Paul Bettany made a lasting impression as 'the naked guy' from 'A Knight's Tale'

Paul Bettany still gets recognised as "the naked guy".

The 55-year-old actor shot to fame starring in A Knight's Tale and while sometimes fans quote iconic lines from the 2001 film to him, there's one particular scene that made a lasting impression with audiences.

Speaking to People magazine, he said: “Well, there is a line from WandaVision, which is, ‘What is grief, if not love persevering?’ But mostly, I live in New York City, and I was in a film called A Knight’s Tale, right at the beginning of my career, where I walked down the street naked, and so, I’ll get cab drivers to this day winding down their window and going, ‘You’re the naked guy!' They have me at a disadvantage.”

Paul previously admitted he "can't remember" any of the dialogue from A Knight's Tale - in which he portrayed poet Geoffrey Chaucer opposite the late Heath Ledger as William Thatcher - because he has only seen it once as he couldn't bear to watch it back after the Brokeback Mountain star died from an accidental overdose in 2008.

During an appearance at LA Comic Con last year, at which Paul took part in a Q+A with his WandaVision co-star Elizabeth Olsen, he was asked if fans ever approach him and ask him to repeat any of his iconic lines from A Knight's Tale.

He replied: “It was a really long time ago.

“It was like another lifetime ago. And people do come up sometimes, people come up to me on the street and quote things at me, and I literally can't remember. I can't remember any of it.

“I saw [the film] when it first came out. I've never seen it again since. There are lots of reasons for that, and just one of them is that I miss Heath too much.”

The WandaVision star also admitted he still feels "overwhelmed with sadness" when he thinks about Heath.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he said: “Whenever I think about him, I find myself sort of overwhelmed with sadness when I have to remember that he's dead.

"He was an incredibly creative force and I find myself mourning the things that he didn't make, not just as an actor, he was just an incredibly creative human being."

Paul thinks Heath is often misremembered as a serious person, with host Josh Horowitz referencing how he is referred to as a "tortured genius king of thing" and the Wimbledon star insisting his late friend "just wasn't like that".

He said: “I've said this before, I think these sort of narratives and almost an industry gets built around the narrative of him...

“He was just shining and when you were with him, it was like having the sun on you. He was just so full of life and joy, and the kid couldn't sleep, and that's it. That's the story. A fantastic actor."