Do not adjust your television sets – you are really having double vision. Marvel Studios’ season finale WandaVision, “The Series Finale,” features a second, The Vision, and this was sent to New Jersey City to counter the threats there, namely Wanda Maximoff and Vision. It also brings to an end a long-running joke that Paul Bettany has been making in the past few weeks, provoking a “surprise actor” with whom he would share “explosive scenes”.
It turns out it was Paul Bettany all the time.
“I have said in interviews that I am hoping to work with this actor,” Bettany explained to Marvel.com with a laugh. “[I’ve been saying,] ‘There is a surprise play in the cast with this brilliant and incredible actor that I miss working with. And we have to go toe-to-toe in these really explosive scenes. ‘And it was me! “
Episode 9 involves a climactic battle high above Westview, culminating in Vision vs. The Vision. They are exchanging punches and explosions, trying to dominate each other and stop the fight. Eventually, the battle returns to the ground as the two enter the library. It is only then that the Vision we have known and loved over the years is able to reason with The Vision, and the two have a conversation – from synthetic to synthetic.
On screen it looks completely perfect, with Bettany easily getting in and out of the character in both Visions. But, behind the scenes, he found the process really intimidating, not just the character itself, but also playing it.
“To differentiate the two characters in a way that doesn’t just seem superficial … I mean, of course, one is purple and the other is white, so you have that going for you,” he explained. “But I wanted [The Vision] be familiar and, at the same time, kind of intimidating. And for some reason, I was really intimidated by the idea. I postponed dealing with it because I knew we would only be filming later. I was letting some ideas infiltrate because it has a very fast arc where Vision needs to go. He has a big change ahead of him. I was really scared of that! “
Filming the fight scene in the air and the scene in which the two Visions discuss the Ship of Theseus required Bettany to learn several pages of the script for the two characters, with her stunt double entering the scene to work in front of him on the set.
“I have to learn his side in the fight. He would have to learn my side, and then we would switch. It was all very confusing, ”continued Bettany. “And so it was very confusing with – I don’t know, it must be a three-, four-page dialogue scene, which is [a lot]. We had a great scene together. I couldn’t learn. I’m good at learning lines. I couldn’t learn. And then I realized, ‘Oh, I’m trying to learn both at the same time.’ “
Taking a step back, Bettany realized that she had to “learn from the point of view of the Vision and then relearn from the point of view of the Vision because things become so much easier … learn when you understand why the person is saying it and what she wants. And I realized that I couldn’t learn because I had these two opposing goals and desires in my head. And it was just impossible. “
In short, Bettany summed it up with a laugh: “I was super intimidated by myself”.
Playing two characters also meant that Bettany was alternating days like them, allowing him to try to keep things in mind.
“I would arrive one day and it would be the Vision or The Vision,” he explained. “So Adam [Lytle], my stuntman, would play Vision. And he learned all the dialogue and for both parties – he was brilliant. We would do the scene like this. And then, the next day, he would enter. And he would get The Vision. Then I would get vision. And then we did the scene like this and just like the fights so that they would always have mine Bella Faccia on the camera, at some point. It was more confusing than I had planned. It used my whole brain. “
In the end, what viewers see is a stunning scene shared between two views.
All episodes of Marvel Studios’ WandaVision are now being broadcast on Disney +.
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