Gerard James Butler (born 13 November 1969) is a Scottish actor.
He has lately gotten a thing for doing Woobie characters, not that there's anything wrong with that. He's been in The Ugly Truth, P.S. I Love You, Law Abiding Citizen, Gamer, 300, The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Timeline, Dracula 2000, Reign of Fire and many more. Butler is something of a "2000s action hero", in the vein of Jason Statham and the like. However, he has also proven himself as a romantic lead, and was the lead in a musical too.
Notable roles in Butler's filmography:
- Burke in Tale of the Mummy
- Attila the Hun in Attila
- Dracula in Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000
- Creedy in Reign of Fire
- Terry Sheridan in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life
- The eponymous Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
- Beowulf in Beowulf and Grendel
- King Leonidas in 300
- Gerry from P.S. I Love You
- Mike Chadway in The Ugly Truth
- John Tillman/Kable in Gamer
- Clyde Shelton in Law Abiding Citizen
- One-Two is RocknRolla
- Stoick in How to Train Your Dragon and How to Train Your Dragon 2
- Tullus Aufidius in Ralph Fiennes' film version of Coriolanus
- Mike Banning in Olympus Has Fallen, and its sequels London Has Fallen and Angel Has Fallen
- Set in Gods of Egypt
- Jake Lawson in Geostorm
- 'Big Nick' O'Brien in Den of Thieves
- Commander Joe Glass in Hunter Killer
- John Garrity in Greenland
- Robert "Bob" Viddick in Copshop
- Will Spann in Last Seen Alive
- Brodie Torrance in Plane
- Tom Harris in Kandahar
Tropes associated with Gerard Butler:
- The Alcoholic: He had a serious drinking problem in his twenties before getting sober to focus on his acting career.
- Baritone of Strength: His voice is very deep, commanding and gravelly and he plays a badass in many of his roles.
- Deadpan Snarker: His characters get a lot of snarky lines.
- Dyeing for Your Art: He bulked up on his own for 300, refuting claims that he was wearing a bodysuit or enhanced with CGI but developed a painkiller addiction due to how grueling the training regime was. He also trained to get in good shape for Law Abiding Citizen and Gamer - though he is in shape normally.
- Fake American: In The Bounty Hunter, and general consensus is that his Scottish accent slipped through a lot. His accent has gotten better due to years of repeated American roles though.
- Fake Irish: Despite P.S. I Love You changing the setting from Ireland to America, Gerard's character was still Irish. He issued a public apology to the people of Ireland for doing such a bad job at the accent. Ironically his family has Irish ancestry too.
- Fake Nationality: In addition to the above, he's played French, Greek and Viking characters but kept his natural accent.
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Memetic Badass: Thanks to his role in 300 and his iconic line "This. Is. Sparta!" so much so people think he could be king of the sea
- Mr. Fanservice: Other than his most famous role as King Leonidas, he's in very good shape and directors are more than happy to show that off.
- Star-Making Role: Despite the divisive reception, The Phantom of the Opera (2004) brought him to international attention.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's 6'2, dark-haired and ruggedly handsome.
- Typecasting: As some manner of Action Hero or Jerkass Woobie.
