Gerard Butler

Gerard Butler:(about the stunts he did in the movie, The Bounty Hunter) I was jumping up and down, onto roofs and off of roofs and onto cars I was doing a lot of crazy stuff. That's where I picked up most of my injuries.

Gerard Butler: I love doing the stunts. It's as simple as that.

Gerard Butler: (When talking about football and the day before he went to sing for Andrew Lloyd Webber) I support the Celtic football team, which was in the semi-final for the European cup, and it was the first time they've been in for many years. I went to the game the night before in Glasgow with all my crazy Glaswegian friends who screamed at the top of their lungs the whole night, and I had to sit there and clap to protect my voice because I was singing for Andrew Lloyd Webber the next day in London.

Gerard Butler: (when discussing his formal acting training) When I was 12, I was in Oliver! at a theater in Glasgow.

Gerard Butler: I love to do films of all shapes and sizes and feelings and genres. So for me to go from Tomb Raider straight into Dear Frankie, there's nothing that excites me more than to keep mixing it up.

Gerard Butler: I think I'm a man out of place. I love Scotland. You can stand amidst those mountains and fell the history. It emanates all around you. When I'm there, I fantasize about the Celts coming over from Europe in bearskins. And the simplicity and purity of society back then--it wasn't as complicated or discolored as it is now. I imagine roaming those hills, fighting those battles...

Gerard Butler: (On the success of the movie "300") You come out of that movie so pumped up, so ready to die for your friends or your country or anything. Like, 'I will fight for my parking space! I will kill. This is MY parking space!' (laughs)

Gerard Butler: (On his love for Scotland) I love everything about the Scottish people – their warmth, their humor, their potential for violence. Nobody from Glasgow goes into acting. You were seen as weird if you wanted to be an actor. But I didn't mind. It's just what I wanted to do.

Gerard Butler: (talking about his decision to leave his career as a lawyer to pursue acting after having seen "Trainspotting" on stage) A week later, I packed my bags and moved to London to become an actor. I had no connections, no experience, no training, and no prospects. Everybody was laughing at me. Everybody was thinking I'd just messed up my whole career.

Gerard Butler: I am for equal opportunities. Why should it be the guy's job to kiss? If a woman wants to kiss she should totally do that. I think it is awesome when women take the lead. I love that idea.

Gerard Butler: (discussing his days of heavy binge drinking) I once woke up in Paris at 4am, five miles from where I'd been at a party. I had gashes to my head, my face, my arms, and I had blood all over my clothes. To this day, I don't know what happened.

Gerard Butler: I think there's a part of you that always imagines that if you encounter success , every fibre of your being will change. You know your whole cellular structure will change. And you will suddenly think and feel and behave like a different person . . . And you don't.

Gerard Butler: I love nutty roles; those roles that you can climb into and give a lot of color too. It might be some off-beat wacky, low-budget script, and I might just say 'Oh my God, I have to do this.'

Gerard Butler: (on why he trained so hard for his role in "300") I wanted to look really strong. I've seen so many actors play these kinds of roles, and you see all this equipment on either a big belly or skinny little arms. That was a great thing, to put on that cape and put on that helmet, and not have to think, 'S**t, I should have trained more.' Instead, I was standing there feeling like a lion.

Gerard Butler: No matter what you have to go through and what you suffer, when you have true love, you can put up with anything.

Gerard Butler: I was smoking a huge amount and having real bad premonitions and then I got this role where the guy dies of cancer. The film P.S. I Love You made me contemplate death and realize I was playing Russian roulette with my health. I've since stopped smoking.

Gerard Butler: (On his new acting career) [During] some of the most miserable periods of my life, people thought I was very happy. And now that I'm actually happier, I don't have to show it. I'm more comfortable with myself.

Gerard Butler: (On his name) GerERD. Your name is GerERD. And, and, but, it's funny, but, I did a magazine interview a few years ago, and they asked me, "What do we call you?" And I said, "Well, you say it just 'Gerry,'" because when Americans say "GerARD," it drives me crazy, when my mum does that. But they got it the wrong way around, and they put it in the magazine that I hated being called Gerry. And so then all my friends are calling me, going, [in a high-pitched, mocking voice] "Ooh, GERard." [audience laughs] And [I said] "I didn't say that! I didn't say that!"

Gerard Butler: My dad was nuts. He was a very entertaining man, the best story-teller, the best joke-teller, like a big kid. I realised I had a lot of anger in me about not having spent my childhood with him, but when I met him and got to know him, I realised he was just trying his best, the way he knew how. He was quite an irresponsible man, but I don't think he had a lot of evil in him. He was very childish in a way, but a good man. I am really glad I got to know him.

Gerard Butler: I think it's one of the nicest privileges as an actor is to know that you can move people in one moment, make them think about their lives, or make them laugh or make them cry or make them understand something. Or just make them feel something because I think so many of us, including myself, spend too much time not feeling enough, you know?

Gerard Butler: I was never into law. Even now, I never read contracts. I just sign them.

Gerard Butler: I appreciate and love women for many reasons, tall and small, plump and skinny, and crazy and demure. I see beauty in all of them.

Gerard Butler: Craig and I are both from Long Beach. This whole thing. Craig Ferguson: Shut up, shut up, shut up! Gerard Butler: I hate to give the game away but we're both from Long Beach, born and bred!

Gerard Butler: I had never done that before: singing while trying to give a cinematic performance. The temptation is to open your mouth and belt it out and do something theatrical, which would just be ghastly because every time you open your mouth it's 30 feet wide on a big screen.

Gerard Butler: (Discussing his preparations for his role in 'Phantom of the Opera') By that point, I had started taking singing lessons. And after the first session, I mean, I was surprised that the windows didn't shatter. And after the third session, I really didn't know where this voice had come from.