Paul Bettany has been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the very beginning, but you haven’t seen him on camera until Avengers: Age of Ultron. The former voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. – Tony Stark’s artificially intelligent butler – graduates to the big leagues this weekend with the release of Marvel’s second all-star team up, after downloading into the body of a sophisticated android called The Vision.
It’s a character familiar to fans of the Avengers comic books – he even married and had two children with his teammate The Scarlet Witch, played in Avengers: Age of Ultron by Elizabeth Olsen – but in the new film he is as big a mystery as anything Marvel has yet to reveal.
I sat down with Paul Bettany in the halls of Walt Disney Studios to discuss the impact The Vision has had on his career, which Bettany had been told was over mere minutes before has was offered a starring role in this new blockbuster. We also discuss the future of the character – as an Avenger as well as romantically – in a final series of questions clearly marked by a spoiler warning.
Related: ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Review: Bless This Mess
CraveOnline: How long have you been keeping the whole “Vision” thing a secret?
Paul Bettany: Three years.
When was it presented to you? Were you talking to Kevin Feige or Joss Whedon or…?
I just got a phone call from Joss, and he said… I’m thinking about this… It had been in the works for years, [but] there’s a sort of rule where if you play one character you’re not allowed to play another character, and they didn’t know how to figure that out, but Joss really wanted to bring The Vision in and he said, “I really want it to be you, Paul.” Which is lovely. “How are we going to make that work? We’re bending the rules.” He called me up and I was, as you can imagine, thrilled.
Were you thrilled in principle or did you already know who The Vision was?
Oh no, I didn’t know. I’m from England and I knew who Spider-Man was and I knew who The Hulk was, because there was a TV show, and I knew who Superman was because there had been some movies, but nothing else. We had a comic book in England called the Eagle with Dan Dare and the Mekon, and I kind of dug that, but I really didn’t know about comic books. So I didn’t know who The Vision was, but [Whedon] told me and he’s a really intriguing guy.
Funnily enough, my wife’s cousins – you know, I live in America now – went “Oh my god, it’s The Vision! When we were kids…!” So I guess it’s same period to me, it’s the 70’s. “He was my fucking favorite guy!”
How did Joss Whedon pitch you on The Vision? Because he’s a very strange character in a lot of ways. What did he tell you?
It was a very brief phone call because I had just got out of a meeting with a producer who told me my career was over. And I said to said producer, “You know what? You should be careful because Hollywood is full of second acts,” and I walked out the door. I sat down in Hollywood. I was in Hollywood and I sat down on a sidewalk and put my feet in the road and went, “Fuck.”
And then my phone went. I took my phone and I went, “Uh… yeah?” because I didn’t recognize the number. He said, “Hey, it’s Joss.” I said, “Hi! What can I do for you?” And he said, “Do you want to play The Vision?” And I went, “Yeah.” [Flips the producer off behind him.]
I hope he saw you flip him off.
That’s a true story.
