Why Paul Bettany Fired Himself From His New Movie

Paul Bettany was supposed to be in "Shelter," which he wrote and directed and stars his wife, Jennifer Connelly, and Anthony Mackie. Or at least Paul said he would be in the movie, as he explained to Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show."

"I lied," Paul said. "Because I'm British, I can lie and people tend to think it's true, and I said, 'Yeah, I'll be in it,' to try and raise some sort of paltry financing for it. And then I fired myself, which was quite humiliating. As a director, I hired myself as the actor, and then I fired myself." Jimmy joked that he just didn't get along with himself. Paul upped that, quipping, "I wouldn't perform on the casting couch." There you go. You don't put out, you don't get in!

This is the first time Paul has directed a movie and he said it completely changed his perspective. "It's so much harder [than acting]," he said. "I will never ask a difficult question as the sun is going down ever again." Paul said he had this fantasy that he and his wife would be on set together and she would ask questions about her character and he'd say well, let's sit down and talk about it. "But the truth was, every time she asked me a question, I just saw a huge clock in front of her face." He just wanted her to quickly spit out the question so they could get back to work while they still had the light.

It's a good thing he fired himself or maybe Paul the actor would've asked Paul the director about his own character and gotten into a tiff with himself. That probably happened to Mel Gibson during "Braveheart."

Here's Paul talking to Jimmy about "Shelter," including a clip from the movie:


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