Leading up to the global launch of Avengers: Infinity War, co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo often described the human-robot romance of Vision and Scarlet Witch as the “beating heart” of the 2018 blockbuster.
And to their credit, the Russo Brothers carved out a fair chunk of screen time for Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany’s respective characters, culminating at the moment when the former is left with no choice but to kill the one person she holds so dear (i.e. Vision) so that the Avengers may destroy the Mind Stone and, with it, the chances of Thanos wiping out half of all life in the universe.
She reluctantly carries out the deed, only to be undone by the Time Stone, which allows Thanos to journey back through time ever so slightly and kill Vision all over again. It’s a pretty traumatic scene on so many levels, but while chatting to MTV (h/t ComicBook.com), Vision himself, Paul Bettany, recalled his final moments during Infinity War – albeit with a touch of matter-of-fact, British humor.
Well it was about 100 degrees and we were really, really sweaty, and the [directors Joe and Anthony Russo] ran over to us and went, ‘So, okay, the entire beating heart of the movie is now on your shoulders.’ So we did it a couple of times and they said, ‘Ok, that’s great, let’s just improvise it now,’ and I just sort of looked at Lizzy and she looks at me and I thought, ‘I’m a robot, and you’re a witch, how are we gonna…?’
He continued:
You know, it’s a lot in isolation of the rest of the plot even. And you’re purple. And you’ve got a jewel and your head. And she’s going to destroy it. And you’re imagining red things coming out of her fingers, yet you’re also sort of trying to find some reality in all of this. I think we were both when it was done, kind of like, ‘Oh, let’s go home.’
It makes for a pretty fascinating interview, as Paul Bettany also touches on Solo: A Star Wars Story and why he fails to understand the film’s lowly box office return ($388M worldwide). Avengers: Infinity War, meanwhile, is booked in for a home video release on August 14th.