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Paul Bettany Had to Improvise Avengers’ Most Tragic Scene (While Elizabeth Olsen Laughed)

Paul Bettany Had to Improvise Avengers’ Most Tragic Scene (While Elizabeth Olsen Laughed)
Image credit: Disney+, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

It was the hardest to watch as well.

Summary:

  • Avengers: Infinity War ( 2018) is a penultimate movie of the MCU Avengers franchise.
  • In the film's devastating finale, half of the characters are wiped out by Thanos.
  • Paul Bettany's Vision died twice during the movie, and his last moments on screen were completely improvised.

A good script is one of the most important things at the foundation of any movie. If the script is well-crafted and the writers are on the set to quickly correct small imperfections, the final product turns out to be just as strong.

However, sometimes the best and most memorable moments of a movie or TV series are the improvisations of the actors. Approved by the director, improvised scenes often find their way into the running time and steal the hearts of the audience.

There are only a few topics that can make even an experienced actor stuck when asked to improvise on, but death is one of them. To play death on screen must be one of the most difficult challenges, as it is something you don’t fully understand until you actually go through it.

Avengers Improvised Death Scene

Paul Bettany Had to Improvise Avengers’ Most Tragic Scene (While Elizabeth Olsen Laughed) - image 1

Although Avengers: Infinity War's finale was a perfect opportunity for half the cast to explore it, as their characters were wiped from the universe, one actor in particular had it worse than anyone else on set. Portraying an artificial intelligence’s death is likely to be one of the biggest challenges of a career.

Paul Bettany, who portrayed the Vision in Marvel's preeminent franchise, recalled being asked to improvise his character's final moment in an interview with Collider:

“The Russo Brothers came up to us and said, “Hey, listen, can you just improvise this scene?” And I go, “What? Improvise being a robot getting killed?” I've got no frame of reference! And Lizzie was just laughing at it, and we’re so relaxed with each other that… I don’t know how it would’ve worked other than that,” he shared.

Fortunately, the bond that Bettany and Olsen had already established at that point was enough to carry both actors through the toughest scenes they had to share on set. Vision's death, along with the overall devastating Avengers: Infinity War finale, was considered one of the most dramatic moments of the entire franchise.

Of course, the amazing chemistry between the actors and their ability to work off each other had a chance to shine even brighter in their joint series WandaVision, which was released in 2021.

If you are nostalgic for the duo and want to see them back together on your screen, you can stream the show on Disney Plus.

Source: Collider