The Showbiz Gospel According to Paul

BEVERLY HILLS, California — “No,” smiles Paul Bettany, the versatile British actor who gained fame on the London stage and British television before he conquered Hollywood with his head-turning performances first in A Knight’s Tale and then in a series of films that his mere presence helped light up, including A Beautiful Mind and Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World (both with Russell Crowe), The Da Vinci Code, Legion and, recently, The Tourist (with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie). “No, it’s not just another vampire movie.”

We are at a function room (as usual) of Four Seasons and we’re talking about Priest, also directed by Scott Charles Stewart like Legion for which I sat with Bettany early last year for our first interview.

Done in 3D based on a Korean manhwa (comic book) by Min-Woo Hyung, Priest is set in an alternate world, one ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest, played by Bettany, from the last Vampire War who now lives in obscurity among the downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church. When Priest’s niece (played by Lily Collins who co-starred with Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side for which Bullock won a Best Actress Oscar) is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on an obsessive quest to find her before they turn her into one of them. Priest is joined on his crusade by his niece’s boyfriend (played by Sam Gigandet), a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess (Maggie Q) who possesses otherworldly fighting skills. Priest also stars Karl Urban as the villain Black Hat and Christopher Plummer (fondly remembered as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music) as a ruthless despot who holds the cities in an iron grip.

Turning 40 on May 27, Bettany has been married to Jennifer Connelly for eight years (they’re expecting their third child). They met on the set of A Beautiful Mind in 2000 and worked again on Creation last year as Dr. and Mrs. Charles Darwin, and then in Inkheart.

Distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International, Priest opens in the Philippines on Wednesday, May 11.

As Warrior Priest in a story set in an alternate world ravaged by centuries of wars between man and vampires

How is playing the title role in Priest different from your previous roles including as a comical Chaucer in A Knight’s Tale (with the late Heath Ledger as topbiller), the imaginary roommate of Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind (which won for Bettany the London’s Film Critic’s Award for Best British Actor), the albino assassin Silas in The Da Vinci Code, the serial killer in Red Dragon (with Edward Norton and Anthony Hopkins) and as Archangel Michael in Legion?

“Legion was a small film, shot mostly in one room. Legion is about forgiveness and Priest is about revenge and fury. The story is classic. It’s like a Greek tragedy. The scope of Priest is much larger, we have more action and we have more money to make the film; the special effects are more spectacular and the explosions are bigger. Everything is bigger! And the character is new to me. I’ve never been afforded the opportunity to play a stoic, silent hero who is full of rage but never expresses it.”

And you did all your stunts, I heard.

“No, not all but lots of them. In one scene, I was on a motorbike alongside a train and I had to stand up and jump onto it. I thought, what on earth am I doing? But it dawned on me that I trained for nine months to get physically fit enough for the job. I really wanted to do as much of the action as I could. When you’re up on wires, it’s like being a kid again. I would be lying if I said that wasn’t one of the reasons I became an actor.””

Is that how far you would go, taking all the risks, in your desire to be credible and convincing in your performance?

“It’s an action movie and I wanted the experience and I was wondering if you are making an action movie and you’re not doing the action, so what are you getting paid for? There’s a risk of injury, but everybody on the set, including experts of their job, is trying to keep you safe so there’s nothing to worry about.”

Did you train for Priest maybe much harder than you did for your previous movies?

“Yes, I did. I trained for nine months in the gymnasium and I did a lot of wire work and acrobatics and mixed martial arts.”

It’s ironic that you are playing a priest when, in an interview with New York magazine, you revealed that you’re an atheist (although, according to his profile, he was raised a Roman Catholic by his parents, Anne Kettle, a stage singer, theater teacher and stage manager; and Thane Bettany, a dancer, actor and drama teacher).

“I mean, I don’t believe in a God that is conscious of us but I believe absolutely in a creative force in the universe. I think anybody would be stupid not to. I’m not sure that that creative force is in any way conscious of us.”

You’re married to an actress. Isn’t there some kind of a professional jealousy or rivalry between the two of you, which is common among showbiz couples?

“She’s unlikely to play the same parts that I do. But if she stole Priest from me, then I might be jealous.” (Laughs)

How do you keep a balance between being an actor and being a family man?

“They hardly ever collide. It’s a fantastic job if you are able to remember to go home and stay home. Some people just work back to back to back to back, and in 20 years they realize that somebody else has raised their children. I don’t want that to happen. I want to see my children grow up. I want to experience the joy of being a father, which is the most important thing.”

Have you ever worked with a Filipino actor or maybe an Asian actor?

“Yes, of course. Maggie Q. She’s half-American and half-Vietnamese. In this movie, she gave me so much advice. You know, she’s a stunt aficionado. Her action movies attest to that. She’s extraordinary in this movie. She’s very good at kicking ass and a fine actress, too.”

If you were to play a real person, who would that be?

“You know what, I never want to say these things because I don’t want to jinx it. Every time I’m asked, ‘What actors and characters would you like to work with?’ and I say, ‘I’d like to work with so and so,’ most of the time it doesn’t happen. So I have a superstition about this thing.”

I read somewhere that you were offered to play King George VI in The King’s Speech and the role eventually went to Colin Firth who won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance. Didn’t you have any regret not doing the role?

“Do I regret making any decision? The answer is no. I just finished making Priest four and a half months away from my family. They’d come out to see me but I didn’t get the chance to see them. I’m not home so much and when I’m away it’s so stressful for my children, I think. What I really would regret is in 20 years time, I’d look at my children and realize that somebody else has raised them. That’s one regret that I’m terrified of rather than turning down an occasional film. And, let’s be clear. Colin Firth was amazing in the movie. He did a really great job, an incredibly powerful performance.”

And what role would you not play?

“What role would I not play? I don’t know. I wouldn’t know until that role came up.”

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Bettany (rightmost) with (from left) co-stars Stephen Moyer (TV’s True Blood), Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings), director Scott Charles Stewart, Sam Gigandet and Maggie Q