Interview with Gerard Butler

Aside from your character in “Dear Frankie,” is there a character you’ve played that has really remained with you and stands out from your other roles?
The Phantom. I think The Phantom, as well as being backed up by that music, it just so was a role that I identified with so powerfully. From the first second that I walked on to perform, despite being very nervous about taking on that iconic role, my first big day filming was “Past the Point of No Return.” And from the second I started, it just all came alive and I felt the electricity running through me, you know? And every take we did… There were so many moments in that movie where I just thought - the power and attachment and feeling that I had while I was performing felt so immense – and I thought, “I wonder if I’ll ever have this again as an actor?”

You put so much into it, does it matter to you how it’s received by the public?
It really does, yeah. I mean, I care so much and there’s a point where I have to push it away and say I can’t let this drag me down. Because at the end of the day what matters is that you do your best in every job you do. But of course you would rather your movie does well (laughing). You want it to be as critically well-received as possible and you want it to do as well with the public as possible, because it means that they’re getting what you’re doing, or what you’re trying to say, or appreciating your work. So yeah, it does. But then if think the movie’s not going to turn out, I quickly try and disassociate those feelings and push myself away and say, “Oh well.”

And you just completed work on “Beowulf and Grendel?”
It was amazing. Again, it grabbed me because it was so unusual. Everything about the structure of the script, the depth of the characters, was just what you wouldn’t expect in a Hollywood period piece movie about warriors. It’s deeply psychological and deeply spiritual, and very weird and profound.

When I sat there and talked to the director he said, “I want you to listen to this music and I want you to look at these locations.” And I said, “I’m only doing this movie if you’ll do it in widescreen.” He went, “Okay, I’ll demand that.” And then I listened to some of the most incredible, stirring, moving music. Even that didn’t conform to any kind of formula.

I looked at these landscapes and I knew the story in my head by this point, which I think is ten times the depth of the actual poem of “Beowulf.” And then I thought, “You know what? I need to do this.” But again, that’s an independent movie. That, I think, is the chance to be both artistically appreciated and commercially appreciated. That’s what you hope for.

It sounds like it's more character-driven than you might expect.
I think there’s a lot of action in it but I don’t think that’s what it is about. That’s not what the poem is about. They’re both about the life and maturity and development and death of a great warrior. I think the poem is far more about Christian ideals. The movie steps outside that and shows Christianity washing over those Vikings. But in actual fact deals with who is to say what is good and what is evil.

The poem is much more about pure good versus pure evil. Whereas the movie, Beowulf goes to take on this troll who they all perceive as a demon and filthy and ignorant and sadistic, only to discover that that’s not actually the case. It’s just something that nobody had ever taken the time to understand because it’s different. And yet at the same time, he knows he’s on this kind of inevitable path towards conflict just because he’s a human and it’s a troll. But in some ways it is more pure than half of the people that he associates with (laughing).

Page 5: On the Possibility of Starring in a Movie About Robert Burns