[i]Scottish star discusses RocknRolla.[/i]
300 star Gerard Butler plays a loveable low-level gangster in Guy Ritchie’s new comedy caper RocknRolla. IGN caught up with him this week to discuss the making of the movie.
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IGN: How do you plan your career as you seemed to have played a remarkably varied set of roles in the last year?[/b]
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Gerard Butler:[/b] There’s a certain element of wanting to keep it different, and there’s also a certain element of opportunities presenting themselves, but I think more than anything its just fear of boredom. I’m fortunate enough that though I’m not the best actor in the world, I have a wide range – there’s lots of stuff I can do.
[b]IGN: What was it that opened the door for you?[/b]
[b]Gerard Butler:[/b] To be honest I never know what ‘opened the door’ means because since 2000 when I went to America the doors have been opening, just at different levels. I know since then I’ve been jumping up divisions, going from division three to division two, and so each movie helped me, but I would say obviously that 300 was the one that made the biggest difference, though weirdly enough it didn’t just help me in those kind of films, but after that the quality of offers increased – black comedy or romantic comedy or thriller – all kinds of things.
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IGN: Was there much improvisation on RocknRolla[/b]
[b]Gerard Butler:[/b] There’s not enough improvising in it to say it was an improvised film. There’s a little bit of it in terms of dialogue but that’s not to say we still didn’t have a lot of leeway in terms of how we presented things and how we do things. Guy wrote the script but my character could have worked out different to how it was on the page. I think I was more vulnerable, more insecure, more of a f**k-up than he was in the script. I think in the script he was more heroic, just a little more foolproof, and I pushed him towards being more like a child – not quite as accomplished as he thought he was!
[b]IGN: Did you have John Travolta in Pulp Fiction in the back of your mind for that dance sequence?[/b]
[b]Gerard Butler: [/b]Not at all, not at all. I think theirs was way more cool than ours. Ours was so ridiculous, in fact interestingly enough that scene I think, not to overstate the importance of that dance, it’s just a funny moment in a movie, but to me it kind of defines in some ways the differences between British films and American films. Because even though their moment was kind of cool and crazy, there was still a kind of a smoothness to it, whereas ours is just downright stupid and so uncool and so messy, it doesn’t quite make sense. It’s like the difference between the British Office and the American Office.
[b]IGN: Are you glad you’re at the front on the poster?[/b]
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Gerard Butler: [/b]It’s the sort of thing where I saw it and thought ‘oh that’s cool.’ I never asked to be on front of the poster. It’s nice to be there but maybe a little strange – there will be a day when Tony Kebbell’s up there and I’ll be in the background – it won’t be too long the way he’s going. There’s been many a poster that I’ve been in the background, so now I’m up front, f**k ’em! [Laughs]. No, but honestly I don’t really focus on that sort of thing, I think it’s a form of ego. I found that since I’ve started doing well I don’t think about it too much – it’s best not to even consciously think about stuff. Most actors, I mean even me looking at another actor, I’ve probably spent more time considering their position than they have; they’re too busy being who they are.
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IGN: What was your favourite bit of the film? The chase scene seems to be pretty popular…[/b]
[b]Gerard Butler:[/b] I find it very funny, actually Guy said to me yesterday that a lot of people’s favourite part of the film is that chase sequence, and he said strangely enough it’s the sequence without any dialogue! It was a comment on my performance, the rest of the cast’s performance… the bit that’s the best is literally just some f**ker running from another f**ker. But for me I love the dance and I love the gay sequence as well. There are a lot of funny bits in this; I don’t think I’ve ever been lucky enough to have so many funny bits in a movie. Usually if I see something comical I normally don’t laugh, if there are other people laughing normally I’m not. But with this I was laughing.
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IGN: Would you come back onboard for the proposed RocknRolla 2?[/b]
[b]Gerard Butler:[/b] Yeah, I mean I would need to see the script so it’s hard to say until I see something, but the idea is appealing because this was not the hardest job in the world for me, but it was challenging enough to keep me interested, and it was fun. I’ve had fun in all my films, but some of them needed more emotion and were just draining and necessarily draining because you go into some dark places, whereas this was just a blast, it really was as entertaining to make as I think it is to watch.
RocknRolla is released in the UK on Friday.