Scottish actor Gerard Butler first came to the attention of the masses as King Leonidas
in the 2007 epic 300, bursting onto the Hollywood scene in a blur of muscle and blood.
"This is Sparta!"
Zack Snyder's take on Frank Miller's popular graphic novel became a huge hit, with audiences
digging the unique style of action and the finely crafted physiques of Leonidas and his
Spartan warriors.
But was too much of the acclaim heaped on the cast, Butler in particular?
The real test would come after 300, when the leading man would be forced to cover up his
pecs and do some actual acting.
So far, Butler seems to have had some trouble in movies where he keeps his shirt on...and
here's why.
Late bloomer
Butler came to acting relatively late in his life, and at times it shows.
The Scotsman didn't even consider becoming an actor until the age of 27 when he saw a
production of Trainspotting at the Edinburgh Festival and decided he wanted to be up on
stage himself.
He was working at corporate law firm after graduating from Glasgow University with a
law degree, though he was fired a week before he was scheduled to be promoted from trainee
to solicitor due to his erratic behavior.
Butler moved to London to pursue his dream and landed a part in the production of Trainspotting
that inspired him to leave the legal profession in the first place, returning to the Edinburgh
Festival the following year as part of the cast.
It was the start of his journey to Hollywood stardom, though the time he spent training
to become a solicitor rather than an actor has left him at a disadvantage.
The skills that it takes most top actors years of hard work to fine tune may not be present
in him, and as Butler's seemingly limited range is further exposed with every role he
takes, his options become equally limited.
Accent accidents
One skill that Butler hasn't been able to develop — though not for lack of trying
— is how to mimic accents.
"Well, I'm actually from the states.
I'm practicing my Scottish accent."
For foreigners, making it in Hollywood usually depends on whether or not they can produce
something close to an American accent, yet Butler can't seem to go more than a few sentences
without his broad Scottish brogue breaking through and giving the game up.
An American dialect isn't the only accent he has had trouble with, either.
Despite having been exposed to it throughout his youth by Irish family members, the actor
personally apologized for his butchering of the Irish accent in the 2007 romantic drama
P.S.
I Love You.
Box office blunders
The alternative to having Butler adopt an accent is allowing him to keep his Scottish
one, though this doesn't always work out for the best either.
Gods of Egypt director Alex Proyas discovered that first hand.
Proyas was too busy apologizing for the whitewashing of a film set on the African continent to
field less serious questions about Butler's accent, though numerous critics questioned
why an Egyptian god sounded like an extra from Braveheart.
Accent aside, Butler's status as an A-list leading man was on a knife's edge in the lead
up to 2016's Gods of Egypt, and the film's staggering losses served as proof that he
doesn't seem to be much of a box office draw.
Critical drain train
While he and the rest of the cast certainly took it on the chin for Gods of Egypt, it
wasn't the first time Butler has felt the wrath of critics.
The year 2016 was a particularly bad year for the Scotsman, with pretty much all of
his projects universally panned.
Low key drama The Headhunter's Calling failed to earn any respect, and his action sequel
London Has Fallen didn't fare much better, hamstrung by allegations of casual racism
and a poor reaction to Butler as Secret Service Agent Mike Banning.
Of course, none of this is anything new to Butler, seeing as his films are rarely reviewed
positively.
In fact, his Rotten Tomatoes filmography features 34 films — with just 5 awarded the coveted
Certified Fresh rating, and 23 of them scoring 50 percent or lower on the Tomatometer.
CGI reliance
Unless you count 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies, where Butler had a minor role in the Pierce
Brosnan Bond flick, only three Gerard Butler films have managed to break that golden $100
million barrier in terms of lifetime gross.
And those were DreamWorks' animated smash hit How To Train Your Dragon, How to Train
Your Dragon 2, and 300.
All three of these films rely heavily on CGI in one way or another, and the fact that Butler
has only managed to find this level of success thanks to the work of talented animators begs
the question — can Butler carry the load when things are stripped down to the bare
bones?
Rom-com stomp
It wasn't too long ago that every other phrase searched on Google was - "Gerard Butler 300
workout", and that physique is still the only thing that pops in your head today when you hear his name.
Zack Snyder's fantasy epic launched Butler to stardom and set the stage for a career
as an action hero, but the actor decided to go in the opposite direction.
While he kept up the tough guy act with appearances in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla and crime thriller
Law Abiding Citizen, his most notable roles in the years that followed 300 were in romantic
comedies.
P.S.
I Love You, The Ugly Truth, and The Bounty Hunter were all slammed by critics and failed
to transform his tough guy image into any kind of heartthrob status.
Behind-the-scenes letdowns
The 2013 presidential action thriller Olympus Has Fallen was a real labor of love for Butler,
a film he was passionate about and involved with from start to finish.
Butler told The Independent that he
"...worked so much on the script, ripping it apart and putting it back together, really
putting flesh on the bones of it and trying to give it some real substance and meaning
in terms of a fun, action thriller that is going be a rousing experience."
He also revealed that he tries to separate the "nasty and mean" comments from the "constructive
criticism" when it comes to reviews, though he has his work cut out for him there, not
only as the film's star, but as a writer and producer, too.
Unfortunately, he had to wade through a lot of bad to get to the good because Olympus
Has Fallen was criticized on almost every level.
Luckily it still performed well enough at the box office to spawn a sequel...and he'll
get at least one more shot to see if audiences want to watch a third thing fall.
What's next?
What's next for Gerard Butler?
Well, more of the same from the look of it.
The Scotsman filmed an action flick called Hunter Killer in 2017, where he plays a submarine
captain tasked with rescuing a president — though this time it's the Russian head of state kidnapped
by terrorists.
And yes, Angel Has Fallen, the third film in the Fallen franchise is still on deck for
release in 2018 despite the fact that the previous two films were railed by critics.
Reviewers might talk, but money walks, and both films made enough money at the worldwide
box office to justify squeezing one more adventure thriller out.
He'll also once again provide the voice of Stoick the Vast in How To Train Your Dragon
3, slated for 2019, so we haven't heard the last from Gerard Butler just yet...
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