Off the rails: Gerard Butler, Roger Moore and Dermot O'Leary

http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/off-the-rails-gerard-butler-roger-moore-and-dermot-oleary-9796676.html


Off the rails: Gerard Butler, Roger Moore and Dermot O'Leary

A T-bird, a schoolboy dandy and a crusty… Gerard Butler, Roger Moore and Dermot O’Leary were not always the suave screen idols you see before you. They recount their formative years in fashion to Hannah Nathanson and Dipal Acharya


‘I wore sarongs in the Himalayas. I looked like Lawrence of Arabia’ - Gerard Butler, 44, actor

Last year Gerard Butler made his first fashion faux pas. He turned up at the Wimbledon men’s final in a sky-blue suit and sat next to Bradley Cooper, whose suit was a similarly pale shade. Twitter nearly crashed when the pair posted a bromantic, matchy-matchy selfie. ‘We were saying, “How cool, we’re at the Wimbledon final!” ’ he says in his rugged Scottish brogue, a bit embarrassed. ‘It was so exciting, we had to document the moment.’

Butler’s gruff, unshaven look has caught the attention of copycats the world over. ‘Ido the least grooming possible. I can be ready for an event in six minutes, shower included.’ He has played roles as diverse as King Leonadis in 300 to a former NYPD detective in the romcom The Bounty Hunter, opposite Jennifer Aniston, with whom he went out after romancing her on set. He dated Leonardo DiCaprio’s ex, the Romanian model Madalina Ghenea, until earlier this year and although Butler claims he hasn’t yet met his ‘princess’, he’s recently been enjoying the Malibu sun paddleboarding with his new girlfriend, a mystery brunette.

Butler isn’t all brawn, though; he has a sensitive side and his holidays always combine adventure with spirituality: ‘I went to India and motorbiked through the Himalayas, camping on top of mountains. I wore sarongs and turbans — I looked like Lawrence of Arabia in sunglasses.’ The sarong, however, is now in the back of his wardrobe at home in LA. He’s not planning to make the same mistake as David Beckham: ‘I don’t know if it works with my beard,’ he jokes. The rugged image caught the attention of Hugo Boss and he is the new face of its fragrance Boss Bottled.

To relax, Butler takes off on his Harley-Davidson along the Pacific Coast Highway and into the Santa Monica Mountains. ‘You feel like you’re in Tuscany, lost in beautiful farmland. It’s like you move into another time,’ he says. On his bike he wears a waxed leather Belstaff jacket and heavy-duty jeans. He’s always liked the biker look: when he was growing up in Paisley in Scotland he wanted to look like Danny from Grease, so he made his mother spend hours scraping back his hair with wax. ‘I was like, “Mum, get it right,” but being a T-bird wasn’t for me.’

He is also about to usurp Russell Crowe as Hollywood’s hottest hero, playing Set, god of the desert, storms and fire, in the upcoming blockbuster Gods of Egypt, co-starring Geoffrey Rush.

Butler’s broad shoulders and rock-hard physique are the result of some serious weightlifting in preparation for the role. ‘I spent a lot of time with spears and 8ft hammers in my hand,’ he says. ‘Any time you’re holding a lethal weapon you have to look like you can do pretty much anything with it.’ While filming in Sydney he’d practise on Bondi Beach: ‘People gave me weird looks, but they’d also be like, “Dude. That’s as cool as hell.” ’ - HN

Gerard Butler is the face of Boss Bottled