At the film's Los Angeles press junket, Bettany admitted he engaged in many phone calls with novelist Cornelia Funke before signing on to Inkheart. "The reason being that it’s a trilogy," explained Bettany. "Look, first of all the script turned up and it was called Inkhart, my then nine year old son was reading Inkheart the novel. So in an entirely sort of cynical Machiavellian attempt to make him think I'm cool I did the part."
And it worked. "Yes, absolutely," said Bettany. "And then I would be, you're signing a contract for potentially three films, it would be moronic not to ask them what happens in the next films. So the second [book], you know, was out, but the third one only existed in Cornelia’s head. So I did. I had phone calls about, 'All right, explain to me what is going to happen in script 2. Is it going to differ from the book and what's going to happen in script 3?' Because, well I would be a dreadful businessman if I did anything less."
Bettany's played characters based on popular books before, and he doesn't let the fact readers – or the author, for that matter - have imagined the character a certain way influence how he ultimately portrays his part on screen. "I don’t care about any of that stuff. I really don’t. I’d go mad if I worried about it. The same thing with sort of Stephen Maturin [from Master and Commander]. It’s a question that I often get asked. I mean is there a responsibility, you know? It’s got a great readership and it’s happened, The Da Vinci Code and Silas happened inside six million readers’ heads or however many people. You know, they read it and it’s happening. Whatever the words they are reading and the composite image of the human being, it’s happening in their head and I can't possible give six million different versions. I'm left with my version and it’s the only version that I could frankly do anyway. You know what I mean? It’s very hard to do somebody else’s version of it."
The Real Appeal of Dustfinger
Bettany normally stars in dramatic films grounded in the real world, but with Inkheart he plunges into a world of fantastical characters and creatures. But it wasn't the fantasy aspect of Inkheart that drew him to Dustfinger. "I liked his sort of ambiguous nature. You don’t know if he’s a goodie or if he’s a baddie," offered Bettany. "I think it’s an enormous amount of pressure to put on kids in this world in which you're either impossibly good or you're awful, you know? You're Darth Vader, if they do one thing wrong. 'Oh my god, I'm Darth Vader!' You know what I mean? It’s really hugely unrealistic and I don’t know when we got started being so overly protective of our children. I was scared to death by the Wizard of Oz, scared to death by the witch of the Wizard of Oz, and it was great and it was exhilarating. And going, 'Children, come out, children.' It was so frightening and, 'Oh god!,' but exhilarating.""Why we don’t allow our children to cry in cinemas anymore? Why is there a problem if they do, you know? You do these things in sort of safe environments. You read a book about something sad and the child is safe. They're all there sitting in a dark room with their parents sitting on either side of them eating popcorn and it’s sad. I mean what is the problem? What is people’s problem? It’s ridiculous. I mean I've heard this stuff about the dog dying at the end of Marley and Me and parents are up in arms about it. 'You made my kid cry!' Yes, it's a f--king movie. I mean honestly and truly. And, also, part of the reason one has a real pet, the last lesson that that pet… The pet teaches the child many things about affection and love and responsibility and all of that, but the last lesson it teaches the child is about death, you know, before they have to face it in a very real and human and awful way. And I think it’s important to sort of protect your children but at least allow them to live in a real world."
The Smelly Truth About Ferrets
Dustfinger's closest friend is a ferret, which meant that Bettany had to work closely with the furry creatures. "Here's the thing about ferrets is that male ferrets are very docile, so that's the one that sits on your shoulder like this. And that it sounds hugely un-PC, but we are talking about ferrets. The female ferrets are vicious. Vicious." revealed Bettany. They put a bit of baby food up here [indicating his shoulder] and then they show the thing the baby food - the female ferret the baby food - and it’s like, 'Ah-ah-ah-ah,' and then they run off. They let it go and it goes hell for leather towards you and you sit there going, 'Oh jesus!' And it runs up here and then they grab it and then they put the man back on, the male ferret back on who’s [very docile]."So what would have happened if the ferret wrangler didn't grab the female ferret off of Bettany after it grabbed its food? "I would have thrown that thing. An animal would have been hurt while making the movie," replied Bettany, joking of course.
Page 2: More on Ferrets, Jennifer Connelly in Inkheart, and Iron Man 2 News
