Innan "300" frknippade jag honom mest med den helt fantastiskt B-iga "Attila the Hun", dr Butler spelade hunnerkonungen Attila. Att verklighetens Attila sannolikt snarare hade mongoliska drag, samt att filmens romare trots att den utspelar sig p 400-talet efter Kristus br de vid det laget helt otidsenliga lorica segmentata (ett fel som fr vrigt syns i nstan alla Hollywoods romarfilmer) r en sak, men filmen r trots allt lite charmig och rolig att se. Men mer fantasy n historisk korrekthet, vilket oftast r fallet nr Hollywood frsker sig p att skildra antiken.
Men frn och med den dagen jag sg "300" fr frsta gngen r och frblir Gerard Butler kung Leonidas fr mig. Han r lika frknippad med den rollen som Malcolm McDowell r med Alex DeLarge i "A Clockwork Orange". Och visst r "300" en riktigt grym film, och rolig mellan varven.
Gerard Butler r kanske inte ngon utprglad karaktrsskdis, men som muskuls actionhjlte funkar han fint. Han verkar dock vara mycket trevlig och jordnra som person, enligt rykten ska han vara mycket schysst mot sina fans, han vgrar till exempel aldrig att skriva en autograf eller att stlla upp p en bild.
IMDb har ven 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."