Gerard Butler: From Hero to Almost Zero in 5 Films

Promised to a brilliant career, especially after 300Gerard Butler gradually found himself in B movies. And today, with Kandaharhe tries a big comeback in the dark rooms.

The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

We often forget, but Gerard Butler held the title role in The Phantom of the Opera by Joel Schumacher (yes, yes), in which he gives the reply to Emmy Rossum. It is also a coincidence that he was chosen, the first choice of the filmmaker having focused on Hugh Jackman. But, impressed by his performance in Dracula 2000 (very often considered a turnip), the filmmaker told him about the character of Erik. If the feature film did not raise the enthusiasm of critics, it was well received by the public who praised the performance of the two main actors.

300 (2007)

It is obviously the peplum of Zack Snyder which propelled Butler on the front of the international scene. The Scottish actor, unforgettable as Leonidas, King of Sparta, makes a name for himself in this super production with impressive special effects. Earnings of US$456.1 million at the international box office make the relative unknown a standout in his own right. The happy coincidence of the release schedule of the studios means that PS – I love you released in December of the same year. In this romantic drama from Richard LaGravenese, Gerard Butler stars as Holly’s (Hilary Swank) cancer-dead husband who, through his letters from beyond the grave, teaches her how to live again. This feature film was also a commercial success, and when the family film Nim’s Island takes the poster in April 2008, it confirms that the actor can do everything.

Rock and Crooks (2008)

Because, despite his physique, Gerard Butler is versatile and does not disdain auteur films – admittedly on a reduced budget – he is chosen by Guy Ritchie for his Rock and Crooks. Butler plays One-Two, a member of the Scottish underworld and leader of the Wild Bunch, a trio of petty criminals. He gives the reply to Tom Wilkinson, Tom Hardy, Idris Elba and Thandiwe Newton. He then branched off into romantic comedies and we find him opposite Katherine Heigl in The Raw Truth (2009) without forgetting the type of role that made him famous: the big guys capable of punching in action thrillers like the very interesting Gamer (2009) which will be a flop.

The Bounty Hunter (2010)

Now subscribed to the commercial successes reviled by critics, Butler becomes a bounty hunter in the romantic comedy of the same name which opposes him to Jennifer Aniston whom he is responsible for arresting. The film was successful enough in theaters for the actor not to be forgotten and he became, the same year, the original voice of Stoick the Brute, father of Harald, in the excellent animated film Dragons. Then, in 2011, he surprised in Tullus Aufidius, an enemy of Caius Martius in the Coriolanus by and starring Ralph Fiennes, adapted from Shakespeare’s play.

Assault on the White House (2013)

Gerard Butler seeks – and finds – a franchise with this series by Antoine Fuqua in which he plays Mike Banning, a secret service agent responsible for protecting the American president (Aaron Eckhart), taken hostage by North Korean terrorists. The idea isn’t bad, but the feature suffers from the fact that director Roland Emmerich, a big-budget apocalypse filmmaker with independence day Or The day afterdecides to do White House in peril, released a few months later and filmed in Montreal and which stars Channing Tatum. Butler, co-producer of “Assault on the White House” is chomping at the bit. Besides the sequels and the ridiculous geostormthe actor continues to shoot more or less good action films, the pandemic relegating him to titles released directly on digital platforms, his Last Seen Alive (2022) via Netflix having ended up in the list of the most viewed feature films.