Gerard Butler has been a big fan of doing full-of-action stuff, which includes Den of Thieves 2: Pantera and 300.
While talking to People, the Chasing Mavericks (2012) star revealed that while filming the action-intense movie 300, he vividly remembered that each day there was someone being “taken to the hospital.”
One of the prominent reasons that 300 got the hype in 2006 was its one-of-a-kind highly stylised fight cinematography. It was a close comic book-like aesthetic that appeared visually stunning. However, this came at a cost.
Butler explained that while doing a fight sequence, whenever he turned, he saw one guy down on the ground after getting hurt by a spear. There was another time when he witnessed someone lying on the same ground who had just broken his ankle.
He exclaimed, “It was insane”.
This chaos seemed inevitable since Butler, who played Leonidas, the King of Sparta, was seen battling against more than 300,000 Persian forces, which was a crazy spectacle. Undoubtedly, 300 became an instant smash hit at the box office, earning $456 million worldwide as compared to a budget of mere $65 million.
Apart from his other co-stars like Lena Headey, David Wenham, Rodrigo Santoro and Dominic West, the film helped Butler the most in gaining an image of a brilliant action star, which is still intact to date.
Butler did not stop here. He went on to disclose details of other mishaps on the sets of several other action-induced movies that he was a part of. For example, during the shooting of 2012’s Chasing Mavericks, he had to be brought to the hospital after he “almost” drowned.
Butler had nearly given up as he thought he “was done”. He desperately needed a defibrillator as “it was intense”.
It did not stop there. Butler amusingly recalled scarring Hilary Swank on the head in the shoots of P.S. I Love You (2017) and almost shooting Angelina Jolie in the face while on the sets of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider- The Cradle of Life (2003).
He himself has been shot several times by “bullets, casings and explosions”. Would it be shocking if we say he mentioned a whole camera rig falling down on Hilary Swank and Butler?
And the trend still holds as Butler had to shoot for his recent role in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera with a torn ACL despite an intense surgery. He had experienced some serious issues again in an action-packed film as he “didn’t have a chance to get the surgery done” on his ACL again. “It was a nightmare”, he confessed.