Sony executives were hesitant to cast Paul Bettany in the role of Geoffrey Chaucer for AKnightsTale until director Brian Helgeland showed them footage of Bettany putting his foot in his mouth: “They all started laughing and that’s what won them over.”
Some films are appreciated from the start — the big blockbusters find their audiences or the acclaimed indies find the critical raves right out of the gate. Then there are films that are ahead of their time, that find a bigger audience as they age, where the appreciation might come a little later thanks to DVDs or television viewings.
The story delves into destiny, friendship and the quality of mercy but does so with unique action sequences, poetry, music, intelligence and above all, a sense of fun and joy that, as Helgeland goes on to explain, was a reflection of the shooting process. Helgeland spoke about the journey “A Knight’s Tale” took to the big screen, including Heath Ledger’s didgeridoo, Daniel Craig’s audition and his utter determination to cast newcomer Paul Bettany.
Though a film about jousting with modern music might seem like a tough sell at the time … it was not. I finally said, “What’s in the tube?” He said, “Oh, that’s my didgeridoo.” And he pulls it out, and he’s showing it to me and telling me what it is. And then I said, “Can you play it? Or do you just kind of carry it around?” And the next thing I know, he’s playing it in the restaurant. And he’s amazing and I’m thinking, “Who’s going to come in and do better than this?”
Mark Addy was right off “The Full Monty,” he was easily the most well-known member of the cast. Sony was happy to have him. But they wanted Hugh Grant for Chaucer. I just didn’t see him doing it, he’s was starring in big movies, he wasn’t going to play second fiddle. And then they wanted Drew Carey for Chaucer. Nothing against Drew Carey but I was like, “How are we going to have Drew Carey walking around in this movie?” I rejected him for Chaucer, then they wanted him for Wat.
They wanted me to meet Joaquin Phoenix for another role and he was in London so I said, “I’ll go to meet him only if I can screen test Paul Bettany.” So I pulled out every favor I had and got a location, another actor to read with him, and cut it all together and they still wouldn’t do it. And that movie fell apart. But while I was in London, we went drinking every night and became buddies.
Actually, Daniel Craig came in to read for Count Adhemar and he was fantastic. This was long before he was Bond, obviously. He was just amazing. But I had already taken to Rufus Sewell for the role. I came close to changing my mind but it ultimately came down to Daniel was blond and Heath was blond and I though the contrast in looks with Heath and Rufus was better. And they became best friends, those two, they would carouse through Prague together.
We were all in the Czech Republic and Communism had fallen not long ago. So it was pristine, not filled with tourists. It was a hip, cool place and we were all there for the long haul. They all became really close. Heath used to say that he loved the movie, because he thought it was a photo album of how much fun they had doing it. That charm between that group was because it was real, they really did love each other.
One of the most famous lines was an improvisation. After William calls Jocelyn a silly girl, she responds: “Better a silly girl with a flower than a silly boy with a horse and a stick” and walks away. Wat’s line in the script was: “It’s called a lance.” But Helgeland thought something was missing and asked Tudyk to play around with it.
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