When Paul Bettany first signed on to voice Jarvis in Iron Man, did he know that the character would eventually become live-action in later films and he would still be playing the role nearly 15 years later?
shareAbsolutely nobody knew that Marvel Films would take off, when they made "Iron Man"!
Although they probably signed the actors to multi-film contracts at that point, just in case it did, that's standard industry practice (or is now). And they may have had several ideas for sequels kicking around the office, so it's vaguely possible that they were thinking about someday turning Jarvis into Vision even at that point... which might be why they hired someone good-looking and well-built to do the voice work job.
Yeah, I always wondered why someone famous and good looking would settle for a minor voice role. It makes a little more sense with Scarlett Johansson in Her or famous actors in animated films, but I figured the voice of a superhero’s suit would usually be reserved for someone less famous or a more comedic actor.
shareA lot of actors don't mind doing a bit of voice work, it's low-effort, well-paid, over with in a couple of days... and if the movie takes off then they've got a hit on their CV and it only took a few days' work.
Isn't this a bit of a chicken and egg thing though?
The only thing I knew him from pre Iron Man was that Hugh Grant wasn't available role in Wimbledon. Don't think he was really above taking a Marvel voice role at that stage...