by Brad Balfour

G21 Contributing Editor

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NEW YORK, NY, USA - Judging by actor Paul Bettany's conduct during this interview as his two latest films, "The Reckoning" and "Dogville," are being released, he doesn't take stardom too seriously. With the quips flying faster than the hardcore actorial philosophy, Bettany contrasts his light-hearted offscreen behavior with his weighty screen roles -- ranging from being a foil to Russell Crowe twice (as his imaginary pal in "A Beautiful Mind" and his trusty doctor in "Master and Commander") to being Chaucer (in "A Knight's Tale"). Through his work in Ron Howard's Oscar winning film he gained not only an audience but a wife, co-star Jennifer Connelly. Now with a first child, Bettany is not only challenged by the dialogue between art and commerce but fatherhood as well.

G21: "DOGVILLE" WAS REPORTEDLY A REALLY THOROUGH SHOOT. WAS IT WORTH IT?

PAUL BETTANY: I thought it was an extraordinary coup [for director Lars Von Trier] to pull off, because everyone in the film is repugnant. To make you sit through three and a half hours or however long it is, I think is an extraordinary coup. And to be drawn into that without anything behind you is amazing, as there were almost no sets. I don't know why I doubted it, bearing in mind it's got Ben Gazzara, Lauren Bacall, Stellan Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, all these incredible actors in it. It's a real marvel. It's difficult, but it's a real marvel, I think.

G21: WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO "THE RECKONING"?

PAUL BETTANY: My difficulty with my mortgage. No. What attracted me to the script? I'd made a film with Paul McGuigan before. He's a wonderful director to work for. I read the book by Barry Unsworth, Morality Play, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. It's a marvelous book and incredibly difficult to make a film out of. So I thought, "What the hell?" It's a challenge to make. The conceit is that it's all hung on a whodunit. It's a film about morality and the birth of modern drama, and as you can imagine, that's quite a difficult thing to make a film out of.

G21: YOU AND MCGUIGAN HAVE WORKED TOGETHER BEFORE. HAS HE EVOLVED AS A FILMMAKER AND HAS YOUR WORKING RELATIONSHIP CHANGED?

PAUL BETTANY: I adore Paul. He made a film called "The Acid House", but essentially that was three short movies. He made his first feature film and I did my first leading part [with him]. We made that film together as a nervous young filmmaker and actor. It was his first movie and he had carte blanche to cast whoever he wanted, and I love him for risking it with me. He was going to be a priest at one point in his life. And his films, even "Gangster No. 1", are made with such kindness. He's a kind, beautiful man.

G21: YOU'VE DONE HISTORICAL FILMS BACK TO BACK NOW.

PAUL BETTANY: The main difference, of course, is that the context is a little more difficult to discover and convey. This film lives and dies with understanding that it's a time where there's no separation between church and state. That's a really hard thing for people to grasp. If you're playing Macbeth, there are not many people in the world left to go to who understand what it's like to be a feudal warlord. There's no separation between the church and the state, which means that if you're excommunicated you can't live a happy atheist life - like I am. Nobody will talk to you and that's the end of your life in terms of being socially interactive with people. That's the really difficult thing about setting your film in the past, is really understanding what's important.

G21: WHEN YOU DO A FILM WITH A MAJOR STUDIO BEHIND IT, IT GETS A LOT OF SUPPORT. WHEN YOU DO A SMALLER ONE WITH A LIMITED BUDGET AND LOWER PROFILE WHAT DO YOU THINK -- ESPECIALLY NOW THAT YOUR STAR IS THERE?

PAUL BETTANY: You become part of the problem if you start thinking like that. I made a film called "The Heart of Me", which has two really amazing performances in it, mine ... No -- Helena Bonham Carter and Olivia Williams are extraordinary in it. When I walked the red carpet at the premiere here [in NYC] , the whole side of this skyscraper had "X-Men 2" on it. It's just like, "How can you fucking compete?" You can't.

People don't seek out films anymore. They wait to be told what to see. "Master and Commander" is a Peter Weir film. It's got a battle at the beginning, a battle at the end, a storm in the middle, but in between is this art house movie. It cost $135 million. But then you've got Rupert Murdoch, who will spray cash at the problem. "The Heart of Me" and "The Reckoning" don't have somebody to spray inordinate amounts of cash to entice people into the cinema. It's a really frightening thought as an actor. You can find yourself working 10 years to get somewhere you have no intention of being suddenly, unless you're careful. So yes, it worries me that they won't get seen, but it doesn't mean I'm going to stop making them.

G21: YOUR FILM [WITH RELIGIOUS THEMES] CAME OUT AS "THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST" IS HITTING SO BIG. THAT'S AN INTERESTING CONTRAST...

PAUL BETTANY: As a fundamental atheist, I find the whole hoo-ha about it ["The Passion of the Christ"] extraordinary. I must go and see it to try to understand. I can comprehend that for people who see "The Passion of the Christ" as a visceral experience that actually happened, for Jews and Christians alike, it must be very controversial. All I can think, having watched the circus of the last few weeks, is that [Mel] must just be going, "Yes! Thank you!"

G21: PEOPLE THINK THAT "THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST" IS, LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY, THE GOSPEL WHEN IT COMES TO JESUS' LAST HOURS.

PAUL BETTANY: But those people are dumb. What are you going to do? I don't know. I suppose that if you are purporting to be telling the truth it's frightening. You see a film like "The Patriot", which completely rewrites history, and that's frightening, but I don't see it as history. My reason is very simple: I don't believe in Father Christmas and it seems to me a much easier task to deliver presents to children throughout the world on one night than creating an entire universe. One seems easier than the other, and yet I'm told that Father Christmas doesn't exist, which is really irritating.

G21: WHERE DO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY CALL HOME -- NEW YORK OR LONDON?

PAUL BETTANY: Do you work for Immigration? We split our time pretty fairly between London and New York. They're two extraordinary cities, so it's sort of fabulous. It's hard to call anywhere home. At the moment we're in Toronto. She's making a film called "Dark Water" and I'm looking after the baby, which is just fantastic.

G21: DO YOU LOOK FOR JOBS CLOSER TO HOME OR JUST TAKE THE BABY AND GO TO WHATEVER LOCATION?

PAUL BETTANY: We're going to try to and do one on and one off. Traveling is an incredibly rich environment for a kid. It's such nonsense, to talk about stability. Why? I know loads of people from the estate that I grew up in who turned out to be complete thugs, and they lived there all their lives. They went to the same school and had complete continuity and are complete criminals now. I also know a lot of people who spent their lives like gypsies and are incredibly rich, well-rounded and lovely people.

G21: WOULD WORKING WITH JENNIFER AGAIN BE A BOON OR BUST?

PAUL BETTANY: I would love it. But America has a real problem with couples working together. They really hate it. "Gigli" aside - Vincent Cassell and Monica Bellucci work together a lot and there doesn't seem to be an issue with it. People go and see their movies. There's a certain fantasy of the audience here: "Oh, did they get together?" And when they are together, people say, "Well, I don't want to see Paul up there on the screen, for Christ's sake. What do we care?" It's like gunning for people. The only way to do it is to go the Burton-Taylor route and do something where you just loathe each other. So if we can find something where we enormously irritate each other the whole time we'll do that.

G21: DO YOU THINK THE ARTS HAVE TOO MUCH INFLUENCE ON OUR CULTURE?

PAUL BETTANY: In England, it's just obscene. We have "The Ultimate Celebrity" and "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here". You sit there and watch this and I can feel my brain atrophying. I'm becoming more stupid by the second. "I must end it now, I must" [he makes a gun of his fingers and puts the "barrel" in his mouth]. Kuuush! [gun goes off, head snaps back]. It's going to be such an indictment of our culture. There should be a mass burning of reality TV shows. There really should be.

G21: DO YOU THINK OF YOURSELF AS ANTI-CELEBRITY?

PAUL BETTANY: Look at this film. There's a bunch of actors who are complete outcasts and now their opinions and words are hung on. Frankly, we get paid too much money to dress up in other people's clothes. And people actually listen to what we have to say about things. It's all a bit frightening.

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