Paul Bettany has said he learned more about acting when he finally went behind the camera.

The Avengers’ star’s Hollywood film career took off soon after he made his TV debut in a 1994 episode of detective series Wycliffe.

Paul, 43, has now made his directorial debut with Shelter, a story about two homeless people, which is set for release later this year.

Paul Bettany and  Jennifer Connelly
Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly (Evan Agostini/Invision)

“I’ve always wanted to [direct]. I like telling stories and I wanted to try to do it in a different way. I’m not in the movie. I was, and then I fired myself,” he said.

“Directing taught me more about acting than 20 years of acting,” he added.

The shoot took place in New York City, where he lives with his family, and wife Jennifer Connelly was also in the film.

“Work came home with us,” he admitted. “It was really good for the kids that the production only went on [for] 20 days.

Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany stars in Avengers: Age Of Ultron (Joel Ryan/Invision)

“Usually we tag-team; there’s always one of us at home, but on this, we were having to both work. And this was really intense in the subject matter, and some of the things that happened in the scenes were really dark. I’m very glad for my children that it’s ended.”

Paul stars in the Avengers: Age Of Ultron movie as Vision, an artificial life form, which he said took six months of make-up tests “to figure out”.

“My daughter [Agnes] loved it. She’s three and was very upset when I took it off at the end of the day. She wanted ‘Purple Daddy’ back,” he added.

Avengers: Age Of Ultron is in cinemas now.