PAUL BETTANY has been wowing theatre goers and independent movie fans for years, but it took his buttock-baring turn as Chaucer, in 2001’s A Knight’s Tale, for Hollywood “big-wigs” to sit up and take notice.
He now cites roles in The Da Vinci Code and Oscar-winning movies A Beautiful Mind, where he met his wife Jennifer Connelly, and Master And Commander among his impressive resumé.
But his latest role has proved his most daunting yet.
In Creation, Bettany plays the revolutionary scientist Charles Darwin, the author of arguably the most explosive book in history, On the Origin of Species.
Published 150 years ago, the book was a culmination of more than 20 years of research inspired by his travels as a young man.
In it, he revealed a scientific explanation for the diversity of species, including the evolution of man, and forever changed the way we view our place in the world.
Creation is based on Annie’s Box, a book written by Darwin’s great-great grandson, Randal Keynes.
In it, we see Darwin as a young and vibrant family man – albeit one whose mental and physical health gradually buckles under the weight of guilt and grief for a lost child, his beloved ten-year-old daughter, Annie.
A man torn between his love for his deeply religious wife and his own growing belief in a world where God has no place, Darwin even wrote that, by effectively “killing” God, he felt like he was “confessing a murder”.
So there’s much to talk about as I prepare to interview the 38-year-old actor at the Royal Institute of Great Britain.
Opening a door, I step into a grand but dimly-lit room. There is shelf upon shelf of books. but no sign of Mr Bettany, so I take a seat and only then do I notice the soles of two feet hanging off the end of a line of chairs.
“Um . . . Paul,” the PR says gently and a rather tired and bewildered looking Bettany pops his head up.
It turns out Bettany is feeling rather poorly and admits he only got an hour’s sleep the night before but, ever the professional, he takes his seat under the spotlight and ploughs on with the interview.
