniac, Bettany had no interest in becoming part of the auteur’s regular repertory.