Gerard Butler has recalled the brutalities of filming the 2006 action film 300 revealing that many of his co-stars were hospitalised after suffering injuries on set.
In Zack Snyder’s 300, Butler stars as Leonidas, the King of Sparta, alongside co-stars Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West, and Rodrigo Santoro.
In an interview with People, Butler said: “I remember every day somebody was getting taken to the hospital. You’d be doing a fight, you turn around, there’s a guy down there, a spear went in his eye. Another time, you turn around, there’s a guy over there who just fell, broke his ankle. I mean, it was insane.”
Although he remained injury free while filming, Butler revealed that he almost drowned while filming 2012’s Chasing Mavericks. He said he was “taken down by a huge set of waves.”
“I thought I was done. They had to take me out, take me to hospital, put me out, give me the defibrillator. I mean, it was intense,” he added.
Butler also revealed other filming incidents which occurred while working on 2017’s P.S. I Love You, which involved scarring Hilary Swank, as well as almost shooting Angelina Jolie on the set of 2003’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life.
“I’ve scarred Hilary Swank on the head … she has a scar. Almost shot Angelina Jolie in the face. I was coming down, hanging upside down. I had to fire a gun, but I had no control over where this thing went. So I was just firing and I just missed it,” he said. “I’ve been shot by bullets, casings, explosions. A whole camera rig once fell down on Hilary Swank and I.”
However in his most recent role in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, Butler was the one nursing an injury, explaining how he essentially shot the sequel on one leg.
Butler said: “This was a weird time for me at the beginning of this movie because I’d been through a pretty intense surgery, and then I tore my ACL fully about a month later and then started this movie.”
“I didn’t have a chance to get the surgery on my ACL, so I made this movie with a freshly torn ACL,” he told Entertainment Weekly, quipping: “It was a nightmare and I was a whiny little bitch.”
