Gerard Butler Breaks Down His Career, from '300' to 'Law Abiding Citizen'

You know, people often say to me, Oh, you were so brave.

You changed your career.

And that's really not the case.

I remember feeling this, one, a devastation and humiliation,

but also thinking, Wow, I'm free.

I can do whatever I want.

I have nothing right now, why not aim for the stars?

So I did.

[melancholy instrumental music]

Hi, I'm Gerard Butler,

and this is the timeline of my career.

So little rooms, things you do and don't do.

All I did was tell the woman how I feel for God's sake.

You don't tell her majesty how you feel.

So Mrs. Brown came to me

at a very interesting period of my life.

When I had been training as a lawyer,

I had been fired one week before qualifying

after seven years of my life in law school and training

where they'd released me and said,

We think your dreams lie elsewhere.

Which they did.

And I, the next day, jumped in a car on move to London

and called my mom and said, You know,

for all these years you thought I was gonna be a lawyer.

Well, it's not happening.

I've just been fired.

I know it's humiliating, but guess what?

It's okay 'cause I'm going to be an actor.

Ah!

I went down to London and kind of begged and scraped a bit

and talked my way into an audition for theater,

for Shakespeare, actually.

And I got the role,

and then talked my way into another audition

and got the lead role in this play called Trainspotting,

which then got me an agent, which was everything.

In actual fact, Mrs. Brown was my first audition

for any film.

And I got a call, I was visiting my family in Scotland

saying, Hey, you got the role.

And I'm like these people are crazy.

What are they thinking?

My first day on Mrs. Brown was actually kind of awful.

I was terrified and I remember having to run into the bushes

to have a pee 'cause there was no toilets there.

And I was so nervous, I couldn't stop peeing.

I kept trying to put my costume up and I'm like,

Oh, I'm still going.

Oh, I'm still...

And it was also so cold, and it's the North Sea,

and it was November and the sea was so foreboding

and black and scary.

And we knew that at the end of the day,

we had to run naked into that ocean.

And the whole day they would spray us and pour water on us

'cause we were filming the scene

after having been in the ocean, so we're soaking wet.

So they soaked our hair.

They soaked our bodies.

And by four o'clock in the afternoon, we both had,

especially me, the onset of hypothermia

and they were very worried about us.

They had ambulances waiting.

They were about to rush me to the hospital.

[laughs] A great first day.

And little did I know that that would also be

what the rest of my career was like. [laughs]

It was always something.

[calm instrumental music]

♪ Night time sharpens ♪

♪ Heightens each sensation ♪

I feel like I've spent most of my career

feeling like a total imposter,

but so there's a part of me has a lot of fear.

Some of it is super healthy because it pushes me,

and some of it I could do without

because it's just annoying.

But what I would always do would be push to try things

that neither myself or anybody else would think I could do.

So I'd never had a singing lesson in my life,

and then I had to sing for Andrew Lloyd Webber.

So that was one of the scariest experiences of my...

I will never forget it.

And Joel Schumacher, God rest his soul, I love that man,

sitting up at the front with a huge smile on his face

'cause he knew how nervous I was,

and Simon who was playing the piano started doing this to me

as I went to sing.

And he was telling me to breathe,

but I thought he was having a panic attack.

And I'm like, Why is he nervous?

I'm the one having this audition.

He's going [gasping], he's going [gasping].

And I'm like this, He's putting me off.

This is not gonna work, with Joel at the front like this.

And then Andrew Lloyd Webber broke down my singing

for about an hour and a half,

which is probably amazing to think

that he would find so much to say about your voice

and every facet of your voice and the different tones.

But me and my insecurity just took it all as criticism

and I walked out of there saying to Joel,

He hated me.

He doesn't like it.

He just ripped me apart.

And Joel's like, He loved you.

The job is yours.

And then I proceeded to perform around people

that all had pretty much a thousand times more experience

than me in singing.

But no, I loved it because for me it was character first,

even the singing.

I knew I'm never going to have the voice that they have,

but if I can sing with truth,

and they even taught me that way, which I loved.

If your voice breaks in a moment because of emotion,

you know, or whisper, or you know,

this was The Phantom for the screen

so you were allowed to be so much more subtle.

I went into that character so deeply,

and much as it was beautiful and the sets were incredible

and I was surrounded by the most amazing cast,

you know, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson,

Miranda Richardson, Simon Callow.

I mean, are you kidding me?

But I spent a lot of time really lonely and depressed

and kind of away from everybody and breaking my heart.

My heart broke that whole movie for him,

for the character that I was playing.

Even now as I think about it, a very emotional,

but beautiful as well, to feel that so strongly.

And I remember as I would be singing and I would think

if one person connects with what I'm feeling right now,

just one, all this will have been worth it.

Unfortunately, nobody did. [laughs]

[melancholy instrumental music]

You threaten my people with slavery and death.

Oh, I've chosen my words carefully, Persian.

Perhaps you should have done the same.

This is blasphemy.

This is madness.

I felt like 300 was an amalgamation

of so many of the roles that I had played

with all their power and strength and darkness,

because I felt Leonidas also had

a kind of twisted side to him.

You had to be to keep that warrior ethos.

When I first met with Zack Snyder

after having read the graphic novel, I was in.

I'm like, I am...

And I remember being in a cafe with Zack going,

And they're gonna walk like this and stand like this,

and this is, you know.

And he's like, Yeah, yeah.

And he's jumping about.

And then they showed me the test that they did.

And that was the other producers I was meeting

for the first time.

And I remember I was taking this thing for training

that I'd got from GNC, which made me,

it was the first time I'd ever taken it,

it made me edgy, and I was so nervous.

And then they show me this test shot

and I jump up in the sofa and I'm like,

This is amazing!

This is...

And then I walk out of there going, I blew that.

I blew that.

But it was the opposite.

Each time they said, you know, this guy,

he has so much passion and strength and connection

to the role, but it still left me to have to call Alan Horn.

I was left in this weird situation where they said,

Okay, we don't want to put you forward

so we want you to call Alan Horn

because if we put you forward and he says no,

it's gonna damage your project.

So I knew I was their man, but I had to call Alan Horn,

who was the president, the chairman of Warner Brothers,

out of the blue.

And then I prepared this speech about why I was Leonidas

and why I would give everything to make him so proud of me

and the job that I would do,

and I felt it was my destiny to play that role

and do justice to that man.

And then the next day I got the call,

and whenever there's five agents on the phone,

you know you're either in big trouble

or something amazing has just happened.

So I got the call and all I heard was, You got '300'.

And I was in some clock shop in Beverly.

I didn't even know why I was in a clock shop,

but I'm not one to normally make,

especially when I'm on my own I don't make a lot of noise,

but I'm like, Yes! Yes!

I got it! [laughs]

And then I went, Oh [beep].

I just told them I was going to be amazing.

How am I going to pull that off?

And that happens, it's so funny when you say,

Let me at this, I've got this.

And they say okay.

And then you go to, I don't know how to do this.

What am I gonna do?

Again, healthy fear though because I started training

so hard and I tried to imagine what would a Spartan do.

And to train like a Spartan, to think like a Spartan,

to eat like a Spartan.

And I would even channel Leonidas

and trust that all his strength and passion

and discipline and courage and sacrifice was all inside me

and would come out in whatever I said, whatever I did,

however I trained.

And again, just like in The Phantom,

those ideas hopefully would transmit into the audience

and they would feel the power of that man and what they did.

[dramatic instrumental music]

Holly, my wife, by the way, my beautiful wife.

And I do. [audience cheering]

I love Holly, I do.

But she would never have the guts

[audience oohing]

to do something like this.

[audience oohing]

Oh no.

There was a lotta love on that set,

a lot of kind of craziness but in the sweetest way.

There was a lot of kinda like weird,

but big hearted people there, and including me,

and I guess at that point in my career I was flying.

I was on a high and it was lovely to go from a movie

like 300 playing Leonidas into something

that you couldn't get more different in Gerry Kennedy.

You know, this Irish, Hey, how are ya?

That's Gerry Kennedy, yeah absolutely.

And I remember when I met Richard LaGravenese,

who became a dear friend of mine,

I could just already tell how much heart

and love was in this movie.

And as I went into the movie,

every person that was involved higher up,

Richard, it represented his friend Ted Demme,

and one of the other producers representing

her sister who passed away.

And they all thought, and rightly so,

that the story was their story and telling their story.

And I feel like that's one of the reasons

why the movie was so successful

because it became everybody's story

in accordance with what they had gone through

in their lives.

But I remember saying to Richard when I first met him,

I said, You know I have this idea,

because as an actor, even if you're nice

and you have a big heart, you still go into a movie

and you're thinking about yourself.

How am I gonna do?

Am I gonna?

You know, and how do I kinda protect this role?

And I said I'm so gonna do the opposite of that here.

I wanna go in and just think about Hilary

and think is she okay?

What is the saying?

By self-forgetting that one finds.

And the funny thing is it really worked.

I had such a great time in that movie

'cause I didn't think about me all the time.

I didn't, you know.

I was really like always kind of checking are you good?

Are you good, are you good?

And it was a very interesting exercise which,

as I'm saying this now I'm going,

I haven't done it enough since.

I'm back to me, me, me, me, me, me, me. [laughs]

But I didn't even realize what an impact

that movie would have, you know.

Even today when I meet people they're like,

Oh my God, 'P.S. I love You'.

And they all tell you the story of what it meant to them.

Or once I was in Ireland and nobody knew I was there,

I was in this bar.

The movie had been out for about six months

and I was in this dark part with a couple of friends.

And I went to the toilet

and I had to go through the dance floor.

And as I went through the dance floor

Galway Girl came on.

Galway Girl's always been a popular song in Ireland,

but it wouldn't fill the dance floor.

Walking through that dance floor and they said,

And now 'P.S. I Love You' and 'Galway Girl'.

Everybody jumped up and nobody recognized me.

I just kept walking.

And I'm like what do you do here?

Do you stop and go, Hey, that's actually me.

I sang that.

But I didn't, I kept going.

But it was beautiful just to see the excitement

that that generated in this hotel bar.

♪ I'd be taking a whirl ♪

♪ 'Round the Salthill Prom with a Galway girl ♪

[upbeat instrumental music] [audience cheering]

Napkin, Nick.

Napkin.

Oh, excuse me, waiter.

You might want to put 30% down for yourself, my man.

For 300 I won action star of the year

and I just made my speech, and I came off the stage

and this guy approached me and said,

By the way, you're maybe gonna do a movie that I wrote.

And this movie was called Edwin A. Salt.

It later became Salt.

It's such a great Hollywood story.

It was a guy, then it changed

and suddenly it was Angelina Jolie.

But at that point I was in talks to make that movie.

'Cause at first I was like, Oh, here we go.

And I'm like, Wait, you wrote 'Edwin A. Salt'.

Oh my God, I love that movie.

What else have you got?

He said, I wrote this other movie

called 'Law Abiding Citizen'.

Get it to me, let me see it.

To be honest, the making of that movie was a bit of a mess.

There was a lot of...

Jamie was awesome, but trying to get that script right

before we went.

There was a lot of issues.

The first movie we produced,

it was a bit all over the place.

And there were too many cooks in the kitchen.

Like it was extremely frustrating,

and I wasn't sure how it would turn out,

but I loved the making of it.

And I love taking on that character.

I was very surprised by how people tapped into

the idea of vengeance if somebody hurts your family,

and if you're not served justice by the law.

Because you are, you're left castrated there.

And then you go, okay, with that we can have so much fun.

What does he do?

But I always felt in the movie by the point

that he kills the ADs that the audience should say,

All right, that's enough.

Now we want him to die.

But it's a bit scary 'cause they're like,

Yeah, that's okay.

He kills all those innocent ADs.

We still want him to live.

And I'm like that was not really the way

that I thought it would pan out,

but I loved the way it panned out.

It's amazing that you do these things

and they start as a seed, an idea, a script

that needs a lot of work.

And then you walk around in the streets today

and people go, 'Law Abiding Citizen' man.

Again, it's fun.

It's part of why I love doing what I do.

[dramatic instrumental music]

[people screaming]

Hey!

Hey, get the fuck back!

[gun banging]

[bomb exploding]

Avi Lerner from Millennium Films gave me

Olympus Has Fallen and another script.

It was like a two-hander between a hitman and a cop.

It was very funny, a lot of action.

I liked them both.

I literally couldn't decide which one to do.

And I said, Avi, which one do you think I should do?

And he said, You know, I don't know.

You do whatever you want, but if you don't make...

Because they were making the, what was the other?

White House Down.

And he said, if you don't make Olympus now,

before White House Down, we'll never make Olympus.

So I thought, okay, let's make Olympus.

It was a big risk 'cause there was a $200 million movie

being made on very similar subject matter

by a very infamous director.

The cast that we got on that movie, you know,

Melissa Leo, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett,

Aaron Eckhart, Dylan McDermott.

And I look back I'm like I did not for a single second

during filming think that this would be a franchise.

I just thought it was a one-off movie.

I thought it would probably bomb.

I tried my best.

I, you know, I loved making that movie,

but I thought it would probably come out and get laughed at.

And I'm sure some people did,

but I was amazed how it went down.

People loved that movie.

Wait, where is the explosion?

[dramatic instrumental music]

[birds cawing]

[air whooshing]

I don't wanna make as many action or disaster movies

as I used to.

And if I do, there has to be something different about it.

But the second I read Greenland,

I completely understood why this movie could be made

and affect people.

I'd never read a disaster movie like this

that actually was so much more about humanity,

or rather being human and grounded and real and messy.

And like your lead characters they forget things

and they make mistakes and they take wrong turns.

And as you would do in an emergency, you kind of,

you don't always get things right.

The same way with really paying a lot of attention

to how the society kind of decays around us

and in such an interesting and diverse way.

Some people are celebrating.

Some people are praying.

Some people don't care.

Some people are looting.

Some people wanna help us.

Some people wanna kill us.

And as you go on this journey with a family

that you know way more than you do

in your typical disaster movie,

you really climb into their complexity and their flaws

and their struggles and their resentments

and their awkwardness and their love.

So you're in it now in this journey

and you see everything through their lens,

and it just made this...

This movie is so unusual because you really,

you don't even feel necessarily you're watching

a Hollywood disaster movie.

You kinda feel like you're really in this

and it's powerful and devastating and scary and beautiful

and touching and hopeful, and it has it all.

And, yeah.

Yeah, I just, I knew we could make something pretty special.

One of the joys of not just being an actor,

but when you get a chance to play great roles, you know.

I remember coming up in the career when they go

here's a script with all these great roles.

We want you to play this tiny one.

And suddenly they're like here's the great role

in the movie and you know, all this beautiful.

Suddenly you're dealing with the best writers

and fantastic directors and you're around a cast

that you couldn't possibly of dreamed of

that are gonna help lift you up.

But right now, I'm good,

and I'm actually excited to get back to work.

[calm instrumental music]