Paul Bettany – in person 20 years ago so charismatic

                                        July 2003 By Philip Berk

If all it takes to be a superstar is wit, charm, and candor, Paul Brittany has it in spades.

A year ago, when I interviewed him, I predicted that when Master and Commander; The Far End of the World opens, he’ll be the next big thing.

Unfortunately that isn’t likely to happen right away.

The film has been shown to the press, and impressive as it is with Russell Crowe in the lead, it’s not likely to find a wide audience.

If you’re expecting a Gladiator or even a Captain Horatio Hornblower, you’re in for a disappointment.

But then again the director is Peter Weir and not Ridley Scott!

Despite the reaction, Paul is as irrepressible ever. 

When he walks in the room he’s just your average good looking, young Englishman, but once he opens his mouth he could charm the birds off the trees. 

Which is essentially what he’s done to a certain actress.

A year ago rumors were linking him to Jennifer Connelly, who had played Russell Crowe’s wife in A Beautiful Mind. 

Surprisingly, when I asked him about it, he didn’t deny it.

“That’s the rumor on the underground grapevine, and it’s entirely true. I’m in a relationship with Jennifer, and there’s nothing too enigmatic about how we got together. I mean how do boys and girls get together? I met her and thought she was gorgeous, and she for some reason quite liked me, and now we’re together and I’m as happy as I ever have been.”

For her part, when asked  about a rumored “romance” with Russell Crowe on the set, Jennifer was quite indignant , “I was there to do a movie. I have a boyfriend (at the time actor Josh Charles) and I’m not on the market,” was her reply.

So how come he got lucky? I asked him.

“We were in the same movie, but we didn’t act together. I saw her only one day on the shoot, for the scene where Russell sees me and she’s there. The first time I really got talking to her was months later at the BAFTA awards, where incidentally she won.”

Which of her special qualities attracted him? I asked him.

“I couldn’t possibly tell you because I might get sued,”  was his blushing reply.

But then jokingly he added, “We both have a love of Kurdish folk music. I really don’t know how to answer that one.”

A year later, he’s much more forthcoming, and for good reason.

Not only has he won fair maiden,  but they are now husband and wife and parents of a three month old baby boy.

Taking on those two responsibilities, how much of an adjustment has that been?

“I’ve wanted children for a long time,” he answers.

But then he has to throw in his humor. 

“It’s just been very difficult to fall pregnant by myself. I was looking for somebody dumb enough to marry me and finally found one. But it’s something I’ve wanted for a long time. I was warned that when she was five months pregnant I would freak out and have an aneurysm or something, but the whole thing has been very exciting. Although there are two downsides to it. One is you fear for their health and the other is you’re tired and irritable at times, but everything else I’m adoring. But then I’m only two and a half months into it, and he isn’t a teenager saying, ‘You suck, dad,’ yet.  But when I take off his nappy, sorry his diaper, and he pees on me, I celebrate. ‘You can pooh, you’re a genius child!’ Clearly I’m loving every minute of it.”

How do they cope with separation while working in different locations?

“It’s difficult when we’re away from each other. I just finished shooting a film called Wimbledon with Kirsten Dunst. Jennifer was there for the entire time except the last six weeks. And then I flew to New York once, and she flew over to London once. Airplanes is the short answer. If we have to be apart, I get home as often as I can. While I was shooting Master and Commander in Mexico, she made two films in Los Angeles. We saw each other on the weekends. And when she moved back to New York, I flew there every weekend. You do what you have to do and luckily because you get paid a good sum you can make those things happen.”

He’s been acting professionally for twelve years. How come it took him so long to get noticed? 

“That’s how it works. You have to do a lot of dross on your sort of climb into films, but I’ve done a lot of good plays. After I left drama school I was at the Royal Shakespeare Company for a year and a half, and I did two plays at the Royal Court, and in fact what got me noticed for movies was a small play I did in a theatre above a pub called The Bush, which is truly the last bastion of real new playwriting in England. It’s everything the Royal Court pretends to be. It’s a very tiny space, but it’s quite producer friendly. They can come and imagine you on screen rather than behind a proscenium arch.”

And yet American producers  were the ones who really discovered him?

“Yeah, they’ve been really sweet.”

Has he figured out why?

“I don’t know really because in England I played loads of baddies and usually you come over to America to play baddies because of the whole sort of War of Independence thing. French people get to play lovers because of the debt of gratitude owed Lafayette. So you play scary people if you’re English. But for some strange reason they’ve allowed me to come and play funny people, although not in Master and Commander.  So I’ve been very lucky that I am  being allowed to do different stuff. which is just what I want because I find acting gets quite dull if it’s the same thing. If all it is, is behaving naturally in front of a camera, then you can get a monkey to do that. Thanks to Hollywood, people are allowing me to play character parts when I’m young, which doesn’t usually happen, so I’m feeling sort of blessed at the moment.”

Wasn’t it his unabashed nudity in A Knight’s Tale that made Hollywood take notice, and was he comfortable doing that?

“To be honest with you, I find doing nudity quite loathsome. I’ve usually needed a couple of glasses of white wine to do it, and  on the set of Knight’s Tale because it was an American film shot in the Czech Republic, where they could afford a crew of 2000, it was really uncomfortable.” 

Had he ever done it before?

“Actually I’ve been naked a lot. If a part really demands it, I’ll keep my clothes on,” he jokes.

“But on this American film I got offered a sock. I’m standing there in a dressing gown and they offered me a sock, a sort of luminous Day-Glo yellow sock, and I went, ‘What’s this?’ and they said, ‘To put on your thing,’ and I went, ‘But surely that would just draw attention to… I can’t possibly do that,”  and they said ‘Why?’ and I went, ‘Because I’d be wearing a sock on my penis, and that’s just silly.’ I couldn’t do it. How can you  play a scene with a sock on your penis! For God’s sake it’s harder to forget that you’ve got a sock on your penis than that you’re naked. Imagine people really looking at you yet being drawn to this Day-Glo sock; so I elected not to wear the sock.”

At the time he was working with Heath Ledger. Since then he’s worked with three other Australians. Has he formed an opinion?

“You mean of Australians. Being English I usually travel around the world apologizing to people for my country, but there is one thing we did right and that’s Australia, where we rounded up all our so called criminals and sent them to the beach. We sent them to paradise. I love Australia. It’s absolutely foolish what we did. We should have left the criminals in England and emigrated there.”

What can he say about Nicole Kidman?

“Nicole Kidman is just fabulous, and if anybody did anything to her, I’d go to prison for twenty years and I’d just smile about it.  She’s really wonderful and amazing to work with. You’ll never work with an actor so free.  We worked together on Lars Von Trier’s movie (Dogville.) He doesn’t say Action. He says Start. The cameras are rolling, but you haven’t even discussed the scene; you just go. I was so scared, but Nicole was so brilliant, she saved the day.”  

What about Heath?

“Can you imagine he was only twenty one at the time, and there he was carrying a $30 million picture on his shoulders without a care in the world. When I was twenty one, I was waking up in the hedges, naked in gardens. He’s a really personable young man and sort of extraordinary.”

And Russell?

“Working with him again was an absolute joy because we enjoy each other’s company. He’s another one that hasn’t got it all planned; so there’s something dangerous and anarchic about to happen in a scene, which (director) Peter Weir appreciates.” 

Have they become close friends?

“We never go out for a drink or a cup of coffee because he lives 27 hours away and it’s a long plane ride for a latte. We enjoy each other’s company. We can be frank and honest with each other without pussy footing around. Russell can tell me I’m crap and I can tell him he’s being — brilliant.”

Were the stories about  Russell breaking up bars in Mexico true?

“I was far too busy reading Proust to know what was going on. I lived miles away. And that’s because in the film I play this stoic, who’s the ship’s surgeon. He’s a naturalist, I have to grab myself every time I come to this word  because I keep wanting to say naturist. He’s not a naturist. He’s a naturalist. To play this role I completely secluded myself; so I wasn’t at any of the functions. But I have to tell you, I have made two films with Russell, and I’ve read things happening in the press. Now I was there, and nothing happened. I mean nothing. I can assure you that if he did it on the set, I wouldn’t want to work with him. Here’s a guy who every weekend arranged activities for the crew of young British actors who were very far from home, weekend  activities like swimming with dolphins. Does that sound like a man who breaks up bars.” 

Was there a reason why he secluded?

“The character I play, Stephen Maturin, is a solitary figure. I’m just the opposite, gregarious. So I got myself a house and lived away from the hotel where everyone else stayed. For six months I was bloody lonely, which was really useful.”

By gregarious, what exactly does he mean?

“I loathe  parties. But I enjoy dinner parties because I can take them over. Parties aren’t all about me so I loathe them. I like small numbers of close friends. I am not the solitary person Stephen Maturin is.  He’s the type if you put him into solitary confinement for ten years, he would come out pretty much the same he way he went in. He’d be able to entertain himself. Me, on the other hand, I would go absolutely barking mad because there’d be nobody to watch me being introspective so what’s the point.”

How has his love for Jennifer changed now that she’s the mother of his son?

“Initially I thought she was very plain. Actually it’s interesting because both of us had been around the block a bit and didn’t want to do that on-the-set-affair thing which only leads to complete misery and mayhem. So we became very close. She’s an incredibly political person. She’s an American who speaks fluent French, fluent Italian and some Cantonese.That was so shocking to me because bilingual means you speak two languages, and if you speak one language you’re American. So we became really close friends and rung each other up a lot. At the time she was in a relationship, and I was in a relationship which ended. Even before if I had a problem I was ringing her up when I should have been ringing up my girlfriend. And then what seemed like ages we split from our respective partners and then got together. But to answer your question, of course our love has changed. As you begin to know someone, it deepens. Initially when you meet someone you give the advert of yourself, but then they get to see the real you, and you hope they stay with you. And she has, stupid girl.”

He’s admitted he’s closer to his mother and sister. How come?

“I’ve always got along better with women. I was quite the annoying kid at school. When all the boys went to play football, I was not playing football. I was stealing their girlfriends on the sidelines because it seemed much more interesting than kicking a ball around a field, and it still is. I have little interest in football and sport, which I think is quite obvious. But the sad thing is, I hate all this difference between men and women. Books like Men are from Mars, Women are From Venus just makes want to headbutt railways spikes. If there is a difference it is that women read more. When I was a school kid I was sort of fascinated by women and still am. Not so much my mother. My mother did really interesting things, like be brilliant at playing the piano and refuse to teach me.  I never understood why. I was so obsessed with learning the piano that when I left school, I became a busker and played my guitar on the streets of London.”

What’s a busker?

“A busker is somebody that plays guitar for money on the streets. People would come and pick you up and take you out for dinner.”

Was he always a hit with the opposite sex?

“I’ve always been sort of looked after by them. They’d pick me up, take me to dinner because I was always hungry, and that would be that. Honestly. Until five years ago, women really cleverly left me. I was a complete mess until then.”

Does he also keep Jennifer in stitches all day?

“That’s something she’d have to answer. I like to think I make her laugh, but the truth is whenever we have time together we like to be just quiet and by ourselves.”

Have they discussed how they will bring up their children?

“My upbringing clearly had a tragedy when I lost my brother so it was a bit explosive and our family fell apart. I wouldn’t want that to happen to my son so I intend to bring him up entirely differently.”

Earlier in the interview he offered this about Peter Weir.

“Now there’s a man who knows how to make films. There are few films in my life that I’ve been genuinely affected by, and Fearless is one of them. It really saved me at one time in my life. It’s about how important it is to remain fragile in order to take part in life. Watching it, it absolved  me of a whole load of guilt that years of shrinkage had created.” 

The loss of his brother is what he was referring to.

How stressful was making Dogville with Lars Von Trier?

“It was enormously stressful and funny. He made sure the bed I slept in was ten feet away from his head in the next room. I would hear knocks at 4 o’clock in the morning, and I’d go ‘Yeah?’ And he’d go, ‘It’s Lars.’ ‘Yeah?’ ‘It’s Lars.’  ‘Yes, I know, Lars, what do you want? It’s 4 o’clock in the morning.’ He’d say, ‘ Come to the door,’ and I’d open the door and there was Lars dressed only in his mobile phone. completely naked.  And I said, ‘Lars, what is it you want?’ and he went. ‘I’d like a pair of underpants.’

All this done with a faultless Danish accent.

“My first meeting with him, he picks me up at the airport, and driving to the hotel where we were staying, he stops at a gas station and buys some gas and then he says, ‘Paul, would you like any pornography?’ And I went, ‘No Lars, I’m fine,’ and he sweeps the entire top shelf of pornography and buys it and we get in the car and drive to the hotel. He comes to my room and we talk about the film and then Nicole turns up and we’re chatting and Lars says, ‘I have to make a phone call. Please talk between you and don’t look at Paul’s enormous stack of porn.’ So now I’m a bumbling thirteen year old going. ‘It’s not my porn. It’s not my porn.’ Finally I convince her, and she’s saying ‘God, it’s a very odd place to be, isn’t it?’  and we hear this noise outside my window, and it’s Lars hanging from the fire escape listening to the conversation. It’s snowing outside. And I say, ‘Lars do you want to come in?’ and he went, ‘Yes, it’s very cold.’ So it began like that, and it continued like that ,and it ended like that.  It was amazing, stressful,  but I would work with him again because he’s an absolute genius.”  

From what he’s wearing it’s obvious that he’s into fashion. Correct?

“I am,  and what was strange about making Gangster #2 was that if I lived in that period I would have worn those clothes, but I wouldn’t have had the money to buy a 4,000 pound Oswald Boatang suit. So when the film was finished I nicked all four of them, and I’ve worn them since because they’re fabulous. The one thing about celebrity I like is people send me clothes, which is really great. I can’t lie about it. On the other hand, I don’t mind waiting in line for a dinner table. I’ve never understood it when people say, ‘Oh you don’t have to stand in line.’ I’ve got no problem with that, and if I ring up and they say ‘No,’ what am I supposed to say. ‘Do you know who I think I am!’ But the free clothes thing is really good.”

And when he’s not working what does he like to do?

“I write songs that nobody will ever hear for a couple of reasons. One is that most of them are bad. The second is I loathe people that I don’t know hearing them. When I was a busker, I wanted to be a pop star, but I didn’t like singing my songs in front of other people, which was somewhat of a stumbling block. But I love John Lennon. I bless him every day for writing the words,’ Mother you had me, but I never had you.’ It’s so simple and beautiful and clear, but I wouldn’t want anybody to know that much about me. Acting is a third person activity, song writing is first person. That’s why I chose acting.”

He devises the world into two groups. Those who’d rather have a drink with John Lennon, and those who’d rather drink with Paul McCartney.

I wonder in which group his mother belongs.

By the way his son is named for Stellen Skarsgaard who’s also in Dogville, the “most adorable, kind man you’re likely to meet.”