OHF promotion/interviews

[swansong]

Mar 25, 2013 10:25:04 GMT -5 elenoire said:

Very interesting interview... Gerry talks about a musical on Broadway, that he was interested in... it fell apart, but who knows...

www.parade.com/celebrity/celebrity-parade/2013/03/24-gerard-butler-on-singing-fame-and-the-secret-service.html

On a recent sunny weekend morning in Los Angeles, Gerard Butler stands in the middle of a hotel room suite with his fingers pointed in a mock gun pose. Think James Bond in a leather jacket. "I want to be badass all weekend," he smirks, showing off his Scottish accent and his roguish charm. While he's more dashing the menacing in person, he does get his macho fix in his latest film Olympus Has Fallen, which hit theaters this weekend

As Secret Service agent Mike Banning, he attempts to save the president and the country after the White House succumbs to a foreign attack. Butler flexes and shoots plenty (more on his marksman skills below!), but he also made sure the film didn't run purely on testosterone (i.e. get prepared to get misty-eyed in some parts...). As producer on the film—his fifth project in such a role— he made a crucial change to the scene in which Banning saves the President at the cost of the First Lady's life. "In the original script we were on snowmobiles, she went down, then I had to dive into the water," Butler says. "But the way I came up with, to have to pull the president’s hands off his wife as the car goes over? By the time Banning has to do that, you’re in it, you’re with him. We’re making a hopefully entertaining action movie but we wanted to give it substance.”

He explains that the film's wide allure across gender or other demographic lines comes from the catharsis it provides. “After 9/11, people needed something visceral, to see the guys who did something terrible pay for it. We went to war a few months later but it wasn’t the same," Butler says. "In this movie, the audience gets payback.”

After some sips from a can of sugar-free Red Bull, the 43-year-old actor reflects on his career and what else we can expect from him.

Is he a good shot now? “Actually I am. For Machine Gun Preacher, I spent time with the Michigan SWAT team and fired a sniper rifle. I hit four in a row at the target’s head. I have it on film, the whole team was screaming since they couldn't believe it. The director framed it and gave it to me as a wrap gift.”

His time with the Secret Service.
"We worked closely with them. A lot of the details in the film came from them but there wasn't enough so we ended up with a mixture of what would really happen and what is great drama. They’re big personalities but when you see them doing their job, they show nothing. But take them away from their job and you see their passion. The service they provide is so in their blood. They are about honor and doing their job properly. It’s 100% failure or 100% success with them.”

He's the ultimate patriot in the film. Has he become an American [gotten his citizenship]?
“I’m Scottish through and through. I would never want to be anything other than Scottish. But I love this country and it’s given me great opportunity. I love everything it stands for and I love American people. Since they made Braveheart, I kind of have to be an American to be a badass. They’ve covered most Scottish badasses.”

On fame and his future.
"It’s nice to be appreciated. When I was a kid, I would watch Paul Newman or Steve McQueen or Richard Burton. You would get so affected and think ‘I want to be that guy.’ I wanted to make people feel like how those guys made me feel. To be honest, I think that’s what still drives me in a lot of ways. To me, it’s all about what makes me in flow: from developing a script, gathering a team together to make a movie. And as a Celt, there is a born strength and dignity. We’re not exotic animals but we’re strong, steadfast, and fighters. We were brought up in similar ideologies [to Americans] of honor and nobility. I’ve always loved playing these heroic characters because I’ve always loved exploring that journey and those values, whether I have them or aspire to have them. I love playing those guys are who I want to be.”

Did he really ask Marilyn Manson and Johnny Depp for advice about starting a band?
"I’ve never had conversations with Marilyn Manson or Johnny Depp. Though any conversation with either of them would be awesome!"

So will we ever get to see him sing again? “You just have to come to karaoke with me sometime! I would love to do it again [he played the lead role in the 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera]. I actually just got asked to do a musical on Broadway, which would be an interesting idea, but in the end it didn’t work out. So we’ll see. I sing for fun. When you act in movies, it’s a certain way of expressing yourself, and when you act on stage, it’s a another area. Same with singing."

Gerard Butler = dance machine? “This is how sad I am: after watching This Is It about Michael Jackson, I went to a hip hop one-on-one class. It was just me and this top-notch choreographer. I was running late. I was in the middle of getting ready for Chasing Mavericks so I was this white guy with long hair. The guy was like, in the nicest way, ‘Why are you here?’ [laughs] I was all right. People always used to say I was born with black in my soul. I loved to dance when I was younger. Any other way of changing it up, you feel like you were almost born again.”

WOW! I am dying to know what musical he might be referring to! But he also said in an interview that he has lost his upper range due to some sort of growth in his throat, so perhaps that's why it didn't work out. Wish he'd elaborate more.

[TeePat]

I picked up on that right away. I would love for him to do a musical but since he broke the 2 bones in his neck he can't sing the upper notes. There is nothing to be done about it either. He had gone to the Dr. to find out why he couldn't sing the higher notes, that's when the 2 broken bones were discovered. I hope it doesn't mean it's the end of his singing career.

[Tartan Spartan]

Loads of buses in London advertising OHF! Let's do over here what has happened in U.S! X

[sienari]

Mar 25, 2013 3:24:51 GMT -5 catty said:

Mar 25, 2013 1:29:32 GMT -5 fifiserafino said:

Has anyone else noticed Gerry's manicure? His fingernails have been catching the light during interviews and he usually has quite raggedy nails, but everything is looking freshly clipped and polished.

I haven't noticed- but I will have a look.

What i do notice is HOW BIG his hand are..

#HugeHands

Can any of you ladies help me out here? I'm trying to remember when Gerard stopped wearing that ring on his right hand. Does anyone recall when that might have been?

[catty]

The last time i remember seeing that ring was during the LAC promotion.

So that would be end of 2009, start of 2010 he was hands free.

I think <> please correct me if I am wrong.

[jhawk]

Great articles. Gerry is on a roll. It's great to see this for him. Way to go G.

[fifiserafino]

bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/hollywood_mine/2013/03/gerard_butler_on_saving_the_free_world

Gerard Butler: On saving the Free World [/size]

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN has resurrected Gerard Butler's box-office standing after a series of flops, giving the Scots actor a well deserved hit with virtually nonstop action that appealed to audiences who wanted something stronger than the Stone Age family antics of the 3D animated THE CROODS. Butler was in high spirits when we spoke at the Waldorf Towers, gesturing as he spoke about the demands of making screen action look realistic and yet letting the actor go on without serious bodily harm to another cinematic save in the future.



Q:As Mike Banning, ex-Special Forces, ex Secret Service, who saves the United States and the Free World, do you feel as a Scotsman you’re following in the footsteps of say Sean Connery, going around saving the world from the forces of evil?

Gerard Butler: He was a British agent whereas I’m playing an American secret service agent and I’m just gonna take it as a testament to my fine acting to pull that off.

Q: Sean Connery never tried to change his accent, he always sounded the same. You do too right? Or did you try and do a more American accent here because you’re talking like you’re talking now?

GB: I soften my accent often but I was doing American. I had a dialect coach. We listen and she gives me every note and I listen and if it doesn’t sound full on American, I try and fix it. I’m sure there are times when it slips out but the problem is that over the years doing an American accent, my Scottish accent is starting to disappear and I hate myself for that. Sometimes people think I’m actually American.

Q: How does your career balance out between being the heroic action star that kills and the romantic lover? Do you have a preference on one or the other?

GB: It depends where I am. If I’m in the middle of a romantic comedy and it’s going well, I love it. A little bit of romance to cheer you up and some heart, you really get into that but I’m probably more in my element doing a drama or an action-thriller because I dig that. They’re fun to do. It’s hard to try and develop a character in the middle of all that action and that’s the challenge. Somebody that people can attach themselves to and connect with and fighting the demons within themselves as well as the demons outside which in this case are the extremists. Then when you’re in the middle of these huge sets and the testosterone is pumping through you, it’s exciting and you go -- “I’m lucky to be able to do this!” You’re telling a story that you hope will be able to terrify people and provoke them. It’s gonna excite them and maybe move them and make them laugh at the same time -- that’s what I try and do in the job.

Q: The reason OLYMPUS works so well is that we believe that you can actually do this stuff, you’re great for that type of thing. How did you see Mike, does he have issue even before the prologue where things go so badly for him?

GB: That’s why we put the scene in there [later] with Angela Basset where she says -- “You were crazy the day you stepped into my office” -- which was years before the tragedy. But yeah, I think he definitely has a screw or two loose but it’s never affected him in doing his job. The tragedy that happened was actually caused in some ways by him averting a greater tragedy. His job was to save the President, which he did. But as a result the President’s wife died and what a great dynamic that is immediately. He’s been haunted by that and having a screw or two loose, he is the kind of guy who would rather be in the thick of the action and do what he was trained to do and you get the feeling as the movie goes on that he kind of enjoys being that kind of uncompromising, brutal enforcer. In the interim period, where he’s been stuck in the Treasury [Department], you get such a feeling that he’s a caged animal and he’s not happy. It’s affecting his whole life, it’s affecting his relationship with his wife, Radha Mitchell, and yeah he’s not in the best space that he’s ever been and due to the weirdness of life and as a result of this attack and the White House being attacked and besieged and the President being held hostage, in some ways that moves him into his element. He’s now there to take no prisoners.

Q: When he says -- “I’m gonna take a knife and put it through your brain” -- he’s not kidding.

GB: No, that was my line. Because I always wanted to be saying something to him that was so brutal and cold and yet 100% convincing of what I’m gonna do --“I’m gonna take a knife and put it through your brain.” The funny thing is it was coming out of me, and in fact I said to the writer Dan Gilroy - who wrote ‘The Bourne Legacy’ - who came on - and we read with him and every night I was on the phone with him just trying to work to make it more gripping and more believable, more involved, more specific. Like why does everybody do the things that they do? And some of the fascinating parts of being Secret Service in this situation. You’re in the White House, what are you saying? Who are you trying to get in touch with, establishing lines of communication, playing the psychological games that you do with your arch nemesis? Eradicating threats, checking out and assessing their level of proficiency. All of these things, we show that! And that’s the kind of stuff that’s gold in a movie and really sucks you in.

Q: There are action actors now in their 40’s who are limping or have terrible shoulder or neck problems or their hearing is going. What are the physical things going on for you? How do you go through that for a movie?

GB: Well in ‘300’, we had a lot of fight sequences as well. I spent three months having a guy running at me full speed, hitting my shoulder and then lifting him over my body. You do that a couple hundred of times and your shoulder’s hurting. You’re pumping iron, you’re taking hits, you’re picking them up, you’re throwing yourself all over the place. But in this movie I was up against it more; it was more hand to hand. You had to take punches. At one point, my arm went black and it looked like a cadaver. It was black and purple from my wrist to my elbow. At one point I had a bruise the size of a soccer ball on my right leg. Cut my hands and burned my throat when Dylan [McDermott] flicked a cigarette and it caught the glycerin and it burned. I got a big scab there. I was hit in the eye by a bullet casing because I was firing next to a pillar and it went BOOM! I thought someone punched me in the face. So you’re always, it’s definitely not something that everybody can do but if you can do it, then the more you do it, the better you get at it. You sign up for the fact that you’re gonna get a few grazes and a few bruises along the way. To be honest, when you come out of the movie and you see it, that’s what makes it all the more special. If I’d come through this movie with little to show for it and say that I didn’t hurt myself in any way, I don’t think that I’d be appreciating what I’m doing as much because you think that Mike Banning wasn’t hurting at the end. He limps out of that White House. It’s very strong for women this movie, there’s such powerful female character who garner such respect and have some much integrity and strength and I love that. Even my wife, Radha...

Q: Well in real life you’re not married or have a child and something that’s cool in the movie is you have such a great paternal relationship with this boy Connor who is the President’s only child. Was that always there?

GB: Connor was always in the story and it was always a very powerful, emotional tool to see how much he loved Mike and how much Mike loved him and how it broke his heart that Mike no longer worked with the President. Again, suddenly I’m there and it’s just the two of us in the White House and I have to get this kid, who as well as being the President's son is also the tool and the potential to really test the President’s loyalty to his own country. Because these extremists want his son so bad and they know that if they’re gonna get anything out of the President [it's by using his son as a hostage]. We all realize that fact and it’s all about getting Connor the hell out of there.

Q: How do you recover from the physicality of a movie like this?

GB: You spend a lot of time with a chiropractor and a physical therapist and getting deep massage and crying, going -- “Why did I do that? It’s probably not even gonna be any good.” A lot of times sitting in a therapist chair. In a few months you’re ok I guess.

Q: Banning’s not a reflective guy though?

GB: I think he is. I think when he gets down to business, it’s all business but I think in his life he has way too much time to reflect. He sits in that chair in the Treasury office all day bouncing his ball and going -- “How the f--- did this happen? I trained all those years to protect my country and protect the President and now I’m here looking at accounts.” It’s killing him. I think unfortunately lately, he’s had too much time to reflect but I think that he’s ultimately a man of action. He needs to be in action and this horrific situation gives him the chance to be where he should be.



Q: Did you pick up anything from the Secret Service guy who was working on technical stuff with the movie?

GB: Everything. We had two special Secret Service agents. We had Rickey Jones, Joe Bannon. And Darrell Connerton who is a security advisor to the White House. In Washington and we had other Secret Service agents who would train me on the field. We’d go out shooting guns, he’d teach me the way they think, the way they move. I also worked with a SWAT team. And then a lot of our stunt team and stunt coordinators were Special Forces. You learn so much from them and we used so much of that in the movie because, to me, you had to be gripped every time you were with Mike. What’s he doing? What’s his protocol? When is he thinking outside the box? When is he assessing? When is he killing? When is he kidnapping? When is he establishing lines of communication? All those things that are fascinating. Then people go what really does happen in those situations is what we wanted to create so we take some of that stuff and use it in performance or put it in the script so you are always knowing or discovering the next move.



Q: You’ve been in the business a long time, how do you deal with success and failure?

GB: You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you win a couple or you lose a couple. You’re in the business of trying to make movies for the right reasons and sometimes they don’t work out as planned or they’re not marketed as they should have been or people don’t get the same point as you did. But I always try and have a message in my movie, and I’ve never had a movie where I don’t hear back -- “I love that for this reason” -- it affected them. That’s what I try and focus on rather than the sh-t that comes with it because what’s the point? It’s just a fact, it’s all information and unless I can learn from it. In actual fact, I feel like I have learned from my experiences both good and bad. I’m always analyzing and thinking without playing safe, what can I learn from recent mistakes and recent results?



Q: Do you think that goes back to your legal training?

GB: I think it does.



Q: So you’ll read your reviews?

GB: I don’t read a lot of reviews but I read a few on each movie and see what the movie is getting. But I’m more interested in what the audiences think. You go into watch this movie and you go in with a regular audience and they’re pumping their fists, they’re screaming, they’re laughing, they’re gasping. Some of them are crying and they’re all coming out going -- “Holy sh-t.” I just read a review the other day that they said they never knew what it meant to be on the edge of their seat - 'until I was literally on the edge of my seat for this whole movie.' That’s what I dig because that’s me. I’m a moviegoer. I want to have the same experience and at the end of the day, you want good reviews but often reviews are so indirectly related to what the consumer is actually enjoying.



Q: You’re doing the sequel to HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON?

GB: Yeah.



Q: Have you done it already?

GB: I’ve done a lot of it but there will still be another year before it comes out.



Q: Is that the next one that’s coming out for you?

GB: It might be, yeah.

[fifiserafino]

Thanks SD

play.lifegoesstrong.com/article/gerard-butler-life-advice-finding-your-way-and-his-new-movie-olympus-has-fallen

Gerard Butler: Life Advice, Finding Your Way and His New Movie "Olympus Has Fallen"[/size]

"Olympus Has Fallen" star Gerard Butler on Life Advice and What He Knows Now



This is my favorite Gerard Butler story.

Two days before my wedding last October, I did an interview with the handsome Scot…followed by an interview with Daniel Day-Lewis and Denzel Washington.

"Congratulations!" Butler said. "I'm feeling good. Bright and breezy. How are you?"

I was feeling great.

"You do know that I was sent by the devil to give you some final temptation," he joked. "Can you do an interview today with me, George Clooney and Denzel and then get married?"

"Yes!" I said.

"Still, you must have to deal with temptation from the universe," he said with a twinkle in his voice. "Can you handle it?"

BUTLER ON HIS LIFE PLAN

Handsome Gerard Butler never planned on becoming an A-list actor.

Born in Paisley, Scotland, he moved to Canada after his parents divorced.

Butler graduated Glasgow University with a law degree, but that took a detour when another actor spotted him in a London coffee shop and suggested he tryout for a play and a TV series.

Does he ever think about how much calmer his life would be if he just remained a lawyer?

Butler chuckles. "I often think about that when I'm whining about almost drowning. Now I think, 'I could have been sitting in an office,' which had its moments as well. There was a lot about being a lawyer that I loved.

"I loved negotiating contracts," he says. "But, at the same time, I knew that life wasn't for me."

"I knew I should be out at sea being held down by a couple of waves or being hit by bullet casings, which I have been in movies," he says.

HIS NEW HIT FILM "OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN"

He stars in "Olympus Has Fallen" about a former Secret Service agent working to prevent a terrorist attack on the White House.

"Protecting the White House was a lot of fun, but it was 110 degrees in Louisiana where we filmed," Butler says.

"There was explosions and fire. There is a big long action sequence where I've been running for a mile full speed with a cargo plane shooting at me. I'm trying desperately to get to the White House with the sweat pouring off of me."

HIS DVD MOVIE "CHASING MAVERICKS" AND LIFE ADVICE

"I thought I was going to die," says Butler of a moment that changed his midlife.

"There was nothing I could do," he recalls. "I thought best case scenario is they would find my body later when I was unconscious and maybe they could revive me – or maybe not."

It was a murky day on the Santa Cruz set of "Chasing Mavericks" and Butler had already spent eight hours in the freezing waters when he hit a part of the ocean surrounded by jagged rocks known as The Boneyard.

The waves are so high and hard that many surfers don't survive it.

"I messed up," Butler admits. "I had paddled way too far out and I saw these big hard waves coming in, one after another, so I started paddling back as hard as I could."

There was no way he could escape it. "The largest wave I've ever seen in my life caught me and took me down. My board disappeared and I was already out of breath when the wave hit me," Butler says.

At that moment, he made a horrifying realization.

"I lost my board," he says. "Then the next wave pummeled into me and the situation became really dire. My body disappeared under the water on my way to those bone yard rocks down below."

He was spinning and disorientated when he saw the headlines in his mind. "I could see someone printing, 'Gerard Butler disappeared and never came back.'"

In "Chasing Mavericks," now out on DVD, Butler plays Santa Cruz' Frosty Hesson in "Chasing Mavericks," a surfing legend who helps young Jay Moriarty (Jonny Weston) conquer the Mavericks surf break, one of the biggest waves on Earth.

Butler says from the get-go, the film was the kind of difficult challenge he loves to embrace.

"The crazy thing is I got into trouble I few times during training with huge swells," she says. "I got caught by a massive way, which grabbed me by the foot and kept beating me down. I remember getting out of the water thinking, 'I can't do this movie. I just don't know how I'm going to tell them.'

"A few hours later, I was ready to get in the water again," he says with a laugh.

BUTLER THE MAN: WHAT HE KNOWS NOW

The single, chatty Butler is one of the friendliest and least affected movie stars in the business.

"I take my work seriously, but I try not to take the rest of it too seriously," he says of what he knows now about life. "I never get too caught up in fame," he says. "I like to be nice. It's a lot easier than being a jerk.

"Of course, next time you talk to me, I'll probably be screaming, 'Shut up! Stupid question! Shut up!'"

[Dianne]

Mar 27, 2013 0:06:35 GMT -5 fifiserafino said:

bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/hollywood_mine/2013/03/gerard_butler_on_saving_the_free_world

Gerard Butler: On saving the Free World

[/size]

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN has resurrected Gerard Butler's box-office standing after a series of flops, giving the Scots actor a well deserved hit with virtually nonstop action that appealed to audiences who wanted something stronger than the Stone Age family antics of the 3D animated THE CROODS. Butler was in high spirits when we spoke at the Waldorf Towers, gesturing as he spoke about the demands of making screen action look realistic and yet letting the actor go on without serious bodily harm to another cinematic save in the future.



Q:As Mike Banning, ex-Special Forces, ex Secret Service, who saves the United States and the Free World, do you feel as a Scotsman you’re following in the footsteps of say Sean Connery, going around saving the world from the forces of evil?

Gerard Butler: He was a British agent whereas I’m playing an American secret service agent and I’m just gonna take it as a testament to my fine acting to pull that off.

Q: Sean Connery never tried to change his accent, he always sounded the same. You do too right? Or did you try and do a more American accent here because you’re talking like you’re talking now?

GB: I soften my accent often but I was doing American. I had a dialect coach. We listen and she gives me every note and I listen and if it doesn’t sound full on American, I try and fix it. I’m sure there are times when it slips out but the problem is that over the years doing an American accent, my Scottish accent is starting to disappear and I hate myself for that. Sometimes people think I’m actually American.

Q: How does your career balance out between being the heroic action star that kills and the romantic lover? Do you have a preference on one or the other?

GB: It depends where I am. If I’m in the middle of a romantic comedy and it’s going well, I love it. A little bit of romance to cheer you up and some heart, you really get into that but I’m probably more in my element doing a drama or an action-thriller because I dig that. They’re fun to do. It’s hard to try and develop a character in the middle of all that action and that’s the challenge. Somebody that people can attach themselves to and connect with and fighting the demons within themselves as well as the demons outside which in this case are the extremists. Then when you’re in the middle of these huge sets and the testosterone is pumping through you, it’s exciting and you go -- “I’m lucky to be able to do this!” You’re telling a story that you hope will be able to terrify people and provoke them. It’s gonna excite them and maybe move them and make them laugh at the same time -- that’s what I try and do in the job.

Q: The reason OLYMPUS works so well is that we believe that you can actually do this stuff, you’re great for that type of thing. How did you see Mike, does he have issue even before the prologue where things go so badly for him?

GB: That’s why we put the scene in there [later] with Angela Basset where she says -- “You were crazy the day you stepped into my office” -- which was years before the tragedy. But yeah, I think he definitely has a screw or two loose but it’s never affected him in doing his job. The tragedy that happened was actually caused in some ways by him averting a greater tragedy. His job was to save the President, which he did. But as a result the President’s wife died and what a great dynamic that is immediately. He’s been haunted by that and having a screw or two loose, he is the kind of guy who would rather be in the thick of the action and do what he was trained to do and you get the feeling as the movie goes on that he kind of enjoys being that kind of uncompromising, brutal enforcer. In the interim period, where he’s been stuck in the Treasury [Department], you get such a feeling that he’s a caged animal and he’s not happy. It’s affecting his whole life, it’s affecting his relationship with his wife, Radha Mitchell, and yeah he’s not in the best space that he’s ever been and due to the weirdness of life and as a result of this attack and the White House being attacked and besieged and the President being held hostage, in some ways that moves him into his element. He’s now there to take no prisoners.

Q: When he says -- “I’m gonna take a knife and put it through your brain” -- he’s not kidding.

GB: No, that was my line. Because I always wanted to be saying something to him that was so brutal and cold and yet 100% convincing of what I’m gonna do --“I’m gonna take a knife and put it through your brain.” The funny thing is it was coming out of me, and in fact I said to the writer Dan Gilroy - who wrote ‘The Bourne Legacy’ - who came on - and we read with him and every night I was on the phone with him just trying to work to make it more gripping and more believable, more involved, more specific. Like why does everybody do the things that they do? And some of the fascinating parts of being Secret Service in this situation. You’re in the White House, what are you saying? Who are you trying to get in touch with, establishing lines of communication, playing the psychological games that you do with your arch nemesis? Eradicating threats, checking out and assessing their level of proficiency. All of these things, we show that! And that’s the kind of stuff that’s gold in a movie and really sucks you in.

Q: There are action actors now in their 40’s who are limping or have terrible shoulder or neck problems or their hearing is going. What are the physical things going on for you? How do you go through that for a movie?

GB: Well in ‘300’, we had a lot of fight sequences as well. I spent three months having a guy running at me full speed, hitting my shoulder and then lifting him over my body. You do that a couple hundred of times and your shoulder’s hurting. You’re pumping iron, you’re taking hits, you’re picking them up, you’re throwing yourself all over the place. But in this movie I was up against it more; it was more hand to hand. You had to take punches. At one point, my arm went black and it looked like a cadaver. It was black and purple from my wrist to my elbow. At one point I had a bruise the size of a soccer ball on my right leg. Cut my hands and burned my throat when Dylan [McDermott] flicked a cigarette and it caught the glycerin and it burned. I got a big scab there. I was hit in the eye by a bullet casing because I was firing next to a pillar and it went BOOM! I thought someone punched me in the face. So you’re always, it’s definitely not something that everybody can do but if you can do it, then the more you do it, the better you get at it. You sign up for the fact that you’re gonna get a few grazes and a few bruises along the way. To be honest, when you come out of the movie and you see it, that’s what makes it all the more special. If I’d come through this movie with little to show for it and say that I didn’t hurt myself in any way, I don’t think that I’d be appreciating what I’m doing as much because you think that Mike Banning wasn’t hurting at the end. He limps out of that White House. It’s very strong for women this movie, there’s such powerful female character who garner such respect and have some much integrity and strength and I love that. Even my wife, Radha...

Q: Well in real life you’re not married or have a child and something that’s cool in the movie is you have such a great paternal relationship with this boy Connor who is the President’s only child. Was that always there?

GB: Connor was always in the story and it was always a very powerful, emotional tool to see how much he loved Mike and how much Mike loved him and how it broke his heart that Mike no longer worked with the President. Again, suddenly I’m there and it’s just the two of us in the White House and I have to get this kid, who as well as being the President's son is also the tool and the potential to really test the President’s loyalty to his own country. Because these extremists want his son so bad and they know that if they’re gonna get anything out of the President [it's by using his son as a hostage]. We all realize that fact and it’s all about getting Connor the hell out of there.

Q: How do you recover from the physicality of a movie like this?

GB: You spend a lot of time with a chiropractor and a physical therapist and getting deep massage and crying, going -- “Why did I do that? It’s probably not even gonna be any good.” A lot of times sitting in a therapist chair. In a few months you’re ok I guess.

Q: Banning’s not a reflective guy though?

GB: I think he is. I think when he gets down to business, it’s all business but I think in his life he has way too much time to reflect. He sits in that chair in the Treasury office all day bouncing his ball and going -- “How the f--- did this happen? I trained all those years to protect my country and protect the President and now I’m here looking at accounts.” It’s killing him. I think unfortunately lately, he’s had too much time to reflect but I think that he’s ultimately a man of action. He needs to be in action and this horrific situation gives him the chance to be where he should be.



Q: Did you pick up anything from the Secret Service guy who was working on technical stuff with the movie?

GB: Everything. We had two special Secret Service agents. We had Rickey Jones, Joe Bannon. And Darrell Connerton who is a security advisor to the White House. In Washington and we had other Secret Service agents who would train me on the field. We’d go out shooting guns, he’d teach me the way they think, the way they move. I also worked with a SWAT team. And then a lot of our stunt team and stunt coordinators were Special Forces. You learn so much from them and we used so much of that in the movie because, to me, you had to be gripped every time you were with Mike. What’s he doing? What’s his protocol? When is he thinking outside the box? When is he assessing? When is he killing? When is he kidnapping? When is he establishing lines of communication? All those things that are fascinating. Then people go what really does happen in those situations is what we wanted to create so we take some of that stuff and use it in performance or put it in the script so you are always knowing or discovering the next move.



Q: You’ve been in the business a long time, how do you deal with success and failure?

GB: You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you win a couple or you lose a couple. You’re in the business of trying to make movies for the right reasons and sometimes they don’t work out as planned or they’re not marketed as they should have been or people don’t get the same point as you did. But I always try and have a message in my movie, and I’ve never had a movie where I don’t hear back -- “I love that for this reason” -- it affected them. That’s what I try and focus on rather than the sh-t that comes with it because what’s the point? It’s just a fact, it’s all information and unless I can learn from it. In actual fact, I feel like I have learned from my experiences both good and bad. I’m always analyzing and thinking without playing safe, what can I learn from recent mistakes and recent results?



Q: Do you think that goes back to your legal training?

GB: I think it does.



Q: So you’ll read your reviews?

GB: I don’t read a lot of reviews but I read a few on each movie and see what the movie is getting. But I’m more interested in what the audiences think. You go into watch this movie and you go in with a regular audience and they’re pumping their fists, they’re screaming, they’re laughing, they’re gasping. Some of them are crying and they’re all coming out going -- “Holy sh-t.” I just read a review the other day that they said they never knew what it meant to be on the edge of their seat - 'until I was literally on the edge of my seat for this whole movie.' That’s what I dig because that’s me. I’m a moviegoer. I want to have the same experience and at the end of the day, you want good reviews but often reviews are so indirectly related to what the consumer is actually enjoying.



Q: You’re doing the sequel to HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON?

GB: Yeah.



Q: Have you done it already?

GB: I’ve done a lot of it but there will still be another year before it comes out.



Q: Is that the next one that’s coming out for you?

GB: It might be, yeah.[/quote]

Let me start off by saying that I love Scottish people and I think they are just as patriotic as Americans. The struggles they have had throughout the centuries.... Anyway, I wish they would give Gerry a break with him losing his Scottish accent and realize that it's not on purpose. He really beats himself up for it.

Although in their defense I used to get ticked with Madonna and her British accent, although I think Madonna's accent was put on.

[Deleted]

Mar 25, 2013 11:04:36 GMT -5 swansong said:

WOW! I am dying to know what musical he might be referring to! But he also said in an interview that he has lost his upper range due to some sort of growth in his throat, so perhaps that's why it didn't work out. Wish he'd elaborate more.

I am also dying to know also what musical he was referring to sad that it didn't work out.

I am also a little concerned about his comments regarding those broken bones in his neck. I can't tell if he is saying that the growth in his throat was mistaken for one of those broken bones or they were just found at that time. I hope that growth was connected to those broken bones and not a separate health problem.

I'm still getting a little rattled that his voice box was involved, I am sure he had the best Doctors and all is good.
Get your voice better fast Gerry so we can see you in a musical again.

shellie

[dawne27]

Mar 27, 2013 9:00:00 GMT -5 @shellie2 said:

Mar 25, 2013 11:04:36 GMT -5 swansong said:

WOW! I am dying to know what musical he might be referring to! But he also said in an interview that he has lost his upper range due to some sort of growth in his throat, so perhaps that's why it didn't work out. Wish he'd elaborate more.

I am also dying to know also what musical he was referring to sad that it didn't work out.

I am also a little concerned about his comments regarding those broken bones in his neck. I can't tell if he is saying that the growth in his throat was mistaken for one of those broken bones or they were just found at that time. I hope that growth was connected to those broken bones and not a separate health problem.

I'm still getting a little rattled that his voice box was involved, I am sure he had the best Doctors and all is good.
Get your voice better fast Gerry so we can see you in a musical again.

shellie

hi shellie ~ i think gerry said that the docs after a thorough MRI determined the 'mass' in his throat turned out to be a broken hyoid bone. gerry didn't notice this as broken other than a change in his high pitch for singing. the hyoid is a small crescent shaped bone (loose for great flexibility) lays in front of our pharyngeal cartilage (which protects the larynx (voicebox) and part of the thyroid gland). this bone is attached to throat and tongue muscles by thin ligaments. the only known probs w/fractures is down the road some swallowing issues and tongue stuff, speech not affected, a french kissing still doable so perhaps, when the man gets to be in his 90's....he should probably eat soft foods sitting uprightat a 90 degree angle... and NO lounging in bed eating cupcakes. LOL

[dawne27]

Mar 27, 2013 8:13:47 GMT -5 Dianne said:

Mar 27, 2013 0:06:35 GMT -5 fifiserafino said:

bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/hollywood_mine/2013/03/gerard_butler_on_saving_the_free_world

Gerard Butler: On saving the Free World

[/size]

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN has resurrected Gerard Butler's box-office standing after a series of flops, giving the Scots actor a well deserved hit with virtually nonstop action that appealed to audiences who wanted something stronger than the Stone Age family antics of the 3D animated THE CROODS. Butler was in high spirits when we spoke at the Waldorf Towers, gesturing as he spoke about the demands of making screen action look realistic and yet letting the actor go on without serious bodily harm to another cinematic save in the future.



Q:As Mike Banning, ex-Special Forces, ex Secret Service, who saves the United States and the Free World, do you feel as a Scotsman you’re following in the footsteps of say Sean Connery, going around saving the world from the forces of evil?

Gerard Butler: He was a British agent whereas I’m playing an American secret service agent and I’m just gonna take it as a testament to my fine acting to pull that off.

Q: Sean Connery never tried to change his accent, he always sounded the same. You do too right? Or did you try and do a more American accent here because you’re talking like you’re talking now?

GB: I soften my accent often but I was doing American. I had a dialect coach. We listen and she gives me every note and I listen and if it doesn’t sound full on American, I try and fix it. I’m sure there are times when it slips out but the problem is that over the years doing an American accent, my Scottish accent is starting to disappear and I hate myself for that. Sometimes people think I’m actually American.

Q: How does your career balance out between being the heroic action star that kills and the romantic lover? Do you have a preference on one or the other?

GB: It depends where I am. If I’m in the middle of a romantic comedy and it’s going well, I love it. A little bit of romance to cheer you up and some heart, you really get into that but I’m probably more in my element doing a drama or an action-thriller because I dig that. They’re fun to do. It’s hard to try and develop a character in the middle of all that action and that’s the challenge. Somebody that people can attach themselves to and connect with and fighting the demons within themselves as well as the demons outside which in this case are the extremists. Then when you’re in the middle of these huge sets and the testosterone is pumping through you, it’s exciting and you go -- “I’m lucky to be able to do this!” You’re telling a story that you hope will be able to terrify people and provoke them. It’s gonna excite them and maybe move them and make them laugh at the same time -- that’s what I try and do in the job.

Q: The reason OLYMPUS works so well is that we believe that you can actually do this stuff, you’re great for that type of thing. How did you see Mike, does he have issue even before the prologue where things go so badly for him?

GB: That’s why we put the scene in there [later] with Angela Basset where she says -- “You were crazy the day you stepped into my office” -- which was years before the tragedy. But yeah, I think he definitely has a screw or two loose but it’s never affected him in doing his job. The tragedy that happened was actually caused in some ways by him averting a greater tragedy. His job was to save the President, which he did. But as a result the President’s wife died and what a great dynamic that is immediately. He’s been haunted by that and having a screw or two loose, he is the kind of guy who would rather be in the thick of the action and do what he was trained to do and you get the feeling as the movie goes on that he kind of enjoys being that kind of uncompromising, brutal enforcer. In the interim period, where he’s been stuck in the Treasury [Department], you get such a feeling that he’s a caged animal and he’s not happy. It’s affecting his whole life, it’s affecting his relationship with his wife, Radha Mitchell, and yeah he’s not in the best space that he’s ever been and due to the weirdness of life and as a result of this attack and the White House being attacked and besieged and the President being held hostage, in some ways that moves him into his element. He’s now there to take no prisoners.

Q: When he says -- “I’m gonna take a knife and put it through your brain” -- he’s not kidding.

GB: No, that was my line. Because I always wanted to be saying something to him that was so brutal and cold and yet 100% convincing of what I’m gonna do --“I’m gonna take a knife and put it through your brain.” The funny thing is it was coming out of me, and in fact I said to the writer Dan Gilroy - who wrote ‘The Bourne Legacy’ - who came on - and we read with him and every night I was on the phone with him just trying to work to make it more gripping and more believable, more involved, more specific. Like why does everybody do the things that they do? And some of the fascinating parts of being Secret Service in this situation. You’re in the White House, what are you saying? Who are you trying to get in touch with, establishing lines of communication, playing the psychological games that you do with your arch nemesis? Eradicating threats, checking out and assessing their level of proficiency. All of these things, we show that! And that’s the kind of stuff that’s gold in a movie and really sucks you in.

Q: There are action actors now in their 40’s who are limping or have terrible shoulder or neck problems or their hearing is going. What are the physical things going on for you? How do you go through that for a movie?

GB: Well in ‘300’, we had a lot of fight sequences as well. I spent three months having a guy running at me full speed, hitting my shoulder and then lifting him over my body. You do that a couple hundred of times and your shoulder’s hurting. You’re pumping iron, you’re taking hits, you’re picking them up, you’re throwing yourself all over the place. But in this movie I was up against it more; it was more hand to hand. You had to take punches. At one point, my arm went black and it looked like a cadaver. It was black and purple from my wrist to my elbow. At one point I had a bruise the size of a soccer ball on my right leg. Cut my hands and burned my throat when Dylan [McDermott] flicked a cigarette and it caught the glycerin and it burned. I got a big scab there. I was hit in the eye by a bullet casing because I was firing next to a pillar and it went BOOM! I thought someone punched me in the face. So you’re always, it’s definitely not something that everybody can do but if you can do it, then the more you do it, the better you get at it. You sign up for the fact that you’re gonna get a few grazes and a few bruises along the way. To be honest, when you come out of the movie and you see it, that’s what makes it all the more special. If I’d come through this movie with little to show for it and say that I didn’t hurt myself in any way, I don’t think that I’d be appreciating what I’m doing as much because you think that Mike Banning wasn’t hurting at the end. He limps out of that White House. It’s very strong for women this movie, there’s such powerful female character who garner such respect and have some much integrity and strength and I love that. Even my wife, Radha...

Q: Well in real life you’re not married or have a child and something that’s cool in the movie is you have such a great paternal relationship with this boy Connor who is the President’s only child. Was that always there?

GB: Connor was always in the story and it was always a very powerful, emotional tool to see how much he loved Mike and how much Mike loved him and how it broke his heart that Mike no longer worked with the President. Again, suddenly I’m there and it’s just the two of us in the White House and I have to get this kid, who as well as being the President's son is also the tool and the potential to really test the President’s loyalty to his own country. Because these extremists want his son so bad and they know that if they’re gonna get anything out of the President [it's by using his son as a hostage]. We all realize that fact and it’s all about getting Connor the hell out of there.

Q: How do you recover from the physicality of a movie like this?

GB: You spend a lot of time with a chiropractor and a physical therapist and getting deep massage and crying, going -- “Why did I do that? It’s probably not even gonna be any good.” A lot of times sitting in a therapist chair. In a few months you’re ok I guess.

Q: Banning’s not a reflective guy though?

GB: I think he is. I think when he gets down to business, it’s all business but I think in his life he has way too much time to reflect. He sits in that chair in the Treasury office all day bouncing his ball and going -- “How the f--- did this happen? I trained all those years to protect my country and protect the President and now I’m here looking at accounts.” It’s killing him. I think unfortunately lately, he’s had too much time to reflect but I think that he’s ultimately a man of action. He needs to be in action and this horrific situation gives him the chance to be where he should be.



Q: Did you pick up anything from the Secret Service guy who was working on technical stuff with the movie?

GB: Everything. We had two special Secret Service agents. We had Rickey Jones, Joe Bannon. And Darrell Connerton who is a security advisor to the White House. In Washington and we had other Secret Service agents who would train me on the field. We’d go out shooting guns, he’d teach me the way they think, the way they move. I also worked with a SWAT team. And then a lot of our stunt team and stunt coordinators were Special Forces. You learn so much from them and we used so much of that in the movie because, to me, you had to be gripped every time you were with Mike. What’s he doing? What’s his protocol? When is he thinking outside the box? When is he assessing? When is he killing? When is he kidnapping? When is he establishing lines of communication? All those things that are fascinating. Then people go what really does happen in those situations is what we wanted to create so we take some of that stuff and use it in performance or put it in the script so you are always knowing or discovering the next move.



Q: You’ve been in the business a long time, how do you deal with success and failure?

GB: You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you win a couple or you lose a couple. You’re in the business of trying to make movies for the right reasons and sometimes they don’t work out as planned or they’re not marketed as they should have been or people don’t get the same point as you did. But I always try and have a message in my movie, and I’ve never had a movie where I don’t hear back -- “I love that for this reason” -- it affected them. That’s what I try and focus on rather than the sh-t that comes with it because what’s the point? It’s just a fact, it’s all information and unless I can learn from it. In actual fact, I feel like I have learned from my experiences both good and bad. I’m always analyzing and thinking without playing safe, what can I learn from recent mistakes and recent results?



Q: Do you think that goes back to your legal training?

GB: I think it does.



Q: So you’ll read your reviews?

GB: I don’t read a lot of reviews but I read a few on each movie and see what the movie is getting. But I’m more interested in what the audiences think. You go into watch this movie and you go in with a regular audience and they’re pumping their fists, they’re screaming, they’re laughing, they’re gasping. Some of them are crying and they’re all coming out going -- “Holy sh-t.” I just read a review the other day that they said they never knew what it meant to be on the edge of their seat - 'until I was literally on the edge of my seat for this whole movie.' That’s what I dig because that’s me. I’m a moviegoer. I want to have the same experience and at the end of the day, you want good reviews but often reviews are so indirectly related to what the consumer is actually enjoying.



Q: You’re doing the sequel to HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON?

GB: Yeah.



Q: Have you done it already?

GB: I’ve done a lot of it but there will still be another year before it comes out.



Q: Is that the next one that’s coming out for you?

GB: It might be, yeah.[/quote]

Let me start off by saying that I love Scottish people and I think they are just as patriotic as Americans. The struggles they have had throughout the centuries.... Anyway, I wish they would give Gerry a break with him losing his Scottish accent and realize that it's not on purpose. He really beats himself up for it.

Although in their defense I used to get ticked with Madonna and her British accent, although I think Madonna's accent was put on. [/quote]

i definately agree with you dianne. give gerry break re:his dialect....although honestly between us it does sound a little complicated emotionally for gerry to deal with in that the speech of the scot heritage is so distinctive and pronounced it is as much a part of a persons identity as the rolling hills, bagpipes, kilts, haggis, family, religious practice and all other things 'scottish' landmarks of nationality expression.

no matter where we're born our dialect is a delicate thing. we become immersed and influenced with what we're surrounded by. for instance, being a northerner born & bred when i lived in the c virginia as well as in texas i very easily picked up the 'twang'. not hard to do. of course, it reverted back just as quick. so maybe its not as 'delicate' bc we 'do' go back to our original speech. it takes a lot of work & effort to change our original patterns to make a new language flow naturally. learning a new language esp. as an adult is tough. not easy. but, can be done. here's a thought, what will our language be like in the distant future?

[Deleted]

Mar 27, 2013 10:58:54 GMT -5 dawne27 said:

Mar 27, 2013 9:00:00 GMT -5 @shellie2 said:

I am also dying to know also what musical he was referring to sad that it didn't work out.

I am also a little concerned about his comments regarding those broken bones in his neck. I can't tell if he is saying that the growth in his throat was mistaken for one of those broken bones or they were just found at that time. I hope that growth was connected to those broken bones and not a separate health problem.

I'm still getting a little rattled that his voice box was involved, I am sure he had the best Doctors and all is good.
Get your voice better fast Gerry so we can see you in a musical again.

shellie

hi shellie ~ i think gerry said that the docs after a thorough MRI determined the 'mass' in his throat turned out to be a broken hyoid bone. gerry didn't notice this as broken other than a change in his high pitch for singing. the hyoid is a small crescent shaped bone (loose for great flexibility) lays in front of our pharyngeal cartilage (which protects the larynx (voicebox) and part of the thyroid gland). this bone is attached to throat and tongue muscles by thin ligaments. the only known probs w/fractures is down the road some swallowing issues and tongue stuff, speech not affected, a french kissing still doable so perhaps, when the man gets to be in his 90's....he should probably eat soft foods sitting uprightat a 90 degree angle... and NO lounging in bed eating cupcakes. LOL

Thanks so much Dawne for that news and goodness who would have thought acting could be so dangerous. Gerry sure has put body and soul into his craft.

[kaly11]

Mar 27, 2013 11:27:07 GMT -5 @shellie2 said:

Mar 27, 2013 10:58:54 GMT -5 dawne27 said:

hi shellie ~ i think gerry said that the docs after a thorough MRI determined the 'mass' in his throat turned out to be a broken hyoid bone. gerry didn't notice this as broken other than a change in his high pitch for singing. the hyoid is a small crescent shaped bone (loose for great flexibility) lays in front of our pharyngeal cartilage (which protects the larynx (voicebox) and part of the thyroid gland). this bone is attached to throat and tongue muscles by thin ligaments. the only known probs w/fractures is down the road some swallowing issues and tongue stuff, speech not affected, a french kissing still doable so perhaps, when the man gets to be in his 90's....he should probably eat soft foods sitting uprightat a 90 degree angle... and NO lounging in bed eating cupcakes. LOL

Thanks so much Dawne for that news and goodness who would have thought acting could be so dangerous. Gerry sure has put body and soul into his craft.

Thanks so much for the encouraging news, Dawne! I was really worried for him!

[elenoire]

Mar 27, 2013 0:06:35 GMT -5 fifiserafino said:

bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/hollywood_mine/2013/03/gerard_butler_on_saving_the_free_world

Gerard Butler: On saving the Free World

[/size]

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN has resurrected Gerard Butler's box-office standing after a series of flops, giving the Scots actor a well deserved hit with virtually nonstop action that appealed to audiences who wanted something stronger than the Stone Age family antics of the 3D animated THE CROODS. Butler was in high spirits when we spoke at the Waldorf Towers, gesturing as he spoke about the demands of making screen action look realistic and yet letting the actor go on without serious bodily harm to another cinematic save in the future.



Q:As Mike Banning, ex-Special Forces, ex Secret Service, who saves the United States and the Free World, do you feel as a Scotsman you’re following in the footsteps of say Sean Connery, going around saving the world from the forces of evil?

Gerard Butler: He was a British agent whereas I’m playing an American secret service agent and I’m just gonna take it as a testament to my fine acting to pull that off.

Q: Sean Connery never tried to change his accent, he always sounded the same. You do too right? Or did you try and do a more American accent here because you’re talking like you’re talking now?

GB: I soften my accent often but I was doing American. I had a dialect coach. We listen and she gives me every note and I listen and if it doesn’t sound full on American, I try and fix it. I’m sure there are times when it slips out but the problem is that over the years doing an American accent, my Scottish accent is starting to disappear and I hate myself for that. Sometimes people think I’m actually American.

Q: How does your career balance out between being the heroic action star that kills and the romantic lover? Do you have a preference on one or the other?

GB: It depends where I am. If I’m in the middle of a romantic comedy and it’s going well, I love it. A little bit of romance to cheer you up and some heart, you really get into that but I’m probably more in my element doing a drama or an action-thriller because I dig that. They’re fun to do. It’s hard to try and develop a character in the middle of all that action and that’s the challenge. Somebody that people can attach themselves to and connect with and fighting the demons within themselves as well as the demons outside which in this case are the extremists. Then when you’re in the middle of these huge sets and the testosterone is pumping through you, it’s exciting and you go -- “I’m lucky to be able to do this!” You’re telling a story that you hope will be able to terrify people and provoke them. It’s gonna excite them and maybe move them and make them laugh at the same time -- that’s what I try and do in the job.

Q: The reason OLYMPUS works so well is that we believe that you can actually do this stuff, you’re great for that type of thing. How did you see Mike, does he have issue even before the prologue where things go so badly for him?

GB: That’s why we put the scene in there [later] with Angela Basset where she says -- “You were crazy the day you stepped into my office” -- which was years before the tragedy. But yeah, I think he definitely has a screw or two loose but it’s never affected him in doing his job. The tragedy that happened was actually caused in some ways by him averting a greater tragedy. His job was to save the President, which he did. But as a result the President’s wife died and what a great dynamic that is immediately. He’s been haunted by that and having a screw or two loose, he is the kind of guy who would rather be in the thick of the action and do what he was trained to do and you get the feeling as the movie goes on that he kind of enjoys being that kind of uncompromising, brutal enforcer. In the interim period, where he’s been stuck in the Treasury [Department], you get such a feeling that he’s a caged animal and he’s not happy. It’s affecting his whole life, it’s affecting his relationship with his wife, Radha Mitchell, and yeah he’s not in the best space that he’s ever been and due to the weirdness of life and as a result of this attack and the White House being attacked and besieged and the President being held hostage, in some ways that moves him into his element. He’s now there to take no prisoners.

Q: When he says -- “I’m gonna take a knife and put it through your brain” -- he’s not kidding.

GB: No, that was my line. Because I always wanted to be saying something to him that was so brutal and cold and yet 100% convincing of what I’m gonna do --“I’m gonna take a knife and put it through your brain.” The funny thing is it was coming out of me, and in fact I said to the writer Dan Gilroy - who wrote ‘The Bourne Legacy’ - who came on - and we read with him and every night I was on the phone with him just trying to work to make it more gripping and more believable, more involved, more specific. Like why does everybody do the things that they do? And some of the fascinating parts of being Secret Service in this situation. You’re in the White House, what are you saying? Who are you trying to get in touch with, establishing lines of communication, playing the psychological games that you do with your arch nemesis? Eradicating threats, checking out and assessing their level of proficiency. All of these things, we show that! And that’s the kind of stuff that’s gold in a movie and really sucks you in.

Q: There are action actors now in their 40’s who are limping or have terrible shoulder or neck problems or their hearing is going. What are the physical things going on for you? How do you go through that for a movie?

GB: Well in ‘300’, we had a lot of fight sequences as well. I spent three months having a guy running at me full speed, hitting my shoulder and then lifting him over my body. You do that a couple hundred of times and your shoulder’s hurting. You’re pumping iron, you’re taking hits, you’re picking them up, you’re throwing yourself all over the place. But in this movie I was up against it more; it was more hand to hand. You had to take punches. At one point, my arm went black and it looked like a cadaver. It was black and purple from my wrist to my elbow. At one point I had a bruise the size of a soccer ball on my right leg. Cut my hands and burned my throat when Dylan [McDermott] flicked a cigarette and it caught the glycerin and it burned. I got a big scab there. I was hit in the eye by a bullet casing because I was firing next to a pillar and it went BOOM! I thought someone punched me in the face. So you’re always, it’s definitely not something that everybody can do but if you can do it, then the more you do it, the better you get at it. You sign up for the fact that you’re gonna get a few grazes and a few bruises along the way. To be honest, when you come out of the movie and you see it, that’s what makes it all the more special. If I’d come through this movie with little to show for it and say that I didn’t hurt myself in any way, I don’t think that I’d be appreciating what I’m doing as much because you think that Mike Banning wasn’t hurting at the end. He limps out of that White House. It’s very strong for women this movie, there’s such powerful female character who garner such respect and have some much integrity and strength and I love that. Even my wife, Radha...

Q: Well in real life you’re not married or have a child and something that’s cool in the movie is you have such a great paternal relationship with this boy Connor who is the President’s only child. Was that always there?

GB: Connor was always in the story and it was always a very powerful, emotional tool to see how much he loved Mike and how much Mike loved him and how it broke his heart that Mike no longer worked with the President. Again, suddenly I’m there and it’s just the two of us in the White House and I have to get this kid, who as well as being the President's son is also the tool and the potential to really test the President’s loyalty to his own country. Because these extremists want his son so bad and they know that if they’re gonna get anything out of the President [it's by using his son as a hostage]. We all realize that fact and it’s all about getting Connor the hell out of there.

Q: How do you recover from the physicality of a movie like this?

GB: You spend a lot of time with a chiropractor and a physical therapist and getting deep massage and crying, going -- “Why did I do that? It’s probably not even gonna be any good.” A lot of times sitting in a therapist chair. In a few months you’re ok I guess.

Q: Banning’s not a reflective guy though?

GB: I think he is. I think when he gets down to business, it’s all business but I think in his life he has way too much time to reflect. He sits in that chair in the Treasury office all day bouncing his ball and going -- “How the f--- did this happen? I trained all those years to protect my country and protect the President and now I’m here looking at accounts.” It’s killing him. I think unfortunately lately, he’s had too much time to reflect but I think that he’s ultimately a man of action. He needs to be in action and this horrific situation gives him the chance to be where he should be.



Q: Did you pick up anything from the Secret Service guy who was working on technical stuff with the movie?

GB: Everything. We had two special Secret Service agents. We had Rickey Jones, Joe Bannon. And Darrell Connerton who is a security advisor to the White House. In Washington and we had other Secret Service agents who would train me on the field. We’d go out shooting guns, he’d teach me the way they think, the way they move. I also worked with a SWAT team. And then a lot of our stunt team and stunt coordinators were Special Forces. You learn so much from them and we used so much of that in the movie because, to me, you had to be gripped every time you were with Mike. What’s he doing? What’s his protocol? When is he thinking outside the box? When is he assessing? When is he killing? When is he kidnapping? When is he establishing lines of communication? All those things that are fascinating. Then people go what really does happen in those situations is what we wanted to create so we take some of that stuff and use it in performance or put it in the script so you are always knowing or discovering the next move.



Q: You’ve been in the business a long time, how do you deal with success and failure?

GB: You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you win a couple or you lose a couple. You’re in the business of trying to make movies for the right reasons and sometimes they don’t work out as planned or they’re not marketed as they should have been or people don’t get the same point as you did. But I always try and have a message in my movie, and I’ve never had a movie where I don’t hear back -- “I love that for this reason” -- it affected them. That’s what I try and focus on rather than the sh-t that comes with it because what’s the point? It’s just a fact, it’s all information and unless I can learn from it. In actual fact, I feel like I have learned from my experiences both good and bad. I’m always analyzing and thinking without playing safe, what can I learn from recent mistakes and recent results?



Q: Do you think that goes back to your legal training?

GB: I think it does.



Q: So you’ll read your reviews?

GB: I don’t read a lot of reviews but I read a few on each movie and see what the movie is getting. But I’m more interested in what the audiences think. You go into watch this movie and you go in with a regular audience and they’re pumping their fists, they’re screaming, they’re laughing, they’re gasping. Some of them are crying and they’re all coming out going -- “Holy sh-t.” I just read a review the other day that they said they never knew what it meant to be on the edge of their seat - 'until I was literally on the edge of my seat for this whole movie.' That’s what I dig because that’s me. I’m a moviegoer. I want to have the same experience and at the end of the day, you want good reviews but often reviews are so indirectly related to what the consumer is actually enjoying.



Q: You’re doing the sequel to HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON?

GB: Yeah.



Q: Have you done it already?

GB: I’ve done a lot of it but there will still be another year before it comes out.



Q: Is that the next one that’s coming out for you?

GB: It might be, yeah.[/quote]

Fifi!! And we can now hear the whole interview here

artonair.org/show/gerard-butler-olympus-has-fallen
(click on the blue arrow to listen)