Paul Bettany Once Punched Tom Hanks So Hard He Farted

Paul Bettany admits he once punched Tom Hanks so hard on the set of The Da Vinci Code, the iconic Oscar-winning actor farted. Bettany has enjoyed quite a massive start to 2021 with the release of WandaVision, the first Marvel series to premiere on Disney+. The sitcom-inspired show started in January and just came to an end last weekend with an explosive finale that has garnered some very mixed responses. Bettany reprised his role as synthezoid Vision, and while he’s said he would happily return in a future Marvel project, it remains to be seen if he ever will.

Well before he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though, Bettany racked up an impressive amount of credits. In 2006’s controversial The Da Vinci Code, the first film in the Robert Langdon trilogy, Bettany starred opposite Tom Hanks as Silas, a fanatical albino monk who serves as one of the secondary antagonists to Hanks’ symbologist hero Langdon. While not especially well-received by critics, The Da Vinci Code led to more sequels centered on Hanks. Hopefully, they didn’t involve any embarrassing moments like the first movie did.

Bettany recently sat down with Esquire to discuss WandaVision, though that didn’t stop him from reflecting on other parts of his career. One such part was a fight scene in The Da Vinci Code, where he went up against Hanks. When filming fight scenes, the set is often very quiet in case someone gets injured. As a result, when Bettany punched Hanks in the gut, Hanks farted loud enough to be heard by everyone. “Gargantuan fart,” Bettany recalled. He went on to describe his immediate reaction and Hanks’, saying:

“I was like, Holy shit, what am I going to do? It’s Tom Hanks, the biggest star in the world, and I’ve just made him fart. He looked at me and I looked at him. And he went, ‘What’s wrong with you?’”

It’s safe to say this wasn’t a high point in Bettany’s career, and it might not have been one for Hanks either. In fact, Hanks might not love being reminded of this embarrassing little moment. At the same time, should he hear of this story, he’ll hopefully be able to laugh at it. After all, it’s quite funny, and it’s a great reminder that under all the awards and big screen roles, Hanks is just like the rest of us.

Bettany might’ve made Hanks fart on set, but it definitely didn’t harm his career much. He went on to appear in several more well-known projects, including those set within the MCU and the Star Wars franchise. Where Bettany will go next remains to be seen, but fans will likely follow him wherever. Perhaps he should stage a Da Vinci Code reunion and apologize to Hanks for his accidental transgression.

Source: Esquire

About The Author

Rachel Labonte
(3420 Articles Published)

Rachel LaBonte is a news, feature, and movie review writer for Screen Rant with a deep passion for film and television. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

More From Rachel Labonte