Exclusive Interview with "300" Star Gerard Butler

Digging Deep to Get Into Character: Does Gerard Butler go that deep with every character he plays? “I don’t know how deep I go compared to other people,” said Butler. “I know I go pretty deep and I try to have as much of it come from within, from as deep as I can get or from as deep as I can understand the things that I don’t have – if you know what I mean.

Often when I’m doing it it’s like a feeling when I play these kinds of characters of values that kind of belong to another time but I feel like I can climb into. I try to go as deep as possible without almost, in a way, making it too complicated. You can go too deep and people are going, ‘Okay, well I have no idea what’s going on right now.’ So I think it’s kind of balancing all those things together – the physicality and the mindset and the beliefs and the philosophies. And the motivation of just where you’re going and why you’re doing what you’re doing. This is a king who’s taking 300 of his men marching to their deaths and what does that mean to him."

The Appeal of the “300” Story: More than the visual style of the graphic novel and subsequently the film, it was the actual story told in “300” which grabbed Butler’s attention. “That’s what’s wonderful about this. Visually it looks so incredible. It’s stunning and yet at the same time the story itself is such an incredible story. And so, to me, it always felt we were onto a winner. I saw kind of a preview that they shot before filming started and so the second Zack showed me that I was [overwhelmed]. And I had read the script which was just such an incredible script. The story itself was powerful and the script was so interestingly and evocatively written and I just knew I had to be involved in this. I think it works from every angle. And also the deeper messages that it gives to the audiences as well in the end. I think it’s quite an inspiring, courageous, insane and violent, brutal, artistic film."

Bringing the Story to the Screen: “It’s a phenomenal story. When you hear about it you think, ‘Did this actually really happen?’ It’s kind of so intense and so insane to think that so few stood against so many and what it represented. In fact what it represented in terms of…because they say I think it was like a hundred years later when democracy actually was formed in Greece. If this battle hadn’t happened and the rest of Greece had therefore stood against the Persians then the West may be a very different place. I think perhaps it’s relevant today for many other political reasons that I don’t want to dive into in case I’m blacklisted in Hollywood. I think it’s for a different reason… I think it’s for the opposite reason than perhaps the producers are saying but (laughing). A few stood against many – think about that one."

Why It Took So Long to Tell This Story: “I don’t know. Perhaps because…well there was one actually made, “300 Spartans.” It was made back in the ‘60s; a kind of epic style of film that I watched and didn’t think was very good. I’m surprised myself because it is such an incredible story. At the time that our project was coming along apparently there was another one with the same story which never came to fruition – because ours was better and ours came first.”

Researching the Source Material: How much did he draw from Frank Miller’s graphic novel and did he look through it throughout filming? “Absolutely – I looked at it all the time. Sometimes to try and remind myself of the physicality of this guy, you know? As much as I could push it towards the physicality that you saw in the graphic novel, just the way he stood, the way he posed, physically how imposing he was. I looked at that a lot. And also when you read it, I think the graphic novel is incredible for really creating, one, that kind of society and how brutal it was.

And also the King that he was – very powerful, very thoughtful and perhaps in our film far more human than he is even in the graphic novel but also very humorous and very dry. There’s a lot of that in the novel. I just think it’s so evocative and explains so much, even just looking at the drawings in the book. You just get a feel. It kind of gives you a feel and a mood. When you keep reminding yourself it made it easier to kind of go in and let that [happen]. You trust that some of that, just by reading it, looking at it, it settles in."

* * * * *

Rather watch videos of Gerard Butler talking about "300?" Check out these 3 minute interview clips with Butler from the 2006 San Diego Comic Con:

Gerard Butler on Training and His "300" Costume - Play the Video

Gerard Butler on Immersing Himself in His Character - Play the Video

Gerard Butler on the Story of "300" - Play the Video