Paul Bettany reveals startling words 'Avengers: Infinity War' directors told him before death scene
Warning: Avengers: Infinity War spoilers included, but you really should have seen it by now.
Avengers: Infinity War has been out for almost three months now — and will soon be available on Blu-ray and digital — which means the film’s cast can finally talk about the Marvel film’s shocking finale and high body count.
At San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, actors Paul Bettany and Pom Klementieff talked to Yahoo Entertainment about filming the death scenes of Vision and Mantis, respectively.
“That particular day, I’m there with Lizzie [Elizabeth Olsen, who plays Scarlet Witch] — we’re about to do this difficult scene,” Bettany recalled. “It’s 100 degrees, it’s Atlanta, I’m sweating my makeup off, and [directors] Anthony and Joe Russo come up to us and say, ‘OK, so the whole emotional heart of the movie is on your shoulder. Roll!'”
After the first take, the Russo brothers suggested Bettany and Olsen improvise their own take on his demise, which had Thanos forcefully ripping the Infinity Stone from his forehead. “I’m thinking, ‘Well, I’m a robot, and she’s a witch, how are we gonna improvise this?’ So we went away and we worked it out.”
Klementieff, who plays Mantis in the Guardians of the Galaxy crew, also tried multiple options when it came to her vanishing.
“We did different versions,” she said. “It’s fun. You go like, ‘I’m gonna fall this way, then I’m gonna fall this way, then it’s gonna be faster.’ And then you trust the CGI to make it cool.”
As for whether Vision and Mantis (and a host of other ill-fated Avengers) are truly gone forever, fans are rightfully suspicious, especially considering that the dead/disappeared included folks like Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and most of the Guardians, who have already-planned standalone films on the horizon (Klementieff, for example, confirmed to Yahoo she’s working on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, though that film is now in need of a director following James Gunn’s firing on Friday).
Regardless of Vision’s fate, it’s been a longer than expected journey for Bettany, who was involved in the MCU from its very first movie, Iron Man (2008), in which he had a voice role as Tony Stark’s cyber-pal J.A.R.V.I.S.
“Jon Favreau called me up — we had made a movie together called Wimbledon, and he said, ‘Look, I’m doing this movie called Iron Man.’ I didn’t know what that was,” the actor admitted with a chuckle before continuing Favreau’s pitch: “‘The character [is] this computer, this A.I., and I need the voice of somebody with absolutely no personality whatsoever. And you came into my head.'”
The voice gig was a low-stress, high-reward job for Bettany.
“I had a laugh coming in, getting paid too much money to talk for 45 minutes and solve a lot of problems. Everybody loves you because you’re solving problems just before it goes into [theaters]. If the CG hasn’t worked, you can just have J.A.R.V.I.S. go, ‘The bad guys are coming!’ And you’re done. So everybody’s super-happy with what you do, and then they gave you a big bag of cash and you go home like a pirate.”
Avengers: Infinity War will be released digitally July 31 and on Blu-ray Aug. 14.
Watch the Infinity War cast talk about keeping the film’s secrets:
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