About that time Paul Bettany made Tom Hanks fart on the set of The Da Vinci Code

So... yeah. Paul Bettany made Tom Hanks fart one time in front of just about everyone working on The Da Vinci Code. The actor didn't realize Hanks had already told the tale on The Graham Norton Show in 2019. Now "the shackles are off," he told Stephen Colbert when asked about this moment on The Late Show.

Bettany played the albino Silas on The Da Vinci Code, and the fart came during the first scene he ever shared with Hanks on screen. He was understandably nervous.

"I had to grab him and I had to punch him in the stomach and it's very quiet on set… It's always more quiet when there's a stunt going on because you're worried somebody's gonna get hurt," Bettany said. "So, everybody's listening, and I punched him in the stomach and he farted really, really, really loudly. But really loudly. I didn't know what the form was. What do you do when the biggest movie star in the world farts? I kinda looked at him… and he went, 'What is wrong with you? You just made me fart!'"

Bettany says he "never reached those heights again" in his career.

The way that Hanks told it on The Graham Norton Show, "Paul came rushing in and I met him, and what had to happen was he was supposed to knock me down against a desk and then I landed on the ground."

Hanks suggested this is why he doesn't do a lot of action scenes. "When I hit the floor, I farted," he said.

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