Paul Bettany is one of the most underrated actors working today. He's one of those guys that is actually in a variety of films, -- as a tennis pro, a legendary poet, an albino monk, and the voice of a supercomputer, to name a few – but he's not instantly recognisable. However, I believe he's one of Britain's finest actors, and with Transcendence on the horizon, I think it's about time we look at his previous work.
Offering an imagined peek into the writing of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales – with a classic rock soundtrack, plenty of jousting action, and a heaping stack of anachronisms in the bargain – A Knight's Tale brought Bettany to Hollywood after he rose through the ranks of British television and cinema. He provides a wickedly funny turn Geoffrey Chaucer, who, for some unknown reason, spends most of his time naked and wildly drunk. He's definitely the brightest spark of the film, even pushing the almighty Heath Ledger aside.
Yes, Paul Bettany is in one of the most successful films of all time. He plays JARVIS, Tony Stark's wonderfully sarcastic and hilarious super computer that can give as good as he gets. In some scenes, Bettany's British accent is the perfect compliment to Robert Downey Jr. They have great chemistry and in Iron Man, he provides some of the most memorable scenes. And with Bettany set to play VISION, it looks like the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a lot in store for Bettany, and deservedly so.
Ah, Wimbledon. Wimbledon is probably the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. If you haven't seen it, I'm very surprised because it's on at least once a week on ITV. How do I know this? Because I absolutely LOVE it. Bettany is fantastic as the down on his luck tennis pro, and he has great chemistry with Kirsten Dunst. If you haven't seen Wimbledon, you have to! It's the best/worst film ever.
Patrick O'Brian's long-running Aubrey-Maturin series of books, about the friendship between a pair of officers in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic War, reached American screens with this 2003 epic, which distilled storylines from a number of the books to create a two-hour-plus epic.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World finds Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and Dr. Stephen Maturin (Bettany) piloting the HMS Surprise in pursuit of the French privateer craft Acheron -- a mission far more dangerous, and more grueling, than anyone expected. At 138 minutes, Commander could have been a tough slog too, but under Peter Weir's direction -- and with Crowe and Bettany holding the spotlight -- it was smooth sailing
Before they sailed the seven seas in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Bettany and Russell Crowe co-starred in the Oscar-winning adaptation of Sylvia Nasar's book about the life of Nobel-winning mathematician John Nash. As Nash's college roommate Charles Herman, Bettany provided a sunny ray of well-adjusted light amidst Nash's increasingly clouded, paranoid judgment, helping ground the hit drama.