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The Butler Did It |
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From legendary Spartan warrrior in 300, to his latest action-comedy gambit The Bounty Hunter. If versatility was a crime, GERARD BUTLER is guilty as charged. |
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Please give us a brief outline of the story in Bounty Hunter…
GERARD BUTLER: I play a former cop who has basically lost his job because his life has fallen apart a little bit and he gets a job as a bounty hunter. And I’m given the job of arresting a journalist who is on the run from the law and it turns out this journalist is my ex-wife, played by Jennifer Aniston. And there’s nothing that my character would rather do that would make him happier than to bring her ass back to jail [laughs].
So we’re assuming that it was an acrimonious break up?
GERARD BUTLER: Yeah, we’re not on good terms and we haven’t seen each other since we broke up. There was a lot of animosity and we drove each other nuts, both our careers without a doubt got in the way of us having any kind of nourishing relationship and as a result I’ve kind of fallen apart, although I would hate to admit that it was as a result of the relationship breaking up but without a doubt she has left me very angry. So this opportunity – me going to arrest my ex-wife – couldn’t come at a better time or happen with a better person. However, the problem is money lenders are chasing me and corrupt cops are chasing her because she has uncovered certain information that is very sensitive and is now being tracked by some dirty cops. The quickest way to describe it would be Midnight Run meets The War of the Roses.
Andy Tennant, who directed The Bounty Hunter, has had a lot of success with this kind of genre…
GERARD BUTLER: This genre is perfect for him and from the day we first met and we all had dinner together – myself, Andy and Jen – he was very excited about the project, about the prospect of Jen and I teaming up together. At that point we didn’t have New York as a definite location and he said ‘you know what? I’m going to make sure we film this in New York, I’m going to make sure that happens and we’re going to go and have a blast...’ And we did. That was at the forefront of his mind, it was ‘let’s have really good fun making this movie...’ And it was for me. I had such a great time. It was the height of summer and it was pretty much a dream come true. New York is, I think, the best city for filming.
And what about Jennifer, she is so good at this kind of genre...
GERARD BUTLER: She is definitely a pro. I relished the chance to do this kind of film with somebody like Jennifer. And yet, it’s also a role where I think people will be surprised by her performance. She’s great and yet she is very edgy and sassy and bitchy and strong and she’s not quite the sweet Jennifer that people are used to. I haven’t seen her like this before. And as a person, I’ll tell you, I had such a great time working with her. We always saw eye to eye and we were very much on the same wavelength and I had a great time doing scenes with her and do you know, it felt like we were making some magic.
Screen chemistry can be a rather elusive element. Do you know whether it’s going to happen before you start working with someone? Or can you only be sure when the cameras roll?
GERARD BUTLER: You might get a hint of it from when you meet them, you know, do you bounce off each other well? Does it feel right? But having said that, sometimes you can be wrong, sometimes it can feel great but the chemistry isn’t fantastic. Although I have to say I normally have good chemistry with my female co-stars, but I think that I had maybe the best chemistry with her. And that’s what everybody was always talking about, just how great fun we were together and how great that chemistry was. You know for scene after scene, when we were in the middle of it, I thought ‘this is a dream, this is so much fun.’ It was never an effort, never a struggle; we just worked really well together.
You seem to be mixing up your career in a good way, you do films like 300 and Law Abiding Citizen and then you do a comedy like The Bounty Hunter. Is that part of a grand plan?
GERARD BUTLER: I wouldn’t say that I’ve got a specific ‘grand plan’ with my career, but generally it’s to always move in new and fresh directions wherever possible. It’s harder to do right now at a time when the staple diet for moviegoers are these mega budget movies. There are less dramas and medium budget movies being made and that’s quite sad. I’ve had to fight even harder, therefore, to try and do something at a more interesting level. But my next film is Shakespeare with Ralph Fiennes, it’s Coriolanus and I play Tullus Aufidius and then I’m off to do a movie with Marc Forster, Machine Gun Preacher, a really interesting movie about a drug dealer who becomes a humanitarian and goes out to Africa and ends up building an orphanage and fighting against rebels in war torn Sudan.
Where are you living now?
GERARD BUTLER: I’d say mostly LA.
Do you still get back to the UK?
GERARD BUTLER: I do and I have a place in London but I just don’t get back there as often as I would like because when I do get back to the UK, I use the time to go back and see my family who live up in the Highlands – well my sister lives in Glasgow, my brother in Edinburgh and my folks live up in the Highlands. And this is the problem when you live abroad and your family is spread out, a lot of your time is spent trying to catch up with them. I lived in London for years and London is one of my favourite places on the planet, I love being in London. When I’m living in LA I can get to New York a lot too, and I love it here.
Discover The Bounty Hunter on DVD and Blu-ray at JB Hi-Fi » |
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