Paul Bettany takes a jab at Jason Statham's acting skills

Cast member Paul Bettany poses at the premiere of "Transcendence" in Los Angeles, California April 10, 2014. The movie opens in the U.S. on April 17. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Paul Bettany recently made fun of Jason Statham’s acting skills during a guest appearance on the “Conan O’Brien show.” The actor was asked to comment on Statham’s previous dig on the Marvel films’ action stunts and in return, Bettany took a jab at the actor’s capability to do tricky dialogue scenes.

Bettany proved his love for Marvel when asked to comment on Statham’s previous “smack” against the “Avengers” films. Back in June, the “Transporter” star had questioned the authenticity of the action stunts done in the Marvel films.

Paul initially praises Statham and is heard in the video below saying, “He’s brilliant at what he does, I couldn’t do it.”

Bettany, who stars as Vision in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” then praises the work of stunt doubles and relates his own experience working on some action scenes.

“There are times when I try to do as many of the stunts as I can myself. But there are times when it’s too dangerous or too tricky and even the producer says ‘This is too dangerous,’” Paul tells Conan before calling off Statham about his Marvel statements.

“He should maybe think about investing in like an acting double, you know what I mean?” Bettany tells Conan, who laughed at the actor’s suggestion.

The studio audience also burst into cheers and Paul continues amid the laughters to explain his statement. Bettany tells Conan the difference between a stunt man and an actor.

“I’m saying I would never talk s**t about somebody else’s work. I read the contract, they employed me as an actor. There’s obviously stunt men in the world-you’ve met them, you’ve seen them. They are very good at what they do, so let them do it,” he says.

Bettany then takes a jab at Statham’s acting skills and says, “If there’s a really really tricky scene with some very tricky dialogue, one might consider bringing in an acting double for Jason Statham.”

According to Cinema Blend, Statham questioned the action scenes in the Marvel movies during an interview about his film “Spy” with Italian entertainment site I400CalCi. The actor, who’s known for doing his own stunts in his movies, was particularly concerned about CGI and stunt doubles being used in superhero movies. See his full interview below.

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