Gerard Butler: What I've Learned

http://www.esquire.co.uk/culture/film/interviews/a11699/gerard-butler-what-ive-learned/


Gerard Butler: What I've Learned

The 300 actor on success, social media and being a sex symbol

By Olivia Ovenden
Nov 24, 2016

"Arrestingly handsome" is a cliché that should be treated with caution, but it is what springs to mind when Gerard Butler walks into the room in a well-fitted dark suit accessorised with winter tan and low-key stubble. Flashing a warm smile and laughing, he barks "ready!" and offers me the better seat - it's immediately clear a day stuck in a Soho hotel room hasn't harmed his manners.

Best known for his brutish roles in films like 300 and Olympus Has Fallen, today Butler is in London as an ambassador for Hugo Boss. He we talk to him about being confused with Russell Crowe, taking a motorcycle trip through Utah and what life has taught him so far.

I was a pest growing up. If i wasn't hanging out a tree I was on a railway track. If I look back at my childhood, I honestly can't believe I'm still here.

Don't take yourself too seriously. Over the years I've been given many bits of advice but that is the one that will keep you happy.

People here are more likely to spot you and do something subtle, like point, but keep it to themselves. In America they run after you and scream. Scotland is the best, a girl walked up to me in a bar and said, "I'm not gonna say I know who yer are cause it'll give yer a big head". I thought well, you just have.

Women always tell me their mum loves me, or ask for a hug. Whereas men just yell, "This is Sparta!" or ask me to kick them in the chest like I did in 300.

I'm comfortable enough with myself to be happy I'm seen as a handsome man.

I watched Black Mirror the other night and thought: it ain't that far off. I've come to quite enjoy social media and not let it dominate my life but I do spend too much time looking at emails and the news. I see young people particularly losing that ability to connect face to face.

I rarely get to perform in my own accent but I like having the challenge of having to learn a new one.

The manliest thing I can do? I just did a motorcycle trip through snow and ice in Utah. It was so unbearably cold for 6 days of up to 16 hour rides. I did come out thinking it was pretty manly.

I always get confused with Clive Owen. Him or Russell Crowe. God if I have another person tell me how much they loved me in Gladiator....

Gerard Butler is the face of BOSS Bottled fragrance and Intense Eau De Parfum, both available from Debenhams nationwide.