Paul Bettany Jokes The Vision Costume Was "Like Being Inside A Gin And Tonic" [Video]

A bit of advice from Ghostbusters applies to many actors accepting gigs as superheroes: "When someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES." That's pretty much Paul Bettany's recollection of getting the offer to play Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron, as recounted in this excerpt from a new Vision featurette on the upcoming Blu-ray.

But there's also a second piece of advice that applies here, too, as summed up nicely in Ben Affleck's anecdote about having a Batman conversation with Christian Bale: "Make sure you can piss in that suit."

It takes a lot of paint, fabric, and rubber to make a mere mortal look like a superhero. Those costumes aren't always comfortable, but it's easy to overlook that detail in the excitement of taking the role. Fortunately, the Vision makeup process was pretty brief. The suit was even water-cooled, leading Bettany to quip that "it's a little like being inside a gin and tonic."

Check out the Vision featurette excerpt below for a lot more.

There's some good concept art there, and I love the quick breakdown of how the overall look is created from a set of different components. I guess Bettany isn't a gamer, though, since he went for the gin and tonic comparison, rather than likening the suit to a liquid-cooled PC rig.

Hopefully there's a lot more on the Blu-ray, since this excerpt is only a minute long. There are clearly some stories to tell about the last polish of CG work that went over the suit and make-up, for example.

If you want more right now, however, there are some comments from make-up artists Jeremy Woodhead and Nik Williams at Make-Up Artist Magazine, where the two discuss the creation of Vision. The artists explain many details, from the particular choice of red/purple skin color, to the various ideas that led to the precise design of suit and prosthetics, and even the specific way the makeup was designed:

In order to make the lines absolutely perfect, as though he was born from a computer, we actually 'sculpted' the make-up in 3-D over a cyber-scan of Paul's head and printed out in clear plastic. Normally you would get a cast of Paul's head and sculpt the make-up in clay or plasticine over the top of it, but this look lent itself perfectly to a 3-D design and print.

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Avengers: Age of Ultron hits Blu-ray and DVD on October 2. Video via CBM.