A Beautiful Mind Speaks! 
The gifted actor Paul Bettany in a special tMF profile!
by Dee Dee Baldwin

"But I wouldn't want anybody to know that much about me. Do you know what I mean? People that I absolutely have nothing... I don't mind singing to people that I know, but I have no interest in having an audience. So the good thing about acting is that you can watch Gangster #1 and you can think "He's an aggressive little bastard" but you don't know…. or you can watch Beautiful Mind and go "I bet he's that cocky and full of himself?" but not actually know because I'm not being myself now. You know what I mean?" declared Paul Bettany in a recent interview.

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For an actor who has played both good and bad guys in some of today's coolest films, Mr. Bettany is a definite favorite for an interview. He's one of the most insightful and interesting actors and knows how to answer any and all questions, be they silly, challenging or mundane. It would be cool to do an interview with him, although one can't help wondering if he might spring a surprise or two if he found an interviewer's questions dull.

We have wanted to feature this exciting and talented actor for quite some time now, and so we're grateful to Dee Dee Baldwin for this profile.

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Paul Bettany, who is now 36, was born in London on May 27, 1971. His father, Thane Bettany, was a drama teacher and actor, while his mother worked as a school secretary. At first, Paul seemed to have little ambition for anything. He didn't like school, and never finished a book until he was nineteen. He did develop an interest in music, however, teaching himself the guitar, which he still plays.

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When Paul was young, his family moved from the city to a smaller place in the country, where Paul was miserable. Coming from the inner city, he felt separate from his classmates and the fact that they bullied him didn't help. His father, who had formerly served in the Royal Navy, placed him in the Sea Cadets to "make a man out of him." Paul likes to joke that this attempt failed miserably.

Things didn't really change for him until he was sixteen. The turning point was the death of his eight-year-old brother, Matthew. Thane Bettany describes what happened:

"Matthew and his friend Jamie had asked to go over to play at a place near our home. I told them I would collect them from the pavilion in an hour. About half an hour later little Jamie came running up and said 'Thane, you'd better come, Matthew's had a fall'. They had been climbing on the pavilion and he lost his hold and fell on to concrete underneath. He was still conscious when I got there and he was conscious a lot of the night. He had a massive fracture across the skull. Then they decided to operate and he never recovered from that. He was put on a life support machine. Anne, my wife, and I were told that he was brain dead and we made the decision to turn the machine off. I felt guilty for ages afterwards. [...] It hit Paul hugely because they were great buddies. Matthew just worshipped Paul and Paul was the same. *

Matthew's death left the family grief-stricken. Soon afterwards, Paul left home and went to live on his own in London. He shared a small flat with two lesbians and earned money by playing his guitar in the streets. Though he loved writing music, he was uncomfortable performing in front of an audience because he didn't like sharing his personal lyrics with strangers. After two years of this, he found a job in a home for the elderly. He often sat with people as they died, and it was his job to wash the bodies.

Finally, at the age of nineteen, he decided to be an actor, and he pursued that career with determination, studying at the London Drama Centre in Chalk Farm. He made his stage debut in Stephen Daldry's acclaimed West End revival of An Inspector Calls at the Aldwych Theatre, playing the part of Eric Birling. He also appeared in the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of Richard III, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar (for which he received a Charleson Award nomination).

After an appearance in the Sean Bean TV series Sharpe, he made his film debut with a small part in Bent, a Holocaust drama which also featured Clive Owen, Jude Law and Ian McKellen. He continued doing work on stage and television, establishing himself as a gifted actor with wide range. There was Joe Penhall's Love and Understanding, which played at London's Bush Theatre and then ran in Connecticut, giving some lucky American audiences their first view of Paul Bettany. His roles in the television productions Killer Net and Coming Home - during which he met and dated Emily Mortimer - soon followed. He did his last theater work in One More Wasted Year and Stranger's House at the Royal Court Theatre.

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However, Paul had become addicted to cocaine along the way. His drug problem reached its height during the filming of the mini-series David Copperfield, during which he destroyed a posh hotel room and caused a disturbance on a plane. The director even had to film some of his scenes in slow motion. He quickly turned himself around, though, after an incident in which a diabetic friend collapsed during a visit to his flat. He didn't want to call an ambulance to his flat full of drugs, so he found what he thought was his friend's syringe of insulin, and gave the injection himself. Fortunately for both, it was indeed insulin. But Paul had reached a turning point, and immediately turned his back on drugs.

He filmed several more movies, including his first leading role in Gangster No. 1. The British Independent Film Awards nominated him for Best Actor, and the London Critics Circle nominated him for British Newcomer of the Year.

Back in Hollywood, Oscar-winning writer/director Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential) was planning a new film called The Sin Eater (which later became The Order). He was impressed by Paul's audition tape, though he eventually decided to make A Knight's Tale instead. The studio executives were not impressed by Paul, but Helgeland was determined to cast him, even writing the part of Chaucer for him. A Knight's Tale was Paul's first big Hollywood production, and most American audiences had their first look at Paul Bettany when he walked onscreen muddy and naked. "My buttocks entered the American market before I did," Paul jokes on the DVD commentary.

Critical acclaim poured in after A Knight's Tale, for which he won the London Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. Paul had a great time making the film and this comes across clearly in his high-spirited performance. He even had a brief relationship with Laura Fraser, the Scottish actress who played William Thatcher's feisty blacksmith friend.

After the movie wrapped, Helgeland, determined that Hollywood should recognize Paul's talent, showed the audition tape to many of his peers including Ron Howard, who promptly cast Paul in A Beautiful Mind. It was on that set that Paul befriended Russell Crowe and thus met his future wife, Jennifer Connelly. Both were already in relationships, so they restricted themselves to friendship only for about a year. At that stage, finding themselves both single, they began dating.

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After A Beautiful Mind, Paul was offered the role of brutal serial killer "The Tooth Fairy" in Red Dragon, opposite Edward Norton and Anthony Hopkins. To the great displeasure of his management, he turned down the role in favor of a part in controversial director Lars von Trier's Dogville, appearing with Stellan Skarsgård and Nicole Kidman. Von Trier is famous for frustrating actors and Paul was no exception. He has compared acting for von Trier to simply mixing paint for Jackson Pollack. The shoot was difficult, but Paul maintains that he learned a lot from von Trier and is happy to have worked with him.

On New Year's Day 2003, Paul married Jennifer Connelly in a Scottish ceremony attended by a small circle of friends and family in the music room at Gilmerton House. According to Paul, everyone celebrated by getting into their pajamas and playing Twister. Paul then moved to Brooklyn with Jennifer and her son Kai, and the couple welcomed their own son Stellan (named for Stellan Skarsgård) on August 5, 2003. In many interviews, Paul speaks enthusiastically of his love for fatherhood and his desire to have many more children - he wants to "set up a factory," in fact.

Paul's next major project proved his undoubtable talent: he teamed up once more with Russel Crowe, this time to make Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Russell and Paul became great friends, especially since both love music. They often played duets on the set, apart from their characters' violin and cello performances in the film. For the most part, however, Paul separated himself from the rest of the cast, hoping to gain a sense of Stephen Maturin's isolation and introversion.

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His quiet yet powerful portrayal of surgeon and naturalist Maturin brought in even more critical acclaim, including a BAFTA nomination, British Actor of the Year (London Critics Circle), and Best Actor (Evening Standard). Unfortunately - and unbelievably - there was no Oscar nomination. However, on June 28 2004, Paul was included alongside thirteen other actors in the 2004 invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Dogville and The Reckoning were both released in limited distribution in the spring of 2004. In September of that year, Paul made his leading man debut in Wimbledon, a romantic comedy with Kirsten Dunst, which proved to anyone still harbouring doubt that he was able to carry a movie. Reviews were somewhat lukewarm, but every critic had praise for Paul's charming, earnest Peter Colt.

After he filmed Wimbledon, Paul took a vacation and became "set bitch," taking care of Stellan while Jennifer filmed Dark Water. In spring 2005, he went to Vancouver to film Firewall, a thriller starring Harrison Ford and Virginia Madsen, directed by Richard Loncraine (Wimbledon).

He spent the fall of 2005 as Silas in The Da Vinci Code, a movie based on Dan Brown's bestselling novel and starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou. The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17 2006 to rather negative reviews. Despite this, it went on to become one of the highest grossing movies worldwide.

Paul's next movie will be Inkheart with Brendan Fraser and Helen Mirren. According to an interview in January 2007, he has also signed on to film the next two parts of the trilogy as well.

The most recent casting buzz is that Paul will appear in Franklyn with Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Sam Riley and John Hurt.

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Profile of Paul Bettany written by Dee Dee Williams. For more news, films and updates on Mr. Bettany, you can visit paulbettany.net

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Comments (1)

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Lovely profile, Dee Dee. I liked him so much as Chaucer in AKT, but kind of lost track of him after that, so it was really cool to read this up-to-date profile!

LA Bennett , October 23, 2007

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