If you say no, at that point you should go, 'I should just get on a plane and go home.' That's quite a lot of things that are already right about it.'ДЄdd a cast led by Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Ian McKellen, a lurid hunt for the Holy Grail and a religious firestorm over author Dan Brown's speculations that Christ and Mary Magdalene were married, and Bettany found himself at the center of one of Hollywood's most anticipated productions.Д«ettany said he had avoided reading 'The Da Vinci Code' partly out of 'some ghastly English snobbery. 'What was going on in my head was, monk-assassin, Ron Howard, 40 million copies sold. 'I took about nought-point-two seconds to answer, and said yes,' Bettany said. Though Bettany had not yet read 'The Da Vinci Code,' the role was an easy sell when Howard called. Bettany met Connelly on the film, which earned her the supporting-actress Academy Award.

The British actor, who turns 35 on May 27, was offered the role of albino monk-assassin Silas after previously working with director Ron Howard on 'A Beautiful Mind,' in which he played a phantom buddy to Russell Crowe's schizophrenic character. I wondered what's that sort of like? So I tried one, and then wanted to keep going on trying new things. 'Like with 'Wimbledon,' I'd never been in a romantic comedy before. 'Just out of boredom, that's why you really do it,' Bettany told The Associated Press in Los Angeles before heading to the Cannes Film Festival, where 'The Da Vinci Code' was picked as the opening night film. LOS ANGELES - Geographically, Paul Bettany has just arrived from London and Barcelona, where he was doing press for 'The Da Vinci Code,' after time in Mozambique and elsewhere in Africa, where wife Jennifer Connelly is shooting a film.ДЄrtistically, Bettany has arrived at the role of pop literature's most notorious albino after stints as a bestial gangster, a Napoleonic era ship's surgeon, a lovesick tennis player, Geoffrey Chaucer and an imaginary friend.ДЄ renaissance man? An actor with eclectic tastes? An artist determined not to repeat himself?

Paul bettany the da vinci code