Exclusive Interview with Paul Bettany about Captain America Civil War

On my trip to LA for the #CaptainAmeriaEvent we were able to interview some of the talent for the movie including Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, Emily VanCamp, the directors Anthony and Joe Russo and Paul Bettany! Today I get to share Paula Bettany’s interview with you. It was such a fun interview and he really is just as funny in person as he is on screen. While “Vision” is a more serious character we all know his sense of humor (think A Knight’s Tale).

He is also very polite. When he walked into the room, he asked up how we were doing. After we answered with a chorus of great and fantastic, he answers with “Excellent. Marvelous. Thank you very much. What can I do for you all? Probably wondering why I brought you all here?”

This made us all laugh…and we were anxious to get some questions about the amazing Captain America: Civil War movie answered. As you saw in The Avengers: Age of Ultron movie, his costume and makeup are pretty intense. We wanted to know about the makeup process and the struggles with that? Paul answered “It was hot. You all come out of your air-conditioned trailers in your costume and makeup and everybody’s looking rather like super heroes and movie stars. And then in about naught point 5 minutes later in 105 Atlanta weather, you look a lot less like a movie star.” This had me giggling because you can totally picture this in your mind. Them going from running full speed to a slow motion “chariots of fire” capture. 🙂

Paul continues “Initially you know everybody looks so great. And then you just see people kinda like…you know. It was a lot. Both me and Chadwick have this special suit that goes on underneath. Which pumps ice cold water through it.” I still think that is pretty awesome! I can’t imagine them surviving otherwise! Paul told us that the suit was like being inside of a gin and tonic. “Yes is nice, isn’t it? Close your eyes and imagine being inside a gin and tonic. It feels exactly like that.”.

Because there are so many special effects in the Marvel movies, we wanted to know how much was of it was costume and make up and how much of it was CGI? Paul told us “It’s mostly costume and makeup. And then there’s some sort of circuitry, I don’t know how to describe it. They’re lines. Basically the makeup starts from under my eyes, here. A bald cap that glues here. And then goes all the way under. And then there’s this [stuff] that’s been glued onto my face. And there’s this much of my body out to the open. And what the CG does is continue the lines and circuitry into my eyes.” We asked if he wore contacts and he told us “No, there were no contacts. They stopped short of that.”

We also wanted to know how many hours it took for them to get him in his full costume, full make up to be ready to go. Paul said “Two and a quarter hours. And initially the makeup was somewhere between and hour and a half and 2 hours when everybody’s rusty and they’re starting off again. You know, and then they quickly get it down to about an hour. Which is frankly amazing for the transformation that they achieve. And then the costume is about 45 minutes. So, you really have to plan how you’re hydrating yourself because that’s a 45 minute reset when you — oh, I think I need to, uh…” lol. I can only imagine! What a process – they do such an amazing job on his makeup and costume.

We asked Paul how he personally relates to Vision. He told us “It is like imagining a child, but a naturally clever child who can do anything, almost. And is forced into a situation of having to grow up very quickly. Hasn’t happened to me yet, personally. {said with a smile} But yeah, that’s how I relate”

Since Paul has also directed a movie (‘Shelter’ staring wife Jennifer Connelly and friend Anthony Mackie), we wanted to know how different it is going from being an actor or being director, and if it is hard. He told us “Yeah, and I think more actors should do it. It really gives you much more of a respect for the directors that you work with. And I really enjoyed my own period of being an actor and just enjoying my responsibility because you’re obviously taking care of a much larger picture as the director. And you’re day is just filled with a thousand questions. 99% of which are what color do you want the red shoes to be? What? And then 1% of them being absolutely are one of the triple questions that are gonna make you old. You also begin to know when they’re actually bullshitting you as well. So it’s been amazing. And I loved doing it. And will do it again. I’ll do a comedy next time.

In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jarvis is replaced by a girl voice F.R.I.D.A.Y. (played by Kerry Condon). This continues in Captain America: Civil War. We wanted to know if being the voice of Jarvis for Tony Stark before he became Vision, and then Tony replacing him with a new voice for a woman, does that make him feel betrayed that it’s a woman? Paul answered with “That’s a loaded question.” which had us all laughing! He then goes on to explain “I don’t feel betrayed that it’s a woman at all. I definitely feel melancholic at times. I don’t go, oh, where’s my Jarvis.” Paul is so funny! He had us laughing the whole time.

Since he has been in the movies as Jarvis for a long time and now as Vision, we wanted to know how his kids feel about having a superhero in the house now? He told us “They love it, actually. My daughter met me as the Vision for the first time and I think she was just three. Or maybe just even about to turn three. And she just ran up to me and gave me a hug. She knew entirely who it was. And I had been very worried about what her response would be. And then at the end of the day when I took it all off she had her first ever meltdown. And she went, I want purple daddy, you know? Which, as I’m sure you can all imagine, was a little depressing.”

I was able to ask Paul a question during the interview. Since three of us raised our hands at once, he pointed to us and told me I would be third. When my time to ask the question came, I had stood up to take more pictures, and so I was in the back of the room. He pointed to where I was sitting after someone else raised their hand and he said “Sorry, I’ll come — I’ll come — wait, will you — I- I promised I would go this — oh, no. Where did you go? Do I smell? My- my — what happened?” It was SO FUNNY! He made me laugh and almost forget my question. I asked him what was it like being his voice for all those movies and then finally becoming a character? Paul told me us “Well, I just love it. I mean, it’s a double-edged sword, of course, because,I used to show up for 45 minutes, talk a bit and they’d give me a big bag of cash. Now I gotta got to Atlanta and wear spanks. It’s been so much fun. I loved doing it and I look forward to it when the date is set for the next one. It’s lovely. You meet a bunch of people that you know and it’s like coming back to a family. It’s lovely.” (We asked if he could share the date for the next movie and he said “Oh, I couldn’t do that. Uh, who’s next?” LOL.

He also told us that he can’t confirm or deny the rumors about him being the next James Bond. On a side note we were also supposed to be interviewing Chadwick Boseman who plays Black Panther – but he had a flu and couldn’t make it. I hope he is feeling better! He did an amazing job in the movie.

Towards the end of the interview we had a surprise visit from Captain America himself – Chris Evans. He came in and crashed Paul’s interview and it was so fun to see them interact, and how they played off of each other. Chris was telling us about their photo shoots for a magazine and we couldn’t stop laughing. I am so glad that we were able to experience this!