That was one of the things that attracted me to the movie. I asked all the surfers who worked on the film about that moment when you are underwater and struggling, and you know you’re in trouble. I had such a fascination with what happened to these guys in situations like this. I would imagine that as you were being pulled underwater by that giant wave, you wished you were in one of those old “Beach Party” movies where the actors stood in front of a screen and only pretended to be surfing?Ī. Now I know not to take it all so seriously. (laughing) I thought it was a joke, but you seemed so serious.Ī. GERARD BUTLER: (A long, awkward, blank stare).Ī. ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: I’m not sure if this is true but I have heard that you underwent rigorous training for this movie similar to the training Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello received for “Beach Blanket Bingo?” In fact, he studied law in Glasgow, but his career path was diverted when he realized that it was more fun to play a lawyer than it was to be a lawyer. 7), explains what he was thinking as he prepared to die under that giant wave, what he sees as the chief differences between regular surfers and big-wave surfers and what, if anything, he has in common with Annette Funicello.īutler didn’t set out to be an actor in his native Scotland. It is doubtful that filming on “The Phantom of the Opera,” “The Ugly Truth” and “Law Abiding Citizen,” three of Butler’s earlier films, ever got this dangerous.īutler, who next will star as a retired soccer star in “Playing for Keeps” (Dec. Well, somebody must have been asleep at the wheel on this particular day, when Butler and several professional surfers who worked on the film got caught in a set of unusually large waves that overwhelmed the men and dragged Butler under the surface for enough time for him to believe that he was about to die. Normally, producers and movie studios are so protective of their stars – because one accident can shut down production and cost hundreds of jobs and millions in lost revenue – that they won’t allow actors anywhere near a dangerous situation.
The 42-year-old Scottish actor came close to giving his life for his art while playing Frosty Hesson, the real-life mentor of teenage surfing phenom Jay Moriarity, who was the youngest surfer to ride the legendary surf break known as Mavericks in Northern California.
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