Innan "300" förknippade jag honom mest med den helt fantastiskt B-iga "Attila the Hun", där Butler spelade hunnerkonungen Attila. Att verklighetens Attila sannolikt snarare hade mongoliska drag, samt att filmens romare trots att den utspelar sig på 400-talet efter Kristus bär de vid det laget helt otidsenliga lorica segmentata (ett fel som för övrigt syns i nästan alla Hollywoods romarfilmer) är en sak, men filmen är trots allt lite charmig och rolig att se. Men mer fantasy än historisk korrekthet, vilket oftast är fallet när Hollywood försöker sig på att skildra antiken.
Men från och med den dagen jag såg "300" för första gången är och förblir Gerard Butler kung Leonidas för mig. Han är lika förknippad med den rollen som Malcolm McDowell är med Alex DeLarge i "A Clockwork Orange". Och visst är "300" en riktigt grym film, och rolig mellan varven.
Gerard Butler är kanske inte någon utpräglad karaktärsskådis, men som muskulös actionhjälte funkar han fint. Han verkar dock vara mycket trevlig och jordnära som person, enligt rykten ska han vara mycket schysst mot sina fans, han vägrar till exempel aldrig att skriva en autograf eller att ställa upp på en bild.
IMDb har även en samling intressanta citat av herr Butler:
"In Scotland I'm just like a lot of other guys, but in America I'm seen as a very strong, masculine guy."
[on his family back home in Scotland] "I go home and they'll cook Christmas *dinner, and she's like, 'C'mon, give a hand, come on, wash the dishes or put the dishes away.' And I'm like, 'Mom, I am a major Hollywood movie star, I can't be doing this. It's embarrassing.'"
[on the masculinity of UK actors] "It's that deep voice, the intensity, the gravitas. You just hear the Scottish voice and you can hear a man with a set of heavy feet that are connected to the ground. When they smile, they really smile. When they stare, they really stare. There is just something burning about them."
[on how building up an intimidating physique was important for 300 (2006)]: "It's easy for me to be paranoid, especially when you're an actor playing the lead role. I have previously seen so many actors with a massive amount of armour on and then these little twiggy arms. I'm not naming any names, but some of them have these plummy accents and you think to yourself: 'You couldn't fight your way out of a paper bag and you're commanding armies or are supposed to be a knight or whatever. That's all so King Arthur. I wanted to be the guy who my men could look to and say: 'Yeah, I would follow him.' And the audience would look at him and think: 'Yeah, I can see why they would follow him into battle.' And then finally, that I would be feeling like: 'Of course they're going to follow me.' I also wanted to see that in their eyes, that I could feel they had respect for me."
[on enjoying his physique while it lasted for the first 300 (2006)]: "There is a certain amount of spraying that goes on to get you tan. The darker you get, the more your muscles show. They're still your muscles but we'd spray them to enhance them. We'd still work hard. By the end of the movie, I was cut so much that I could stick my fingers into the ripples of my abs. I would flash everyone with my six-pack--it was an eight-pack, actually. I was like, "check this out," because you are never going to see this again."