Gerard Butler Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

but I go can I just try another one that moment comes and I turn round and all my army are literally like this to find him of the Opera I was very surprised that I was picked for that role because I used to sing in a rock band when I was a law student Joel Schumacher called my agent and said can Jerry sing my agent said I can sing bad or if you can sing that so it went from me going for my first ever singing lesson and singing to the professor of music from Royal Academy of Music in London and I said look just tell me am I wasting my time I don't wanna make a fool of myself and we finished and she said you can absolutely do this you need to put in a lot of work you need to learn the rules but you can do this you know so that's all I needed to hear there's so many times I'd just be sitting there going how the hell did I get here this is awesome I can't even sing I love the opportunity to try different things and hopefully surprise people and maybe prove them wrong so sometimes when people have a lot to say you go okay look just kind of ups the ante in a way 300 I wanted out rolls so badly and I remember being told by the producers we want you but we're scared to go to alan horne who's the president of Warner Brothers just in case he doesn't want you and then it's gonna hurt our movie we're gonna look stupid so we know you know Alan by the way through the Phantom of the Opera so why don't you call him and I called him I was I would say Kings Road Cafe and I said hollandaise Jerry Butler he said how are you Jerry I know why you're calling and let me tell you there's a process and you have to be nominated by them and I wanted to say I have been they're the ones that told me to call you but I didn't say that but I pushed and if these little moments in your life that make all the difference but I said I know but and he said I'll tell you what come in for a coffee and I went for a coffee and I had my whole speech prepared saying everything I've done in my life has led to this moment to play this man and I promise you if you give me this chance I will not let you down and he did give me the chance and the rest of it was me trying to hold up my end of the bargain take on this character do Leonidas proud do the Spartans proud do our horn proud that led me to this incredibly tunnel visioned kind of preparation and focus just die hard I trained every hour I could sounds weird but I would literally channel Leonidas I we don't just do these meditations where I would feel him coming into me through time through some kind of weird portal like just coming into my body and then I can have felt if he's in me then I'm just trusting that this is transmitting Spartans never retreat Spartans never surrender there's a big fight sequence when I had rehearsed us for months I know in the day we were doing it was the first big action sequence we were shooting in the movie and there was a camera rig that it three different cameras had never been used before something was not going right so it was one o'clock in the afternoon we hadn't shot anything they basically said to my stunt double you get off and get ready to go because we don't have time for failure thing eight was killing me and like I've done all this I've trained and trained and trained and this is my big moment and I wanted to scream and shout but I did and Tim Connolly my stunt double who's also my father to the young me in the movie he could see and he's like look that's here he says I don't want to do this either I want you to do this he said so get up and just start practicing with me just so the director can see you kind of you're good at this so I get up and I'm doing my moves and I see Zack looking over and then I see him speak to somebody and they go okay let's try one Jerry why don't you try it and I did it and it was amazing and I finished maybe that biggest buzz I ever had my career is when I finish and I clicked the sword with a guide on it and I look up and everybody started about the whole crew they're like just exploded and all the stuntmen jumped off everybody exploded this is sparta which has obviously become quite an iconic line I had done quite a few takes and most of them work this is sparta this part process and part insecurity maybe but I go can I just try another one he goes ok ok go for it and that moment comes and I turn and oh my army are literally like this and I go up to zai and I go that was too much how that was too much ego yeah but it was awesome yes I trained the dragon How to Train Your Dragon was surprisingly one of the most special experiences I ever had it was just fun to go in and play this big loud ignorant Viking who's just surprises people with the heart they had cameras everywhere and I remember thinking why you go cameras in oh it's just my voice and then my main animator his name was Christoph one day showed me how they animated so it doesn't seem where I'm kind of saying well I thought it was there you are thank you God and yet I didn't I didn't realize I was moving so much but that was me doing all of this and then you see me in the movie and it's literally animated just like I was there God almost gave up on you but here we are and ties you into something so much you know you realize okay it's not just my voice there's a bit more that I'm that I'm giving to that he could crush meant this level forest tamed seas even as a boy I knew what I was what I had to become hiccup is not that boy and it's very funny because nowadays people introduce you know they say the kids this is Stoick from How to Train Your Dragon and you see the kids like us and then I go Harry how are you we're gonna go and chase dragons and it's so awesome I love it Danna Thieves I read den of thieves back in 2012 and was one of my favorite scripts letters so clever but we couldn't get it made it was a very hard movie to get maybe because it wasn't cheap and Christian had never directed anything before there often came these conversations which were maybe it's time to move on by this point I've become very close with Christian and I also loved this movie finally we pulled the money together and then we're making the movie but I felt this big pressure because for years I just have dinners and lunches with Christian and he would talk about being his big Knicks this big Knicks this big next this and then we go to start the movie and I like she he's told me a lot about big Nick I hope I remember how here is big Nick and one time we're not a restaurant it's like a Benihana or something there's a plate which i think is sushi and while he's talking I'm like this on the alternate going this is really chewy sushi but I'm like my god this is how big Nick whatand you're talking about big Nick I finished the plate and he's like by the way that's raw chicken and that was basically big Nick right let me ask you this do we look like the types who arrest you put you in handcuffs drag you down to the station hmm I'm asking you a question no right we just shoot you and it was also the best time I had with other actors were also great friends and all my movies I've never had so much love for the people that I worked with and you know we really tried to keep that or lack of bond yes I love you yeah play a guy called Jerry so already was a good start Jerry Kennedy who is - a lot of people a lot of women that perfect guy great sense of humor loves the crap out of his wife I said you know what in this movie I'm not gonna think about like like Jerry does I'm not gonna think about myself I'm gonna think about everybody else and it was amazing how incredible that was it took me out my own head and not to be honest was the story of that movie everybody was making it for the right reasons and everybody had their own personal story it was Richard it was his best friend who died of a heart attack it was a director and then to the producer Molly her sister who died of cancer and you know this was her story is a and that was about ten times through this movie it was their own personal stories I know what I want because I have it in my hands right now do you know what you want you better tell me now if I'm not it one to work with Hilary Swank who's incredible and for me to get a chance to because I so often play Americans to me the Scots in the Irish was so similar my whole family's most of my family are Irish to have a chance to bring on that kind of Irish character in such a well written script was just I mean I mean I really had such a great time filming I mean even today people come and they go they start people often start crying as they tell me about how much they cry during that movie beautifully written and beautifully directed by Richard law abiding citizen that's the first movie that I produced but I was always playing in the other room I was playing the hero the cop but I kept saying I can't want to play this guy but all my guys kept saying no no just stick to the hero stick to the hero and we were trying to find somebody to play Clyde Shelton and we offered it to Jamie Foxx and Jamie being the cocky that he is said nope don't buy deeply klaich own but I'll play his role we were all on the call Jamie wasn't in the car but all the producers and I said okay let's do it so basically we swap roles and I'm so glad I now can't imagine that movie any other way counselor you might want to cancel your 12:30 lunch with Judge Roberts excuse me in fact you might want to cancel the rest of the week because you're going to be busy sit down I always felt there came a certain point in the movie where the audience returned against client when he starts killing innocent people but it was amazing the Vengeance that were in an audience who were like no he was so badly wronged and because you did feel his humanity and because Jamie did push it in the other direction it was amazing how far my character could go and people still wanted to win and wanting to get away with it that's not how I imagined it but I can love that that's how it turned out but it was an interesting psychological study on humanity as a whole the ugly truth I was making a movie called gamer every night at dinner we'd all be having dinner and I'd tell I have perhaps a hundred and fifty thousand jokes I grew up in that culture and I still write them down so I tell jokes jokes you and then Tom and Gary would go over the truth and what is likely truth and they kept going ugly truth and winking and I'm thinking what is ugly truth and I was assuming that it was some movie like gamer and then he sent me the script are you kidding me I'm gonna get to say this I had the role but I says can i audition for this role in an American accent so I went in and I did three of my biggest scenes in an American accent I'm the UN yeah you're American suddenly I'm working with Katie Heigl I was madly in love with Katie I go and she just made our movie with Seth Rogen which is one of my favorite movies of all time but now we're on set together and I'm like how how is this happening if you want it to work out with this guy then you'll listen to me and you do exactly as I say you've probably already done irreparable damage with your psycho aggressive control freak phone call it might even be too late and if you do salvage the situation you never be more than a be his desperate neighbor it's such a blast making that playing that guy it's just fun Olympus has fallen and twine and I had been working on a lot of different projects and I took it to him and said what about this thinking he'd say no but he's like you know what this is fun let's let's do this I love developing scripts and he loves making movies and he shot the hell out of this and but even then I wasn't sure know how this is going to turn out and it just turned out in terms of the ultimate popcorn movie you know super fun in-your-face inspiring you know heroic London has fallen for every movie we try to find a different take so London we made it more international we could be bringing into Japanese the Canadians but again finding a way how do you make a city unworkable not just an area but create a situation where in a whole city nobody can move and you got to get a president out of there and he's like a hunted animal Angel is falling and then in this one we've gone in a completely different direction because you thought well it can't really be a city or a white house so we turned to internet and itself and made it about the very man who's gone through all this I feel like you get to know him just like I've gotten to know him more you get to know him more in his challenges and his weaknesses and his vulnerabilities but yet again through all of that his tenacity and his brutality and his need to be of service and and get the job done I said this earlier today it's like he could be run over by a truck but if there's one born unbroken he's gonna keep coming back he's never gonna stop that serves me well I take a lot out of that for me in my life because I've been through a lot coming into this movie I felt like I was kind of in Mike's shoes which funnily enough made the performance ten times more difficult but 10 times more easy in other ways because I was where he was I think that it's not only am I getting to know him I seem to be becoming him [Music]

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Id: -3rtedLsJFw

Length: 14min 57sec (897 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 26 2019