Gerard Butler

One thing I\'ve learned as an actor as well as a producer is to trust my own instinct. When I first started acting I would sometimes have ideas about certain things, whether it\'s a scene, or a character or certain dialogue, that wouldn\'t be followed. I was never in a position to have the power to press the matter. Sometimes it wasn\'t even about my character. But I\'d watch the movie afterwards and think I was right.

At first it was a bit strange and daunting to have to wear a mask, but afterwards I came to enjoy it. In warm conditions, though, it started to slip off my face. Other times they used this double-sided sticky tape, and I literally couldn\'t get it off my face. I would feel like I was ripping my face off and I had a lot of cuts and bruises because of it-huge red marks. People might think it was method acting.

When I start a movie, I already feel like I\'m in it. I\'m not a jobbing actor anymore; most of the films I do, I\'m involved with development. Some, I\'ve taken from scratch, and worked so heavily on the , I\'m embodying a lot of the character by the time I even get close to filming, because I\'ve asked so many of the questions that I do. There is nothing better than being able to ask all the questions, do all the work. It\'s when you let it go that you fly.

I think some parts of the American justice system have gone haywire.

I do get stressed at times, but I love what I do as an actor. This is the part that I don\'t like. I don\'t actually like talking about - I wish I could just go and get on with my job, because I love getting a , breaking it down, working with other people, bonding with other people, fighting with other people, and out of those arguments, creating something that nobody expected and seeing it all come together. Telling a story, having an impact on people\'s lives, moving them and making them laugh.

Comedy is actually very hard. It\'s hard to choose those moments and know when you can really push it, and know when you should be bringing it back and making it more subtle, and knowing as time goes on, as you do take after take and the crowd around you stops laughing. Whenever you do comedy, you realize you\'re up against - you\'re performing next to people who you would think are so unbelievably good at it, that that\'s a bit of a pressure. But at the same time, it\'s just fun. It\'s fun to be able to let out that side of you.

I know I have within myself... a side of solitude. I think people who know me can see, but people who just meet me can\'t because I\'m generally very fun and gregarious. I love to spend a lot of time on my own. I can seriously go into my own head and often love to let myself travel where I don\'t know where I\'m going. I always felt that that was his kind of form of escape, in a way.

There\'s always advantages and disadvantages to doing any role. And there\'s a great sense of achievement, testosterone, fun, being able to live out your masculinity when you play an action role, or an action-adventure, or a real tough-guy role. Really, if you\'re doing a comedy, you can sit back and relax. And it\'s good to know that at the end of the day, you don\'t have to run off for another two hours and go to the gym, or go spend the rest of the night swordplaying with stunt guys. Then I think, \'Oh my God, I love comedy.\'.

My problem is, whether it\'s for emotion or for the talents that a character has to have in a role, I find it very difficult to not take on a challenge. I need to say, \'Okay, enough, take the easy road.\' But the easy road for me is not - it might just come out coincidentally. I wouldn\'t ever choose a movie because it\'s easy. I might choose a movie because I feel like being funny, or I feel like being able to do something that is perhaps dramatic, but to a lesser degree. Because I like switching it up, basically, not because I would take the easier road.

I don\'t know whether it\'s spiritual development or trying to learn the psychologically with being an actor, but I realise the more I get into it that this was something I was always supposed to do. That allowed me to sit easiser in the life I was living. But that doesn\'t mean to say you just stroll through it. It takes work and the work is not always about acting. It\'s sometimes about how you deal with the ups and downs of hope, of expectation.

When I\'m making a movie, it\'s making use of my creative juices, and it fills me up with what really is - I think my purpose here is to tell stories. When I\'m not, then I really have to learn how to live life and make use of the time properly. I\'m not always great at making those decisions, but when it comes to working, my time is totally taken up. I have no option except to get up early in the morning and to work on that movie and to finish. But I take that with a pinch of salt, because I also love my time off.

It\'s so incredible when you meet somebody who comes up and passionately tells you how much they liked you in a movie, or how much they liked thamovie. That\'s a great thing, because I know what I get out of watching a great movie. So I love what I do, but it\'s more - I don\'t think there\'d be anybody who would tell you that, even if it\'s something they love doing, they don\'t get stressed out by it. I\'m a very intense person, so I go very intensely and passionately into what I do.

So many actors get caught up in their technique, and to be honest, I see it really getting in the way. I see them forcing things. I definitely do my best work when I\'m free of that. But I think as an actor, I work really hard in preparing the roles. I spend like 90 percent of my waking moments walking around thinking: \'What does this character do? What is his relationship with so-and-so?\' Always, really. Too much!

I think the American justice system has a lot more issues than the European justice system, especially the Scottish justice system. We have a really nice mix of European codified law and the traditional English system of common law, which is what the American system is based on.

I think it\'s one of the nicest privileges as an actor is to know that you can move people in one moment, make them think about their lives, or make them laugh or make them cry or make them understand something. Or just make them feel something because I think so many of us, including myself, spend too much time not feeling enough, you know?

I think I get laid less now than I used to, because I'm way more paranoid now.

The thing about courage is it's something that we have to learn and relearn our whole lives. It's not just in you, it's in every choice we make every day.

Manscaping and all of that is not my thing. I\'m more of the Clint Eastwood kind of guy.

When I was a vocalist, a lead singer in a rock band, I was a law student at the time. It wasn\'t a professional rock band, it was for fun. I was already way out of that by the time Phantom came along. Having to learn to sing, it was such duress, having to really try and get to such a quality.

To me, it\'s always good to retain a sense of wonder and never good too big for life, like you\'ve seen it all before.

It\'s always more interesting to make a movie about what is relevant in your society. What\'s the political global backdrop? What are our threats? What are we vulnerable to? Because that\'s what an audience vibes on - that is what people are interested in, universally.

When I\'m 80 and sagging all over, I can tell my grandkids, \'Look, when I was a lad, \'People\' magazine thought I was sexy!\'

I remember when \'Grease\' came out, I used to force my mum to try and grease my hair back, and it was never long enough, and literally I\'d be screaming at her, \'Do it. Just do it!\'.

I wear a lot of Brioni and Ferragamo and Dolce, all of those kind of things.

I\'ve had broken bones and cuts and dashes and tears from movies, but when I was five, my mom put the biscuits up high so we wouldn\'t be helping ourselves. So, one day I asked to stand up on a chair to get a biscuit, and it fell, and the corner of the chair went right into the side of my eye, and it made a big hole in there.

I did spend a lot of my childhood playing out movie scenarios in my head. I\'d walk along the road, pretending like I was in the army, talking on the radio, and doing maneuvers. I dreamt a lot about performing in movies and living in fantasies.

9/11 was basically caused by box cutters, and that changed the world.

The problem with my mind is it sways from side to side. The idea of me fantasizing about becoming an actor quickly led to depression. \'No, it was never going to happen to me.\' I was a sixteen-year-old kid on the other side of the world from where they made movies. Scottish actors never really got play. There was Sean Connery, and that was it.

\'300\' was a real turning point in my career. Until then, I felt like a steam train that was slowly chugging to the top of a hill. Now I\'m over that hill, my career seems to have its own momentum.

My problem is, whether it\'s for emotion or for the talents that a character has to have in a role, I find it very difficult to not take on a challenge. For instance, \'Phantom Of The Opera,\' in truth, scared the crap out of me, but I wasn\'t going to walk away and say, \'I didn\'t do that because I didn\'t believe in myself.\'