Paul Bettany Can't Rewatch A Knight's Tale Because He Misses Heath Ledger Too Much

Paul Bettany has played a lot of different guys over the years: a red-and-green synthezoid in the MCU, an imaginary roommate in A Beautiful Mind, and, yes, a very naked hype man in A Knight's Tale. But as much as fans love that last one, it is not a movie he can rewatch. And his reason is pretty understandable.

'A Knight's Tale' still hits a nerve

Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Bettany said that whole 2001 experience feels like a lifetime ago. People still stop him on the street to quote lines from it, and he jokes he can barely remember the bits they are quoting. The real reason he has only seen the film once, though, is tougher: it brings him right back to Heath Ledger, who died in 2008 at just 28.

"I saw [the film] when it first came out. I've never seen it again since. There are lots of reasons for that, and just one of them is that I miss Heath too much."

Quick refresher if your memory is as foggy as his

• Year and vibe: 2001, a medieval sports movie that plays like a rock concert.
• Ledger's role: William Thatcher, a squire who pretends to be a noble so he can compete in jousts under a false name.
• Bettany's role: Geoffrey Chaucer, William's mouthy hype man and herald, who is, yes, the same Chaucer who becomes the famous author.
• Why it stings now: For Bettany, any revisit is a direct line back to Ledger, which he is not ready to do.

So what is Bettany up to next?

He is heading back to the Marvel world in VisionQuest, a Disney+ series that picks up threads from WandaVision. This one follows the new Vision on a very on-brand journey: figuring out who he is.