-You know our first guest tonight from films like
"300" and the "Olympus has Fallen" franchise.
He stars in and produced "Plane,"
which is in theaters Friday.
Let's take a look.
-If I didn't believe it could be done,
I would not put you guys back on that plane.
I have a daughter.
I have every intention of hugging her again
and making it home.
And I'm telling you that the way home is on this plane.
-Please welcome back to the show
our friend Gerard Butler, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪
Welcome back! It's been a while.
-Where have you been in my life? -I know.
I'm so happy to see you.
I want to start -- First of all, happy new year.
I know it's a couple weeks ago,
but, you know, you're an international movie star.
I feel like you have a wealth of options on New Year's Eve.
And you were -- You spent it in Times Square.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, well, now you put it like that, it's pretty sad.
-You should have put it like that,
like, you know, December 21st
and more like, "What am I doing?"
-No, my friends wanted to go. I swear it wasn't me.
-Okay.
-And I didn't want to be a party pooper.
But we're also friends with Duran Duran,
so we thought, "Well, that would be kind of fun."
-Alright. Seeing Duran Duran live.
Now it makes sense. -Yeah, yeah.
-But it didn't really go according to plan...
-Okay.
-...because we -- Well, firstly, we arrive in this room,
which seemed to be the guests of Duran Duran.
And -- But when we finally go to go to the stage --
and it's maybe just before 11:00 at this point --
we get this -- It was almost a 25-minute walk.
I'm not jo-- We go through hotels and around avenues
and through blockades and then other hotels.
And then we finally get to this place,
and it said, "Disney party."
So everybody is looking at us like,
"What are you guys doing here?"
So we go, "Okay, well, the stage must be outside."
So we walk outside, and there is these two barriers.
There's like half-a-million people this side,
half-a-million people that side, and just us.
Five of us on our own with everybody now screaming at us.
I thought maybe I'm supposed to do a performance or something.
So, we say to somebody, "Well, where is the stage?"
And they're like, "Oh, no, the stage is like
five blocks that way."
And we can't even see the stage.
So now we're running desperately.
And everybody is trying to pull us back into this party, saying,
"Will you take a photo with so-and-so?"
and blah, blah, blah.
And we're begging.
We can't even get into the main throng of the crowd.
So -- And the police -- they all want photos.
But then we say, "Can we go through?"
And they go, "No, no, you can't go through."
-So these are police officers that want a picture with you,
but then will not let you through.
-And then say, "Nobody can go through this way."
And then I'm getting stopped by everybody,
so I end up putting on one of those ridiculous hats.
So I am running around with this going,
"But what if somebody photographs me and I look..."
-I like that somebody would be like,
"I think that's Gerard Butler."
And they'd would be like, "No,
he would never wear a hat that dumb."
-Exactly. That was the argument that my friends used.
And then, at one point, it was now about 11:30.
And we have been 20 minutes by these
20 port-a-potties in the pissing rain
and thought, "This is it.
This is how we are going spend our New Year --
by the port-a-potties.
And we don't even know which part -- where we're at."
And then, finally, we found the greeter.
And they took us just as Duran Duran were coming on.
And we were at this barrier.
And they -- As Simon Le Bon walks up the stage,
they open the barrier.
Suddenly, we run up the stairs.
And we're right there 3 feet from the stage.
It's a quarter to midnight. The ball drops.
Confetti everywhere. -So, in the end, it worked.
-So in the end, it worked.
But I say I've ticked that one off my bucket list.
I think I'm good with Times Square.
I think I'm good with Times Square generally.
-Yeah, yeah.
It's not like it rises to the occasion on the other days.
Yeah.
So, this is fantastic. This is an action movie.
I think the kind of fun that we expect from you in a film.
And I will say, I really love the title "Plane."
I like that it's just coming right in.
It's telling you what to expect. I got to admit, though.
I think sometimes maybe movie studios
would overthink this and come up with
something more complicated than "Plane."
-I couldn't agree more.
I have to say, in its defense, at one point,
it was changed to "The Plane."
-Okay.
-But -- -Huge mistake.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
When we were filming, suddenly, on the script,
it said, "The Plane."
But look at "Flight."
You know, and this is a classic action movie.
I mean, it is really a throwback to those --
And I think we have them less and less.
The old superhero, "Star Wars" -- they're great,
but I miss those movies where you have the John McClane,
you know, the Bruce Willis, the Harrison Ford.
And, you know, so, I actually think a title like that
really allows you to feel -- you know, feel into it.
You can kind of make your own decisions on it.
And it actually is not all on a plane.
It's very plane-centric, but that's only the start of it
after this kind of really quite --
-Yeah. You're on an island. -Yeah.
-So you could have called it "Island."
-"Plane and Island," yeah, yeah.
-Like halfway through, you should have just turned,
broke the fourth wall, turned to the camera, and gone,
"The movie is called 'Island' now."
-I'm out of here. Okay. -No!
No, I like talking -- I mean, you are --
Ever since the first time I met you,
you've always been in these films where I feel
like you put yourself at great physical risk.
And, yet -- There is all these stunts, all this action,
but I have heard that you hurt yourself
more on this film pretending -- just pretending to fix a plane.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
-So, what happened?
-Yeah, I think I managed to --
No matter what I'm doing, I manage to hurt myself.
-Are you naturally clumsy?
-I think so, yeah. -Yeah.
-But it was on the scene where you just saw the clip.
We -- I'm trying to find something
that's wrong with the plane before we can take off
for this final sequence.
And it's something in the wheel, so it's a brake.
Now I'm sticking my hand between these two wheels,
kind of pretending that I know what I'm doing.
And it's so -- Whatever is in there is, like --
Every time I bring my hands out,
they're covered in blood and green fluid, right?
And I'm like -- I don't know what this green fluid is.
We're also shooting in Puerto Rico,
so I'm covered in sweat.
And the adrenaline.
And the nose is running, everything.
And I guess especially with COVID,
you realize why this thing spreads, right?
Because I must have been -- I'm rubbing my face.
And, suddenly, it's in my throat.
It's in my mouth. It's up my nose.
It's in my eyes.
It's burning my face, and I mean burning.
It turns out this is essentially phosphoric acid.
And the airline pilots that were there watching go, "No!"
They're trying to put water on my face.
"Don't put water. It will make it worse!"
And I'm just, like, burning alive.
So it was intense.
And it actually burned for hours,
but it was great for the sequence.
-And anything for the work. Anything for the work.
-Anything for the work, yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
-I like -- Knowing everything I know about COVID protocols
these days on movie sets, there were probably
10 people there making sure nobody gave each other COVID,
and not one person keeping you from putting acid on your face.
-Yeah, that's pretty much it.
-Now this, though, I really -- This is a true credit to you.
And I can't believe -- And I also want to say
I'm crediting you that you never told me this story before.
You actually, real life, saved a human being.
This is not movie. This is not character work.
You fished someone from a river.
-Yeah. I've saved a couple of human beings,
but this one -- [ Laughs ]
[ Cheers and applause ] -Save it for next time.
-Yeah, yeah, exactly. -Save one for next time.
-Yeah, actually, when I just started acting,
I -- The place that I filmed my first movie,
it was a beautiful place,
but with this River Tay in Scotland.
But it is cold and it has a lot of undercurrent.
But it was a beautiful summer's day.
And I say to my mom, "Let's go where I stayed.
This is the hotel I stayed at."
And we're both just lying there, and we fall asleep.
And, suddenly, I hear this screaming.
And I wake up.
I say to the woman next to me, "Is there somebody in trouble?
She goes, "Uh, I don't know."
And nobody seems to take notice of this.
And, so, I go over this hill.
And, sure enough, there is this boy in the middle of the river.
And he disappears underwater and then he comes back up.
And then he just -- And he looks dead to me.
And all I could think was, "I wish I was a heavier sleeper."
'Cause I'm like, "What am I --
You know, I know I'm going to go in there,
but I just wish I hadn't woken up."
And I did.
But, so, this part of the --
Yeah, I've got courage, but clumsy as hell.
I did probably the worst rescue attempt.
So, I swim out and then I grab him.
But I didn't go back, so I was kind of, like, you know --
-Yeah. Holding his head underwater?
-Yeah, yeah.
And the kid was basically --
You know, his eyes were wide open.
And we get him back. -How old was he when you saved?
-He was 13. -Okay, gotcha.
-And we get back, and now I'm just holding him.
And he's lying there.
And I think if we had been left to that, he would have died,
'cause I didn't know what to do.
-He probably was looking up being like,
"Oh, anybody but Gerard Butler."
-Well, especially in the position we were in.
-Yeah.
-That's another one.
So -- And this guy came over and gave him the Heimlich maneuver,
and he threw up and then he, you know, came to.
And then he was fine.
And, actually, I got an award for bravery
from the British Humane Society for that.
-There you go. [ Cheers and applause ]
Now, this is really special.
You -- I mean, you stay in touch with him over the years.
He is 13 at the time. -I did.
-And he got married recently,
and his best man reached out to you
and asked if you would make a video for his wedding,
which I assume you took this seriously.
-Oh, yeah, I did. I did.
This is why I ended up producing movies,
because I'm such a perfectionist that I didn't just --
I think I spent a whole day putting this together,
'cause I thought, "I got to do a good job here.
They're going to show it for their wedding."
So I think I recorded four, and it took like six hours.
And I'm like, "What am I doing? This is ridiculous!"
You know, but it was actually --
Because he wrote me a letter after that, when he was 13,
and it was very sweet.
And, suddenly, to feel -- The best man
had got in touch, saying,
"It would be so amazing if you did this speech for him."
You know, obviously, my career had changed a little bit,
so they would actually know who I was then.
And, so, yeah, I recorded this speech.
-And you were kind enough to bring it with you.
So this is the video that played at the wedding.
-Hey, Danny. Hey, Nicola.
Uh, congratulations.
Danny, I haven't seen you for a while --
since you were about 13.
We lost you on the River Tay in Scotland, and I pulled you out,
and there you are today getting married.
So it's kind of a cool moment.
I have to say, I was quite moved when I heard this,
because you're responsible for me getting an award from
the British Humane Society.
And, you know, for the older aunts and uncles,
close your ears.
But you have no idea how often that's got me laid.
[ Laughter ]
But I'm asking for nothing from you guys
except maybe to name your firstborn Gerry,
boy or girl -- or, you know, all your kids Gerry.
-[ Laughs ] Bravo!
Gerard Butler, everybody, Humane Society Award winner!
"Plane" is in theaters Friday.
We'll be right back with Nico Parker.