Page 101 - Flaunt 175 - Diana

GUCCI shirt and tie.
devalues the much-lauded myth of the actor’s choice. “Some- times you’re just doing what’s in front of you, because you gotta pay the mortgage,” he remarks, “Or sometimes you’re doing what’s in front of you, because you think, well, I gotta work.” His focus moves away from the camera as he speaks with a blatant seriousness, before returning back to center and cracking a smile. “And sometimes you’re doing things to stop the pixies talking in your head.”
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Paul Bettany first gained notoriety on the big screen with his
performance in the 2000 British crime drama Gangster No. 1. The fresh-faced Bettany displayed a wit, conviction, and general aura in the gangster flick, which left casting directors believing they had typecast the next mafioso for the scores of organized crime films sent into production every year. “I kept being offered sort of substandard gangster movies,” Bettany recalls. “I just decided I was going to look for something entirely different, and then
I think I kept doing that. I was coming up as an actor at a time where people were way less interested in character actors and more interested in branding yourself. You know, a branding of the actor as this sort of actor who does this sort of stuff. It became a very good way to create a star. I’m not sure my striving to learn how to be versatile was the best idea, but I enjoyed it. And I think, as I get older, that I’ll stay striving for that.”
Bettany’s early refusal to be locked into a box led him to the US, where he was cast in his breakout role, the 2001 comedy A Knight’s Tale. Inspired by the works of Chaucer, this film about knights, lancers, and true love sees Bettany scene-stealing each time he makes an appearance as the Geoffrey Chaucer—a cozen- ing, poetic bard who flashes his pale derriere the first time the
audience sees him. Bettany followed up this performance that same year with the role of Charles, a side effect of John Nash’s schizophrenia in the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind—a role which also sprouted a new era in his personal life.
One thing you need to know about Paul Bettany is that an acting career isn’t the only garden he is tending to on a daily basis. Above all, he is a family man, who, along with his wife, actor Jennifer Connelly, has raised three children. No matter the topic, Bettany’s family remains close to his thoughts, as he often references them unprompted. As he has recounted in numerous interviews, he met Connelly on the set of A Beautiful Mind, and the two New Yorkers began dating shortly after he proposed to her. Yes, you read that sentence right. “I would say our marriage has worked because I’m such an extraordinary husband,” Betta- ny laughs. “I don’t know, I really love her. I think she’s quite fond of me most of the time, and I’m very glad of that. Jennifer and I met, coming at it as two people who wanted a stable union.”
I ask him what a typical Sunday in the Bettany / Connelly household looks like when everyone is together, and he paints
a picture of family solidarity, a group which prefers their time spent together, no matter how busy they are, nor the levels of fame and success they have achieved, even if they are divided on whether they should spend the day outside or not. “Everybody wakes up on their own time,” he says. “My kids, of course, don’t walk the dog, so either Jennifer or I have to. Then it begins this battle between me and the kids wanting to play games inside and watch a movie or even a double feature, and Jennifer—who is very outdoorsy—her endless fight to get us out of the house, go on walks or bike rides.”
The two’s eighteen year marriage isn’t the only outlier
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