‘Vision Quest’s Paul Bettany On How He Blew 10 Blood Vessels In His Eye While “Wildly Overacting”: “A Lesson In Less Is More”

Although he plays a largely indestructible AI in VisionQuest, Paul Bettany still had to contend with human limitations while bringing the character to life.

The actor, who reprises his MCU role as Vision in the Disney+ series that airs its Season 1 finale on Nov. 10, revealed that he “blew out about 10 blood vessels” in his eye during a particularly committed scene.

“I was pretending to have a device on my head that is doing something to my brain, and I was just wildly overacting,” said Bettany on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “And I blew out about 10 blood vessels in my eye… It was a lesson in less is more.”

Bettany recalled his eye being red for “like two weeks,” which he assumes “must’ve cost production so much to take it out” with CGI.

“The irony is the actor playing Vision is kind of myopic,” Bettany joked. “Can’t see a thing when I take my glasses off. Which is great depending on the actor you’re working with.”

Set after the events of WandaVision (2021), the eight-episode limited series sees Vision (Bettany) communicating with several AI personas embedded in his programming to attempt to understand who he is. As a bounty is set on his head, Vision goes on the run with a mysterious teen (Ruaridh Mollica) who may be his reincarnated son.