It’s always a good day when there’s some lovely piece of Gerard Butler news. But today is double the excitement because there’s a new Gerard interview, and a new “hot guy” poll coming out of England. It seems someone in Great Britain decided to do a poll on the best exposed male chest/torso scenes in films. The clear winner was Daniel Craig, in Casino Royale (the part where he’s wearing those little baby-blue trunks and coming out of the ocean – swoon!). The second place went to Gerard, for basically every scene in 300. He was wearing a little loin-cloth and nothing else for most of that film. Oh, yeah, there was the cape. That cape rocked. That cape costars in my sexual fantasies. Mm… what was I saying? Third place was Brad Pitt in Troy (meh); fourth was Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat (gross); fifth was Sean Connery in Thunderball (nice).

Now, for the Gerard Butler interview. He did it with a site called Short List, and it’s actually pretty long. I’m going to try to avoid putting the whole thing up, but it is a very interesting read (his interviews are usually pretty good), so if you’d like to see the whole thing, try this. Gerry talks about his new film, Gamer, and all of the stunt work the role entailed. He says he got really hurt on a jagged piece of metal when he was hanging upside down for one stunt – but he also says “There’s many times in which I could have sued and made a lot of money. But you don’t want to become known in Hollywood as that guy that sues.” I’m sure a lot of people will find the discussion of James Bond interesting:

True of false, you were in Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies?
Oh man, I forgot about that. That’s true. I had one line in it and they took it off me. It was like “torpedoes are bearing 11 knots” or something. The director couldn’t understand what I was saying because of my accent, and they gave it to a really effeminate chap. He was a good bloke, but he delivered the line like it was a piece of gossip. I was gutted.

Could you picture yourself as James Bond?
No.

Why?
Because I enjoy doing an array of films. If I was to play Bond that would quickly stop. How likely would I be accepted doing those roles after having played Bond? People outside the world of movies think “how amazing it must be to play 007” but as an actor you think “well, I don’t know because, from then on…”

You’re Bond.
Exactly. [Butler gets to his feet and paces the room with enthusiasm] It’s like Christopher Plummer in the Sound of Music. Great actor, but he will forever be remembered as that guy from The Sound of Music. But, think about it, it would be far worse. You do a lot of movies as Bond and you’d become even more synonymous with the role. I think Daniel Craig is a great Bond and good for him, but I would much rather create a role from nothing. I feel blessed to have done 300 because I think it will go down as a seminal movie and a classic. And it came out of nowhere.

What was the funniest moment on the set of Gamer?
[Butler is chuckling] This is going to show my maturity now, I wrote to the two directors separately. I wrote that me and the stunt guys are having a blast and sent them half a dozen donuts each as a thank you. They were so chuffed. The next day we got six fresh donuts and shoved them between our ass cheeks… and took a Polaroid. [Butler is in fits] We sent this snap to the directors and sure enough, they thought they’d been eating the very same sugary treats. They freaked out, man.

That’s pretty sick.
I told you it was going to show my maturity. It was my birthday that day, and in the evening about ten of the cast also dropped trousers to reveal Happy Birthday Gerry written across their cheeks. Come to think of it, there was a little too much ass in the making of this film.

When’s the next RocknRolla movie?
There’s another film where I showed my ass. I’m hardly following the same career path trajectory as George Clooney, right? Umm… RocknRolla. Okay, no, no word. I believe Guy’s written the second, I don’t know about the third. And I’ve heard nothing.

Can you understand where Christian Bale’s aggression came from on the set of Terminator Salvation?
Absolutely. [Butler’s on his feet again] I’ve lost my temper on sets – never really screamed for a whole crew to hear, I try to keep it a little more private – but there’s times on set when it’s such a passionate business. There’s still things from 8 years ago, ideas I wasn’t given or something that didn’t go my way and I believed wholeheartedly in and once it’s gone it’s gone and that would eat me up. I couldn’t sleep for days.

Honestly now, why do actors and actresses always end up together? Is it a PR thing?
There’s no hard and fast rule. There are some bondings and relationships that look very politically correct – and they just look right and that’s what motivates them. I think sometimes that helps buffet each other’s careers, but for others it’s absolutely genuine. Honestly, the pressures and the weirdness when you get to a certain level of acting can’t be understood by anyone other than those that have been there. More than that, I think that when you act with someone it’s an extremely bonding experience. You open yourself up so much. You experiment so much. You handover so much of your emotion to whoever you’re opposite that it pulls you together. You establish a closeness. It’s completely understandable that people completely fall in love on a film set, they can be incredibly intense places.

[From Short List]

God, I love when he talks about getting his ass out. But that story about his practical joke was totally gross. Although now I keep thinking about sugary treats draped over Gerard’s body… not quite as good as my fantasies of his wang dipped in chocolate, but it’s still a solid fantasy. As for those Bond rumors – yeah, I doubt anything will ever come of it. Gerard shouldn’t and wouldn’t play Bond, and I think the Bond producers are very happy with Daniel Craig. Mm… Daniel Craig… Gerard Butler… doughnuts… and a cape! My new fantasy.

Photos are stills from 2007′s 300 and 2006′s Casino Royale

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