Paul Bettany has joked his Oscar-winning wife Jennifer Connelly is “quite good" at acting.
The British star is currently shooting film Transcendence with Johnny Depp in Los Angeles.
Paul is looking forward to his next project, which will involve him working alongside Jennifer.
“I should be directing a movie I wrote, called Shelter,” Paul told UK newspaper The Guardian about his next project. “It's a homeless love story, set on the streets of Manhattan. And my wife is going to be in it, which is nice. She's quite good at the acting.”
Paul admitted he’s got no idea how well he’ll do taking on the director’s role. The thespian has worked under the direction of legendary industry figures such as Lars von Trier in the past. His experience of making films such as Dogville and the Iron Man franchise, has taught him what he doesn’t want to be like behind the camera.
“Oh God, I guess we'll find out. I know how I'm not going to do it,” he explained. “More and more, as an actor, I come on set from the trailer with very little preparation. For the most part, directors have lost faith in actors. Here is what used to happen: You got picked up in the morning and taken to your trailer. You got some coffee and then went and rehearsed the scene with just the director and the first assistant director. That time was written into the schedule. They would figure out how they were going to cover the action and you were part of the process. All sorts of ideas would come out of that discussion.”
Paul continued to state how things have changed since the early days of his film career. He believes acting should be an organic experience that happens naturally during shooting, rather than something set in rigid constraints.
“Now, when I come in, the camera is all set up and they have some body-double who looks vaguely like me sitting there already. And I have no f**king idea what's going on,” he fumed. “The assumption is that the work has all been done in the dialogue. But that leaves no room for discovery, and no room for the happy accident. Some people can adapt to that, but I find it very trapping and confining. It puts fences around the actors in a way that never used to happen.”
The 42-year-old finished by praising a recent film he saw which achieved results he admired. Paul hopes to mirror a similar trust between the director and star when he begins working with Jennifer.
“I was watching The Panic in Needle Park recently. I mean, there's not much plot in that film and yet it feels so alive. There's a wildness to it, and that's mainly thanks to Al Pacino,” he gushed. “But the film-makers trusted him and gave him room to breathe. That's what I want to do as a director.”
