(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Helming his first movie Shelter Paul Bettany shares his inspiration behind the film and why it wasnt right to star in it
He wrote it he directed it and was supposed to star in it however when the time came to roll the cameras Paul Bettany known for his previous onscreen roles in A Beautiful Mind and Master and Commander decided he should remain firmly behind them. His gritty drama Shelter has recently been doing the festival rounds garnering much praise along the way. And it’s easy to see why. Main characters Hannah (Jennifer Connelly) and Tahir (Anthony Mackie) come from two different worlds yet both find themselves homeless on the streets of New York. Hannah is a drug addict. Tahir is a Muslim Nigerian immigrant whose visa has expired. Their blossoming relationship against the backdrop of deprivation poverty and prejudice is a tour de force. Directing his wife in the role of Hannah Bettany revealed he required someone he trusted completely to take on such a complex character. Here he tells us more about the movie which he has now brought to the 11th Dubai International Film Festival. Why did you take yourself out of the film Do you believe it isn’t possible to act and direct at the same time I think some people can. I didn’t feel confident enough to put myself in and take on making my first film. It was enough of a job directing. I was raising capital for the movie. It seemed sensible as a producer to put myself in it and then my best decision was to fire myself.
Do you as an actor now have more respect for directors I have more and less respect for directors since doing it. I have more respect in that I will never ask a director a difficult question as the sun is going down but I will also call directors out on their bulls*** when I can sense it.
What was your motivation in replacing yourself with the character Tahir and making him Islamic I wanted to make a film about judgement which came a long time before making a film about homeless people. I didn’t want to make a polemic film about homelessness being bad or drugs being bad or the war that we all seem to be fighting being bad because any decent human being already knows they all are. [His religion] is the fabric of our (Europe and America’s) daily life and news. I wanted the film to be involved in that. Plus if you’re making a film about judgment bringing together two characters from vastly different places seemed to make it more urgent. They have both lost loved ones to the same madness and yet find each other as individuals.
You’ve described the film as ‘highlighting the grey in a world which is becoming increasingly black and white.’ Why do you believe it is becoming more black and white I really don’t know. Every generation is terrified about what is happening in their world. The world seems to be apocalyptic at the moment. The reasons for it are myriad. The media seems to be exacerbating the problem rather than alleviating it. The best thing about my job is I get to travel and meet people from all over the world. You discover there are differences between us but the similarities are actually so much greater. The way people are introduced to other cultures is through the media which is strangely easy to manipulate. It feels to me it’s such a contradiction living in a world where I can contact anybody anywhere on the planet at any time we are becoming more entrenched in our separate positions. I am slightly flummoxed by it. It’s the double edge of technology is that we are being driven further and further apart.
Do you believe films such as yours and art in general is a way of superseding the media’s output I hope so! I hope for human beings. I think we have a responsibility to learn about each other. In a macro way – a global sense - we are retreating into our separate positions but also in a micro way to judge people on the street is what we do and something we need to look at.Our response to homeless people is interesting and surprising . I grew up a Catholic and I remember my dad saying to me ‘there but for the grace of God go I’ if he saw someone living on the streets.I’m not a believer anymore but I miss that sentiment. It admits to how simply and quickly one could be in the same position.