Actor Gerard Butler stepped into one of his most iconic roles in Law Abiding Citizen. But he was a little apprehensive about doing the movie because of other actors’ legendary performances.
Gerard Butler’s background as a law student helped inspire him to star in ‘Law Abiding Citizen’
Before Gerard Butler became a leading man in the film industry, he was on the path to becoming a lawyer. He’d dedicated seven years of his life to practicing law in his home country of Scotland. But after working deeper with a law firm, Butler began to second-guess his choice in profession.
“Becoming an actor was a massive transformation for me, but I didn’t have the heart to stick it out as a lawyer,” Butler once told Square Mile. “I would have made a good one, except I hated the work – I was partying every night and I got fired. But my bosses also knew that acting was my passion. They were very realistic with me and said I should just go and do what I really wanted to be doing instead of wasting my time at the office. They were right.”
Ironically, Butler would find himself in a court room years later in Law Abiding Citizen. The feature saw Butler portraying Clyde Shelton. Clyde would take the law into his own hands after his family is brutally murdered. The 2009 feature explores the corruption and complicated nature of the judicial system that criminals sometimes end up exploiting. It was the film’s focus on the law that further attracted Butler.
“Yeah it did, that was one of the initial attractions, obviously being involved with the law, and also realising that after having involvement with the law, I no longer wanted any involvement with it. Then coming across this idea which in some ways is a real inditement of the law or the way it can be administered,” Butler said in a 2009 interview with Fan Carpet.
Gerard Butler worried about being compared to Anthony Hopkins in ‘Law Abiding Citizen’
Butler was originally supposed to play a prosecutor in the film. But the more he read the script, the more he became interested in Clyde. After playing so many heroes in his career, Butler was interested in playing a more complex role. The part of the prosecutor would later go to his Law Abiding Citizen co-star Jamie Foxx.
“We thought Jaime was most likely going to want to play the prosecutor. So when I was speaking to the rest of the team, do you think if I offered to play the other role he would still be interested, the second I said it there was a pause and I was thinking I shouldn’t have said that cause he might say yes, and he did so I was kind of screwed. But in hindsight I don’t have any regrets, I’m glad we did it like that,” Butler said.
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But Butler still developed some concerns after clinching the part. He was stepping into a role that was unlike many of the other he’d been known to play. He also had to deal with the possibility that his performance might not match actors who’d played similar villains. At least in the eyes of the public.
“I was talked out of it a couple of times. But the fact that people were saying ‘no’ was all the more reason for me to do it. Can you do a romantic comedy, or a musical, and then go into a thriller and really scare the crap out of people? What worries me when you take on a role like this, people will go, ‘ Well, he’s no Kevin Spacey!’ or, ‘Tony Hopkins was much better,’” Butler once told Empire (via Female First).
Still, Butler asserted that he couldn’t let fear influence the roles that he did.
Gerard Butler was in a dark place after ‘Law Abiding Citizen’
Law Abiding Citizen wasn’t just a challenge for Butler as an actor. The 300 star found himself working as a producer for the first time while doing the movie. But the combination of his duties behind the scenes and his role eventually took its toll on him.
“I don’t think I was always in good space when we were filming this movie, one because of the character I was playing and what he was going through, but also cause I was trying to produce, I was acting in it, and playing this role that I hadn’t played before that was very dark,” Butler said.
After filming, Butler decided to travel a bit and decompress to get back to a better mental state.
“So yeah, I noticed that a lot of the time while filming, I wasn’t in a great space, my stomach would be churning cause of the other stuff that was going on, but when I finished that was tough, that was literally three weeks to a month that I spent in a very funky place. I actually came back to Scotland after that and went away on my own a lot, climbed up a couple of hills, got a tent out and then went on to India,” he said.
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