Paul Bettany is a Vision in the Bathtub

Welcome to Thirstory, where we whet your appetite with pages from the Interview archive that were almost too hot to print. It’s been less than a week since WandaVision’s finale and we’re incapable of exaggerating when we say how much we miss our favorite synthezoid. Here, we’re time hopping back to Paul Bettany’s December/January 2004 feature. 

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Lucy and Ricky. Corey and Topanga. Angel and Lil Papi. The small screen has been a cornucopia for iconic couplings since the advent of TV, and a new romantic pairing has risen among the ranks. Unless you’ve been trapped under a rock since that fatal battle scene in Avengers: Endgame, you’ll know that Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest offering, WandaVision, has solidified streaming’s newest couple du jour. Since the show’s debut on Disney+ in January, no one expected to be so swept up in the quirky chemistry between a witch and a synthezoid, yet the infatuation is real. Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda and actor Paul Bettany’s Vision make for the most alluring duo—likely due in part to the pair’s vivacious (and very platonic) offscreen friendship. Robot jokes aside, the role of Vision seems to have been specially built for Paul Bettany, who, in and out of his bionic facade and fluctuating through the show’s ever-evolving eras, seems to be having the time of his life. As he told his friend and fellow actor Stellan Skarsgård in Interview’s December/January 2004 issue, Bettany lives for change. “There’s always a fight, but I’ve been lucky people have allowed me to do lots of different stuff, because acting the same character every time would make me feel like a monkey.” As an android with an indestructible head and a charming British accent, the crimson-colored character is, dare we say it, hot. Hidden in his human guise, he’s even more so. In fact, Paul Bettany is hot whether he’s suited up in the ‘50s, donning bell-bottoms in the ’70s, rocking power bangs in the ’80s, and here, lying in the bathtub.