A daily chronicle of creativity in film, TV, music, arts, and entertainment, produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from November 2014 – March 2020. Host John Horn leads the conversation, accompanied by the nation's most plugged-in cultural journalists.
Paul Bettany has played many roles. He's been a ship's doctor during the Napoleonic wars in "Master and Commander"; a self-flagellating monk in "The Da Vinci Code"; and, most recently, the synthetic superhero, "The Vision," in "Avengers: Age of Ultron." Now he takes on an entirely new role: that of writer and director for the gritty drama, "Shelter."
"Shelter" is the tale of a couple struggling for love while living on the streets of New York City. Hannah, played by Jennifer Connelly, is a homeless drug addict who falls in love with Tahir, played by Anthony Mackie — he's a Muslim Nigerian immigrant whose visa has expired.
Paul Bettany met with The Frame's John Horn to discuss the challenges of making the film. Those ranged from constructing sets that felt safe for Connelly — his wife — to reconciling the seriousness of "Shelter" with the comparatively fluffier fantasies in his repertoire. Bettany began with a story about the inspiration for "Shelter."
When I was thinking about writing a film, Hurricane Sandy happened. There was a couple I used to notice and, I’m ashamed to say, became blind to. They lived outside my building. Then Hurricane Sandy happened and when we finally came back to our house, I never saw them again. I just kept thinking about them and I had the instinct to write. I thought maybe a love story on the streets of New York City would be an interesting template with which to discuss judgment. We do have an interesting response to homelessness when we see it.
You're intentional in focusing your cameras on the haves and have-nots. There’s a scene where Hannah and Tahir move into this house. They try to pretend for a moment that they’re like most people we know and spend time with. They’re close to having a normal life but they cannot achieve it.
The idea for that Goldilocks act came because an agent — who will remain nameless — said, "Paul, you can’t write a romance about a homeless couple. Nobody wants to see them kiss." And I thought, What a repugnant thing to say, and ghastly thought to have.
But let me address it, and put them in a place where they look more like the people you might spend time with. The whole purpose of this — the most gratifying bit of this and the screening process — is the amount of people that come up afterwards or email me or call me weeks after seeing it and say, I look at homeless people in a different way now.
I want to talk about your wife, Jennifer Connelly. Her character, Hannah, has to do some really difficult things. Degrading things — sexually and physically.
I realized there were some potentially really humiliating scenes for her to go through. I surrounded her with a quite female-heavy crew . . . I wanted her to feel as protected and as safe as she could within the parameters of what the scenes were asking her to do. So, often, the only male in the room was me. And [when] people see the film, they’ll understand why.
I think that she felt very safe and protected. That doesn’t stop it from being distressing. While she had no way to trust me as a director — because she had no frame of reference, I hadn’t directed anything before — she really trusted that she could kick the s--t out of me for the next 20 years if I messed it up.
You’ve talked about how homeless people are either invisible or not really in focus. You must have a very different perspective on invisibility, because as an actor you have none. Do you think that changes how you see invisibility in others?
I really don’t know. Mainly because I try to ignore it as much as I can in my life . . . What I’ve noticed, in my mid-40s, and having had a 20-odd year career now, is that in the ebbs-and-flows of success and fame, that [invisibility] ebbs and flows with it — the amount of focus on you. Your jokes are funnier when you’re on the up. And I am suspicious of all of that now.
You’ve made a movie that’s very personal to you, that you hope has some meaning in the larger world. That changes the way people see an issue and see other people. And you move from that to like, your next big "Avengers" movie. How do you reconcile those two things?
It’s really simple. What I’ve realized is that I love telling stories, so at one level it is all that. And these ["Avengers"] movies . . . are incredibly fun to make. You’re working with incredibly imaginative people who are doing this version of filmmaking at the top of their game. And I adore the experience of working with other people to tell a story. It’s a lovely way to get up, and it’s a lovely thing to do with your day — to work together on a puzzle.
Even if that story is unimportant in the larger sense of the world?
I would argue that ["Avengers"] has a huge audience. And they’re beginning to talk about some interesting ideas. Like, if you’re protecting your loved ones or your country at the expense of your own humanity, then is that protecting them?
I think now with the new series ["Captain America: Civil War"], that the story’s getting really intriguing. Something’s being played out. I wonder what it is. It’s a peculiarly American phenomenon. I used to think maybe it was ... like America’s version of Greek gods, or some sort of mythology they’re building up.
I think that Marvel is doing a really good job at introducing some edgy questions.
"Shelter" opens in theaters on Nov. 13.