Friday September 4, 2009
Butler at your service
By MUMTAJ BEGUM
The affable star of Gamer and The Ugly Truth talks about getting into character and how much he really knows about gadgets.
GERARD Butler has just been informed over the phone that his two new movies – Gamer and The Ugly Truth – are opening on the same day in Malaysia. Naturally, we have to find out which of the two the audience should catch first. His immediate reaction to the query is to utter in a distraught voice: “That’s a horrible question.”
But within nanoseconds, his Scottish cheekiness kicks in, and he answers: “I think they should decide whether they want to go and see an, erm, amazing actor in one movie or an even more amazing actor in the other movie. No, I’m joking,” he says with a boyish laugh.
He may be kidding, but for the next few months there is no avoiding the 39-year-old’s rugged mug on the big screen. Even as he is doing press rounds for Gamer from New York right now, he’s busy filming the romantic-action film, The Bounty – co-starring Jennifer Aniston (with whom he’s been rumoured to be romantically linked) – and awaiting release of Law Abiding Citizen in October, a film his production company co-produced, with him and Jamie Foxx as the leads.
With other projects brewing as well, it goes without saying that the guy described by the LA Times as having a crackly, electric energy in person is very, very, busy.
Multi-faceted: ‘There’s a lot of different sides to me and I see them all in one day,’ says Scottish actor Gerard Butler. Apparently, he manages the workload by adhering to the old adage of taking it one day at a time. “Can’t do anything more than what’s in front of me,” he reasons.
But when the 1.88m actor pauses to clear his throat a couple of times during this 20-minute phone interview from New York, it is easy to assume the strain of the workload is getting to him. He assures that’s not the reason. “You know what it’s got to do with? It’s too much bloody talking. I’m talking and shouting in a film and then it’s interview after interview. It’s too much of my own voice,” he explains with a chuckle.
His ascension to the A-list came soon after his breakout role as the Spartan King Leonidas in 300 two years ago, which led him to meatier roles in P.S. I Love You, Nim’s Island and RockNRolla.
Anyone keeping tabs, however, would know that he has been consistently busy ever since he decided to change professions from lawyer (he was seven days away from qualifying as one when he was let go) to actor some 13 years ago. Some of his more prominent roles include portraying The Phantom in the movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Phantom Of The Opera and tackling supporting roles in action features like Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life, Timeline and Reign Of Fire.
Although there is no direct formula to how he chooses a role – he says it all depends on his mood on some days; or the director, his co-star and the script he’s going to be working with – there’s no doubt his options are wide. This is not only because the actor has undeniable charisma and intensity which comes through on the big screen, but he also seems to be able to take on action, comedy and drama comfortably.
In Gamer, he is a soldier who has no control over his body as he’s turned into a real-life avatar and his life is determined by another connected to him online. In Ugly Truth, he is the unapologetic, politically incorrect macho man who thinks he knows what men and women want.
According to Butler, he doesn’t have a specific trick up his sleeve for being able to move from one project to the next.
“I just give myself a bit of space. I normally go through a decompression process, a recovery process where I kind of shed the skin of where I’ve been, people I’ve met and that character that I was playing and get back to being Gerry Butler again before I can go into the next movie. But the thing is, me as Gerry, there’s a lot of different sides to me and I see them all in one day (laughs).
“This sounds a little strange, I think I am describing myself with a multi-personality disorder, but it’s not really. That’s one of the reasons why I can do so many different genres. It’s because there are a lot of prominent parts to my psyche and it’s pretty easy for me to tap into that whether it’s the fun part, the tense part, or the quiet part or the powerful part. It’s easy for me to jump from one to another very frequently.”
Talent and popularity aside, the following he has garnered may also have something to do with his easy-going and grounded personality, which comes across loud and clear even on this long-distance call.
Mark Neveldine, who directed Gamer with Brian Taylor, has known Butler even before 300. He theorises that Butler’s appeal lies in the fact that he “... is a super strong tough guy who’s also incredibly vulnerable.”
It also helps that Butler is driven and dedicated, especially when the project requires him to hone a certain skill. When he got the role for Phantom, he practised singing constantly. In the case of 300, he transformed his body to an impressive state that even if you forgot everything else about the film you wouldn’t forget how he looked in it.
It’s the same for the action-packed film, Gamer. Neveldine explains: “He had taken time off to do comedies after 300 and he really wanted to get back into shape. So we put him through weapons training and combat training. It was amazing what we had him go through and he just took it on. He wanted to do it.”
Gamer’s other director Taylor adds: “After the training he got for this movie, (the trainers said) he can actually go on special forces mission now. He’s fully qualified.”
The man in question concurs that the physical process involved in Gamer and the gun training were exhilarating; he had a gym outside his trailer so he could continue to be in top physical condition during the filming of the movie.
“I do not stop,” confesses Butler. “I wanted big forearms (for Gamer). I just thought that would give a sense of this guy’s power and masculinity. So on the set, all the time ... people thought I was crazy because I had a bar with weights and I would just lift it with my wrists to build my forearms. By the end of the movie, I had forearms like a tree trunk. It was pretty ridiculous.”
One negative aspect – which Butler finds amusing – of getting involved in so many varied themes is the assumption people come away with. “I think it’s funny when you do these movies and people think you might be a philosopher and commentator on life, the future, the relationships or whatever the movie is about. You become a member of literati.”
Butler says he’s not brilliant with technology – a bit like his character in Gamer, a soldier who wouldn’t be involved in all the new technology except in a military capacity. What he is though is, “like half-decent on a computer and relatively okay with gadgets but I’m certainly no whiz kid.”
But he got into the spirit of video games for the sake of Gamer. “In my house, in New York and LA, I have an Xbox but I also have an old arcade game, you know, literally from the 80s which has 60 games on it. Games like Tron, Space Invaders, Asteroid, Pacman and Galaga. I’m more likely to pick that up because I was good at those games. But the games now, I mean, I tell you, I never really had the time or the patience to sit down and really learn how to play them. I still have more fun playing the older games with my friends.”
As for the latest gadget he bought, well ... “It’s very boring. I actually went back a step in my BlackBerry. I went from a BlackBerry to a new iPhone but I couldn’t face it so I went back to another BlackBerry – which I think was cursed and the digits were too small for my fingers – so I just changed it to (BlackBerry) Bolt. Now, all this is happening in a month (laughs). Oh and then I just got a new system, arrgh, let me ask my assistant.”
He turns away from the phone and calls out: “Angie, what is that new thing I just got? That radio.”
A second later, he’s back on the phone.
“I just got the new Sono, a kind of thing you can walk around with like a portable radio that you can listen to stations from all over the world. I love to listen to my British stations and music. It’s great. You just get all sorts of channels and you carry it around like a little iPod,” and then he adds: “Buy one.”
> Gamer and The Ugly Truth open nationwide next Thursday.
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