Avengers: Infinity War was a huge movie with a lot of moving parts. While one would expect filming a movie like this would be difficult, Paul Bettany says his big scene was especially complicated. Much of the film is dedicated to trying to save his character of Vision, and the relationship he has with Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch. The actor admits that there was a lot of pressure riding on the pair, mostly thanks to the Russo Brothers, and they had trouble finding the best way to play the scene. According to Bettany...
Well it was about 100 degrees and we were really, really sweaty, and the Russo brothers ran over to us and went, 'So the entire beating heart of the movie is now on your shoulders. And then they went, 'roll the camera.' So we did it a couple of times and they said, 'OK, that's great, let's just improvise it now,' and you know I just sort of looked at Lizzy and she looks at me and I thought, 'I'm a robot, and you're a witch, how are we gonna do this?' We went off and just wrote some stuff together and then we came back in. You know, it's a lot in isolation.
While the majority of Avengers: Infinity War deals with massive action sequences on alien planets and gems that form the basis of existence, in the end, the story comes down to two characters who love each other being forced to confront a terrible decision. They've been fighting for the entire movie to prevent the Scarlet Witch from having to kill Vision as the only way to stop Thanos, but when the plan fails, she must do the unthinkable.
While the Russo Brothers certainly put a lot on the shoulders of Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen, they weren't actually wrong that "the entire beating heart" of the movie depended on them. If you're not emotionally invested in what happens to them, then the rest of it simply doesn't work. Of course, even Paul Bettany admits to MTV that getting an audience invested in the moment was difficult, because of all the fantastical elements going on that had the potential to take the audience out of the reality.
You know, it's a lot in isolation of the rest of the plot even. And you're purple. And you've got a jewel and your head. And she's going to destroy it. And you're imagining red things coming out of her fingers, yet you're also sort of trying to find some reality in all of this... I think we were both when it was done, kind of like, 'Oh, let's go home.
It sounds like the entire experience was exhausting for both actors. One can only imagine what the future has in store. While both Vision and Scarlet Witch appear to have died at the end of Avengers: Infinity War the fact is we simply have no idea what's really going to happen next. Will they be reunited in Avengers 4 in a moment as heartwarming as the previous scene was heartbreaking? We'll find out next may.
