When you think of one of the most perfect Hollywood couples, you probably think of long-time loves Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, or Denzel and Pauletta Washington. So Marvel's Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, probably don't make it on the list. But they should, because not only do they have one of Hollywood's longest relationships, they also have one of the cutest.
While we might know of Bettany's character Vision to have a love that lives through time and space with Scarlett Witch, and that Connelly's Betty can calm down the likes of the Hulk, their relationship with each other is similar in the way that it's like something out of a movie.
But what has their relationship been like for the last seventeen years of their marriage? How are they one of the cutest, and not to mention one of the hottest, couples in Hollywood?
We're gonna need the Mind Stone to figure this one out.
Let's Rewind To How They Met
The couple met in 2001, on the set of A Beautiful Mind. While Bettany played Charles, Connelly played Alicia Nash, the wife of Russell Crowe's character, John Nash, a role that would later earn her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Bettany told Larry King that she was his childhood crush. With roles in the '80s like Once Upon a Time in America, Labyrinth, and Career Opportunities (remember that scene where she's riding that mechanical horse?), who wouldn't have a crush on her?
Sitting across from her at the table read, Bettany was sure he'd never been around someone that beautiful. When they were on set together Bettany managed to play it cool, but never flirted with her.
Their relationship was very unconventional from that moment onward. He waited until the film had wrapped a year later to contact her, and a tragic event was what spurred him into action.
It was the events of 9/11 that made Bettany want to profess his love to the actress. What better time to tell someone you love them, without even dating them? As the tragedy showed us, life is short, and Bettany was not going to waste time.
At the time the towers were hit, Bettany was in Tuscany, and he watched them collapse on a grocery store television. Like so many people around the world, it changed him and he immediately had to call someone to talk about it and the first person he needed to talk to was Connelly.
"At that moment, my mind was changed forever and I ran back to this house and spent two days trying to call this woman that I sort of barely knew. And I remember very clearly thinking to myself, 'what are you doing?' I realized I was in love. So, I finally got her on the phone and I said I am coming over and let's get married. And that's really what happened, we had never dated," Bettany explained.
Connelly apparently had a crush on him and his guitar playing skills on set too, so when he called her she was on a similar wavelength and agreed.
"Clearly we noticed each other and clearly we liked each other," Connelly said. "But I have very strong feelings about things that are right and things that aren't and that was all very clear …"
Then all of a sudden he was moving over to America to be with her, and they got married in a private ceremony in Scotland in 2003.
"I was like a stalker really," Bettany said. "We got married really quickly because I thought she had a three to six-month window before she sees through the accent. She went to Yale and I left school at 16 so I knew she’d work out that I hadn’t read Proust."
They Haven't Looked Back And Worked Together Creatively
The couple has two children, Stellan and Agnes, and when Bettany first became a father, he was extremely protective, because of the traumatic events of his brother's death as a child. But when Bettany used to panic about certain things, Connelly calms him down.
"Once I saw these black spots on Stellan's gums when he was a little baby and went, 'Oh my God, he's got black gum baby death,' and she said calmly, 'I think that's what happens just before teeth come through sometimes.'
"I really have to fight that instinct to surround them in bubble wrap and put a helmet on them," Bettany said.
Now Bettany uses cuddles when approaching crises in the family. "My instinct is to talk about it, but I’ve found cuddles and saying, ‘I know, it’s awful’ are a better way to go."
Recently, the family drama has been about Bettany being dragged into Johnny Depp's libel case against The Sun. Several texts that Depp sent Bettany in 2013-2014, talking about drinking and drugs, were read allowed in court. Bettany has been supportive of his friend and co-star since his legal battles with ex-wife, Amber Heard, have started, and Connelly has been supportive of her husband in return.
Besides being parents, keeping their children and their relationship largely off social media, and living a successful life, the pair support each other creatively too. They have starred in two more films since A Beautiful Mind; Inkheart and Creation. And in 2014, Connelly starred in Bettany's film, Shelter.
"I feel very creatively aligned with him," Connelly said speaking about working with her husband. "We are drawn to similar types of films and filmmaking. I felt I had a lot of freedom to explore. Because he’s my husband and I trust him so much, I felt very safe."
With a couple that is just that gorgeous, creative, and successful in their marriage, they make it on our list of one of Hollywood's power couples. We know Bettany would die for Connelly just like Vision would do for Scarlett Witch. They are truly a match made in Marvel heaven.