The Butler Did It

Phantom of the OperaSource: Empire Online Author:  Editorial Staff

Originally Published: 9 December 2004

The latest in a long line of Scottish superstars, Gerard Butler last sang in a student band with his mates. Now he’s tinkling his tonsils as the most famous ghost in stage history (with the possible exception of Hamlet’s dad). We talk to the Phantom about making people scared of him and why Dracula 2000 was a good idea…

Did you have any experience of the musical before you got cast?

None whatsoever. I’d never seen it and didn’t even know the story. I’d heard the music around and about, but didn’t know that this movie had been a concept, until the day I was sent a script in January 2002, which seems like just a couple of months ago.

So it had been in production for 18 years, then came together in a flash?

I was just in the right place at the right time. I had become a mate with Joel perhaps a year before – funnily enough he had spotted me in Dracula 2000. Which just shows you, you know, you can be on a movie set thinking, “I’m making a piece of s**it”, but you never know who’s gonna end up watching. Anyway, when the script came to me, I couldn’t really understand why it had. But when I read it, it very much moved me. I knew instantly that I had it in me to play that role – if I could sing.

What’s your musical background?

I had sung in a rock band called Speed. People make a big deal of it, but really I just did it for fun. It wasn’t professional. I was training to be a lawyer at the time and the rest of the guys were lawyers as well. It was just a bunch of mates.

How was working with Emmy?

I went to New York for my screen-test and skulked around in the background, in character. I was behind Joel watching, and didn’t say a word, until Emmy walked in. Even before she said a word, I grabbed him and said, “That’s the girl!” I didn’t even know she could sing, but I knew that there was our Christine. Fortunately she sang like a f***ing angel. She has the most beautiful voice. We struck up a great friendship. She was like my little sister. We spent a lot of time together. Sometimes I thought it was maybe too much, that we would lose that sense of mystery, but it just seemed to work.

How did you approach playing such an iconic yet shadowy role?

With the Phantom, I wanted people to feel raunchy and sexy and turned on, but at the same time bring out this almost primal sadness within people. They are kind of warring opposites, but you can do both. In practical terms, I went to the real Opera House and did a lot of reading on cranial disfigurement, coping with it socially and stuff. But hardly any of that counted in the end – the Phantom came from within me, and my life experience.

That mask looks like it would be a pain in the arse to wear for months.

It was definitely uncomfortable and problematic, but I managed to turn that to my advantage. I must have tried on a thousand masks, all different textures, materials, styles and shapes. Then, on the first day of filming, we realised we hadn’t worked out any way to keep it on! Joel was furious, and understandably so. In the end we used double-sided sticky tape, which sometimes stuck to my face so hard you’d have to rip it off my skin. And the opposite – sometimes if you were all hot and sweaty, it would just slip off.

Did people on the set treat you differently when you had it on?

Yeah, people didn’t know how to treat me. Most stayed away, which I was happy with. Not that I’m Method, but a certain amount of that creeps in. People wanted to laugh and joke with me, but I could see a certain hesitancy.

Previous article
Next article

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Captcha verification failed!
CAPTCHA user score failed. Please contact us!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Instagram

Latest

Gerry in Greece March 12, 2020 media roundup

Gerry with Billy Zane - attend in the dinner at the town of Sparta. They are to run in the Olympic Torch relay on March 13, carrying the Olympic Flame from the Byzantine town of Mystras to Sparta for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Social Media roundup Gerry working on Jamie Foxx’s “All Star Weekend”

Social Media roundup of Gerry working on Jamie Foxx's "All Star Weekend" the movie.

Gerry featured in OLYMP Signature collection

Gerry has been announced as the brand ambassador for OLYMP Signature collection shirts, June 2017.

Thurman, Biel to start ‘Playing the Field’

Source:By Jeff Sneider Uma Thurman and Jessica Biel have signed on to join Gerard Butler in Nu Image/Millennium Films' soccer comedy "Playing the Field." Gabriele...

Gerry in Cape Town, January 2020 – Social Media roundup

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7CIiQmAmtz/ Photo 9 at link below: https://www.instagram.com/p/B7CGiSKp6Dd/ https://www.facebook.com/gbgals/photos/a.10150408303500542/10162831483300542/?type=3&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDfEuEXOGLMpMrSkhI5nyMOQwNyRxeovYgjUC5Jfpx2vdzbU09wDEe7sJp2kSwRTfiJ87XjMrkV-nbhhY-HsTQGJUXB8ERbywpqdusq5Yeh7vuIO6zXnoPlofza49Z_9oMgpmCD2qYG1IrGEjw3Ogds8WSi4FX35ZnE7QkEbA33tXvVIB1OO6XY0lcH_D7SAnbxPiTavE5EPNO_UzESLNcyps1TPBs1T5x-Ht5l_UfliEjxbcz90KiQoHoJW-FmgZAwty-DPdkh1Dfi1KukFEs7vFNPscEyjEK8un6T1mAweHXKIJWGVB44pcNNd7IHhtpwXKk_hWfOOq-IZldN&__tn__=-R https://www.instagram.com/p/B6-NWu4JVxT/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B7DRQwLn2O5/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B7DND0-pNKe/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Omy24ptxi/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B7S9Hkrp__l/