PART 2
WILD MAN Gerard Butler watched a stage production of Irvine Welsh classic Trainspotting and knew what he had to do... CHOOSE LIFE!
And that meant ditching his legal career and following his dream of making it as an actor.
"The guy playing the lead role was phenomenal. It was such an incredible atmosphere. And I was dying inside," recalls Gerard, who saw the play at the Edinburgh Festival.
"This is the life I wanted to live. I told myself, 'I can do this. I know I can do this. But it's past now. It's gone. I'm 25. I missed that opportunity'."
But days later he'd been sacked from his law firm - where he was within a week of qualifying as a solicitor - and was embarking on an acting career.
At the age of 27, Paisley boy Gerard left Scotland and went to London, where he sought the help of his only contact, a minor casting director.
What she said was not encouraging. Gerard knew nobody in the film business. He had had no acting training. Without any other options, he ended up doing odd jobs, handing out leaflets for boilers, demonstrating wind-up toys and selling PCs in shopping malls.
But he soon got his lucky break. Actor Steven Berkoff, famed for his villainous roles in Rambo and Octopussy, was casting for a stage production of William Shakespeare's Roman tragedy Coriolanus.
Berkoff, 72, agreed to let Gerard read a part. He was so impressed by Gerard he actually gave him the main role.
Gerard, who is now set to star with Ralph Fiennes in a Hollywood film version of Coriolanus, explains: "I was doing telemarketing, walking around shopping malls trying to get people interested in computers when I didn't even know what I was selling. Then this casting director said I could help her in giving out pages to the actors for a play done by Steven Berkoff.
"Anyway, I ran into Berkoff in the coffee shop downstairs and said, 'I'd love to read for this'. He said, 'Sure, why not?' I gave it everything.
This was the life I wanted to live
"Afterwards, the casting director came up to me almost in tears. She said, 'You're the best he saw in two days!' Walking home was probably the happiest moment of my life, when there's an energy in you that can't be put down."
Berkoff says: "It was his first break - it was the first time he'd stepped on the stage. I had a casting woman and I was looking for actors for Coriolanus because I was replacing a few actors who couldn't do it.
"My casting woman Sue said, 'I've brought along this chap just to read'. When he read, he did it with such enthusiasm and earnestness that he was far better than the principal actors who we were auditioning and yet he wasn't even an actor then.
"He just had a desire for it and an intelligence, a quickness of wit and of course that wonderful Scottish brogue. He was so defined as a warrior for a Roman play.
"So then I said he could be in it. Sue said, 'Are you sure? He's never even done anything. He's just a beginner'.
"So I said, 'Yes, I'm quite sure'. Then he came in and that's how it all started. He took to it like a duck to water.
"He was still going through some torments when he was working with me, but I could see him improving."
Gerard went on to appear in a string of hits, with roles in Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, Attila and The Phantom of the Opera. He has also had major leading man roles opposite Katherine Heigl in The Ugly Truth and Jennifer Aniston in The Bounty Hunter.
Berkoff says he was "gobsmacked" by Gerard's success, but urged him to be more selective in the films he chooses. He says: "I usually work with actors who've got very strong focus and are courageous so a lot of them do really well. Gerry wouldn't be the first one. Even so, I'm gobsmacked by his success. I think he's progressed very well but he's got to be a bit more selective now.
Misery's a sign of something wrong
"He's got to chose roles that have greater depth. I don't like him doing those romantic comedies.
"The only time I really saw him have tremendous charisma and depth was in 300. He came over absolutely phenomenally. It was an absolutely fantastic performance. That's what he should be doing - not these quick one-liners and cutesy roles.
"Sometimes though it's not what you choose but what you get offered. If he can choose, and he chooses the right films, I think he can go a long way.
"He is very, very self-disciplined and focused. He has a tremendous energy and a real power."
Berkoff adds: "I don't speak to him at all now because he's a Hollywood boy, isn't he? I last met him about three or four years ago.
"But he has expressed his gratitude to me and I'm thankful for that. He's a good working class Scottish lad and has an integrity about him."
During rehearsals for Coriolanus, Gerard heard about the auditions for the stage adaptation of Trainspotting, which he had seen in Edinburgh.
A year after seeing the play he was back in Edinburgh - but this time he was starring in the play after landing the part of Renton, played by Ewan McGregor in the film.
Moving to London had given Gerard the opportunities he craved.
He says: "I had no connections, no experience, no training, and no prospects. Everybody was laughing at me. Everybody was thinking I'd just messed up my whole career.
"I know that changing careers was what I needed to do. But what the hell was I thinking?
"You have to understand that I was completely out of control.
"If I hadn't been so lost and insane, I'd still be a lawyer.
I'd been in some very dark places
"Misery is a sign that something is wrong, that your life is in need of some big changes.
"I knew moving to London was a huge risk. But I said to myself, 'I'm aiming for the stars.
"I'll worry about the details later'."
Then came his film break in Mrs Brown. He landed the part of Archie Brown, the brother of John Brown - played by Billy Connolly.
During a break from filming, Gerard went with his mother Margaret to enjoy a picnic on the banks of the River Tay.
He heard shouts from a young boy who was in danger of drowning. Gerard dived in and saved him and earned himself a bravery award from the Royal Humane Society. Over the next three years he worked on a series of projects on the small and big screen, including a minor part as a naval officer on Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.
Playing the leader of the Hun in hit US television series Attila, a prelude to his macho role in 300, brought him attention in the US and laid the foundation for things to come.
Another role that got him noticed was the lead in a film adaptation of stage musical Phantom Of The Opera.
Hollywood heavyweights Antonio Banderas and John Travolta had also been tipped for the lead.
Gerard says of his portrayal of the angst-ridden Phantom: "I didn't see my father for 14 years, and he turned up one day and I didn't even know he was alive. So, there were a lot of powerful things to draw on. You know, through my own self-abuse I went to some pretty dark places, so that when I read this script, I could believe they were synonymous with the feelings of the Phantom."
But it was his role in 300 that catapulted him to fame - and with it came an intense focus on Gerard's love life.
He is quick to quash rumours that he dated co-stars such as Friends star Jennifer Aniston.
Those rumours have usually coincided with publicity for film launches.
He believes he has sacrificed the romantic side of his life for his film career: "It would be great to settle down but at the same time I sometimes think if anything had happened differently and I was in a long-term relationship I wouldn't be where I am now.
"If I'd had to make the sacrifices that a relationship would have required, I'd probably have been a lot happier in some respects, but I wouldn't have been as successful. I wouldn't have advanced as far in my career.
"I'd love to have children, but I won't be the only 40-year-old that doesn't have kids.
"I'll be happy when it happens. I'm realistic about that. A lot of happiness comes out of the excitement of watching your career progress and jump forwards and there's also a lot of happiness you can get out of being in love and being in a relationship.
"The comfort and foundation you take from that is not something you get when you're being crazy busy and successful and travelling all over the place because at the end of the day you're not in a relationship." There would be no shortage of takers. Gerard has tens of thousands of devoted fans, who call themselves the Tarts.
Mother-of-two Tamara Halstead, from Virginia in the US, set up fan site GerardButler.net in 2001. It has since had more than 10 million visitors.
Hardcore members flock to Scotland for conventions. At one a few years ago, Gerard's family, including his mum, two of his aunts and stepfather Alex Coll, 68, were guests of honour.
Mum Margaret, 67, a former coffee shop owner, told the crowd: "I can't tell you how highly he thinks of you and the love, encouragement and support you give him."
Gerard insists stardom has not changed him.
"You are still the same person who has to deal with getting out of bed every morning," he says. "It's weird. I think there's a part of you that always imagines if you encounter success, every fibre of your being will change. And you don't. You're still, 'Oh, so-and-so didn't call me,' and 'F***, I have to take care of that bill'."
One thing he does regret about his fame is losing his Scottish accent.
He admits: "I've spent a year-and- a-half now playing roles as an American and I'm not comfortable enough doing those accents only when we film, so I have to keep it up all the time. I hate myself for doing that."
His fondness for his Scottish roots remains strong.
He beams: "I love everything about the Scottish people: their warmth, humour, potential for violence.
"Nobody from Glasgow goes into acting. You were seen as weird if you wanted to be an actor. But I don't mind. It's what I always wanted to do."