The 300 actor had to punch, kick and choke his co-star.
GERARD Butler admits it was a struggle to play nice with co-star O’Shea Jackson in action-packed sequel Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.
The Scots hunk, 55, has reprised his role as elite copper Big Nick O’Brien as he travels Europe with career criminal Donnie Wilson, portrayed by the son of legendary rapper Ice Cube.
It was revealed at the end of the first film that Wilson wasn’t just the getaway driver — but was in fact the mastermind behind the whole plot to rob the Federal Reserve Bank of downtown Los Angeles.
He was last seen escaping to London canvassing a diamond exchange as O’Brien realised he’d been outsmarted.
Butler, who shot to fame as King Leonidas in 2007 flick 300, enjoyed finally getting to grips with on-screen enemy Jackson, 33, after their characters were mostly kept apart in the first film.
The Paisley-born actor joked: “I really liked working with O’Shea on Den of Thieves, but there’s only so much you can bond with somebody when you’re choking them out, punching them or slapping them.”
O’Brien is benched by his bosses after failing to capture Wilson, and his wife soon files for divorce.
Desperate for revenge, he ends up teaming with the same man he was hunting as they plan the ultimate crime at one of the impenetrable World Diamond Centres in Antwerp, Belgium.
The sequel introduces a new criminal crew called the Panthers, allegedly based on real criminals throughout Europe.
Butler said: “When we’re reintroduced to Nick, he’s going through a rough time and grappling with everything that’s happened since he was outmanoeuvred by Donnie at the end of the first film.
“On the one hand, Nick is impressed by Donnie’s smarts; on the other, he wants another shot at him.”
He gets his chance when a flight carrying diamonds from Johannesburg is hijacked in Brussels and thieves dressed in police SWAT gear make off with a cache of jewels worth tens of millions, including a single huge pink diamond.
He immediately suspects Donnie is involved and gets assigned to the Pantera task force dedicated to putting the thieves out of business.
The angry cop breaks bad when he masterminds a plot with Wilson to get on the wrong side of the greatest jewel robbery in history.
Butler was shocked at how easily the movie upped the ante from the first instalment after worrying they couldn’t match its intensity.
He said: “We thought, how can we raise it to the next level? In Den of Thieves we went to the Federal Reserve. How do you go even bigger than that?
“I knew we had an epic tale full of character and excitement. Donnie and Nick are on this collision course. Nick’s going to get his revenge, but it doesn’t quite turn out the way you think. He’s been completely hoodwinked by Donnie, who got the better of him at the end of the first film.
“Nick’s always been impressed with Donnie. He has a worthy adversary there, and a silverback gorilla like Nick needs another silverback gorilla to wrestle with.”
The film’s explosive scenes demanded a lot from the cast who performed a lot of their own stunts.
Jackson lost two and a half stone for the role and Butler appears similarly ripped.
The film’s impressive roster of athletic talent also included a number of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) champions such as Dutch kickboxer Rico Verhoeven, Brazilian UFC legend Vitor Belfort, former UFC title holder Michael Bisping and Ciryl Gane, a current heavyweight competitor in the UFC.
Butler said: “These actor- athletes have a particular energy, which is that they want to learn, they want to do this. Nobody has their kind of work ethic.”
One of the many thrilling scenes involves a car chase across mountainous roads.
Porsche had five custom- designed Taycan cars that were about to be destroyed because they weren’t built for on-road use and the Den of Thieves 2 team snapped them up.
Butler enjoyed his training, but executing stunts and using weapons inside the vehicle was challenging.
He said: “There was so much manoeuvring of guns inside the Porsche which, as much as it’s a beautiful car, wasn’t designed for reloading large guns.
“The tricky thing was, we sometimes had to fire the weapons backwards. We had to lift off the seat, put our butts back almost into the driver’s face, turn our legs around, and then have one hand out the window.
“This would all be happening while driving at full speed and making turns around sharp bends.”
The movie was mostly filmed in Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands.
Although it’s a beautiful part of the world, the warm climate didn’t always go down well with Scot Butler during filming.
During one heist sequence at the Hatton Bourse, he and another five thieves were stuck in a very small elevator shaft. They were squeezed between the wall and the cab and there was no air conditioning.
Butler said: “At one point we filmed inside these little box rooms with the whole camera crew. We were dressed in black neoprene bodysuits with thick black masks that stick out half an inch from your face.
“You put them on and it feels like you’re being suffocated. There’s no oxygen, there’s no air and it’s so hot. A tiny little room with six actors who are panicking, all dressed in black.
“We’re sweating like crazy, and it’s so hot you think you’re going to have a heat stroke.”
“Then Christian (director Christian Gudegast) comes in and films it quickly, in guerilla-filmmaking style.”
But it was all worth it, with Butler confident they’ve made the ultimate action movie.
He added: “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera has it all — drama, thrills, action, comedy. It’s also very smart and really gets into the workings of this incredible world of high-stakes theft.”
Den of Thieves: Pantera is available to stream on Lionsgate+