Paul Bettany was told his career in Hollywood was "finished".
The Iron Man star has revealed he "panicked" after the global financial crash in 2008 and made several movies he "shouldn't have" because he wanted to be able to cover the mortgage payments for his "big house" in New York - and Bettany revealed his work started to slow down and a producer later told he would never work in the movie industry again.
He explained to The Times newspaper: "[After the financial crash] I panicked. I was a young dad then who had bought a f***-off big house with a mortgage.
"So I made a couple of movies that I shouldn’t have. It was my nadir, but there was one job I really wanted so my agent got me a meeting with its producer.
"But my agent said: 'You are not getting this job - you turned this producer down years ago. He hates you.'
"This producer then told me I was finished in the business. Because I’d made two films that didn’t work. But I said: 'This town is filled with people with second acts, and also, mind your manners.' Then I walked out, but my legs went wobbly and I sat down on Sunset Boulevard and I thought, he’s right, it’s over."
However, Bettany's slump didn't last long and minutes later he took a call from bosses at Marvel asking him to return to the MCU to take on the role of the android Vision in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron.
When asked why he believed the producer who told him his career was over at that point, Bettany explained: "Well, I couldn’t get arrested.”
"At that point I hadn’t worked in well over a year, so it felt real. There are only 11 actors that get inundated by scripts. Everyone else is waiting.
"People go: 'Why did you not do that [Alejandro Gonzalez] Inarritu movie?' Why? Because he wasn’t f****** calling!"
Bettany is father to two children - Stellan, 23, and Agnes, 15, with his actress wife Jennifer Connelly as well as stepdad to her son Kai from a previous relationship - and he's revealed he took time off work to be with his kids when they were young and didn't realise it would leave him facing unemployment.
He told the publication: "I took two years off work when we had Stellan and I didn’t miss it. I was so wrapped up in being a dad and naively I thought that everything would still be where it was when I got back.
"But the whole machine just moves on and so when I thought, hell, I need to earn some money - well, you assume that heat is still going to be there. But this job is ephemeral."
Bettany's latest project is Vision TV series VisionQuest, which debuts this month, and he explained taking on the TV show allowed him to take time off afterwards to spend time with his teenage daughter.
He added: "I’m paid a fabulous amount of money and have not worked in nine months, because I did VisionQuest and just didn’t want to be away from my daughter again, because the time left with her under my charge is diminishing."