The hottest man in Hollywood is a Scot! Oh, how I wish I were a professional writer who was on assignment to meet and write about Gerard Butler. How I wish I could capture every little nuance, every little gesture, every little twinkle from his soul-stirring grayish-green eyes first hand as I asked him questions about his life and career and just communicate to my audience the real man behind the 6′2 tower of male masculinity…oh heck! Who am I kidding? I just want to sit there and drool and ask him to pretend to be my friend so all my friends would think I’m cool. I’d even pay him. Who wouldn’t? But the sad reality is that I’m not a professional writer. I’m just a dweeb with a blog -”Sigh”
Everything that’s written about the man, the myth, the only one who was born to play King Leonidas in the blockbuster hit “300″, tells me that this actor from humble beginnings would dismiss my musings and girlish fantasies as shallow. I can only assume from my research that his goal as an actor is not to be looked at as some Hollywood sex symbol to be lusted and adored by many women all over the world but rather to be taken seriously as a good actor. The lusting and adoring, has already come with the territory though, and I’m quite positive that Mr. Butler has his priorities in order. Let’s take a closer look at a bit of his life and his career, from “Mrs. Brown” to “300″, the movie that put him on the map.
Mr. Butler’s career was not an overnight success story. He’s had the acting bug since he was a child and even convinced his mother to enroll him in the Scottish Youth Theatre in which he made a few appearances on stage. Gerard was an outstanding student in school, who excelled to the top of his class. His academic prowess prompted his teachers and family to encourage a career in law. He enrolled in Glasgow University’s Law program and graduated with honors but his following stint as a solicitor left him feeling miserable because law was not his true calling and he was eventually fired from his firm. It’s moments like this when you either “do” or “die”, and Gerard “did” when he met actor/director Steven Berkoff in a coffee shop. Berkoff was directing a play called “Corioloanus” and Gerard, convinced the director to let him read for a part and this was the start of something beautiful.
Having established himself as a stage actor Gerard soon transitioned to film. His screen debut was “Mrs. Brown” starring Judy Dench and Billy Connolly; followed by “Tomorrow Never Dies”; “Shooters”; “Harrison’s Flowers”; “Wes Craven’s Dracula 2000″; and the made for TV movie “Attila”. Now, “Attila” is the first movie in which I noticed Gerard Butler. Funnily enough I only caught the tail end of the movie where he was poisoned on his wedding night and my first thought was: “now if the wife was really smart, she would have consummated the wedding and then poisoned him”, because as you know, it’s all about the priorities but I digress, after “Attila”, Gerard returned to British TV and then we see him again in “Dear Frankie”, a must see; and “Timeline”, based on the novel by Michael Crichton. “Timeline” is what happens when a good director, Richard Donner, does a bad thing. The story was a great idea but the movie just left you feeling empty and nowhere, but there was a bright spot – Gerard Butler. You wanted to see more of him at this time and even if we didn’t get to see more of him in this paltry movie, we got a good dose of him in “Lara Croft Tombraider: The Cradle of Life”. Even though Gerard could have evoked the action hero caricature, his performance as Terry Sheridan worked because it wasn’t over-the-top. He was calm he was cool, he just knew what the hell he was doing and what was most intriguing about his performance was that there was something behind the ‘eyes’ that sort of set-off the ‘warning bells’. You just didn’t know if he was going to turn until the end.
I will admit that I was blown away by his performance in “Phantom Of The Opera”. I didn’t particularly care for the movie but I spent most of the time trying desperately to figure out who was playing this tortured and lonely soul. While some people canned his singing ability, I loved it. It was different, it resonated that soulful raspiness that tickled, titillated, and touched. It was in this movie where I began to admire Butler for being a chameleon. I didn’t recognize who this “Phantom” was until I saw his name in the ending credits. One of the biggest assets an actor can have is the gift of the chameleon. Gerard has the ability to change his appearance by becoming the character and yet still remaining Gerard, if that makes any sense, he retains a bit of himself with each character.
Next up were roles in “The Game Of Their Lives” and “Beouwulf & Grendel”, both I can’t comment on because I’ve seen neither. However, I will say that up until this point, the world still didn’t know much about Gerard. He had already proven that he had the “it” factor but none of the movies he starred in were successful at the box office. Well as the old saying goes, you have to learn to crawl before you walk and if anything could be said, let it be know that even though his movies weren’t hits, Gerard did prove that he was an actor to be reckoned with. He’d taken some hard knocks in stride only to earn the right to be King Leonidas in the movie that put his name in lights, “300″. Again, Gerard the chameleon with beard, braided hair and tunic, plays the fearless warrior King who sacrifices his life to save his beloved Sparta from the pillaging of the pesky Persians. And if you think you saw Gerard before, I’m sure you hadn’t seen anything until you saw him in all his Kingly glory complete with muscled abs, legs, and fiery red cloak. To date, “300″ has grossed over $450,000,000 worldwide. Gerard is here and he’s here to stay.
Next up we see him in “Nim’s Island”; “RockNRolla”; “The Untouchables: Capone Rising”; “Game”; “Priest”; and possibly, “Escape From New York”.
Just think about what would have happened if he had become a lawyer instead? OH, perish the thought…!
Cheers,
Deni