BroBible/Lionsgate
The favorite aspect of my job, by far, is the opportunities I have to interview various actors and directors that I wildly admire, especially considering that it’s their movies that led me down this career path in the first place.
When it comes to my celebrity interviews, one thing I always try to ask — if their filmography allows for it — is when they realized their seminal project would be such a cultural staple.
I’ve asked Sharlto Copley about District 9, Jon Hamm about The Town, Pedro Pascal about The Mandalorian, and so on and so forth. It’s perhaps my favorite question to ask: “At what point did you realize X MOVIE would be something special?” And now, I can add Gerard Butler and 300 to that list.
Speaking to the 53-year-old star ahead of the release of his new action thriller plane, BroBible’s Post-Credit Podcast asked when he realized that 300 — which celebrated its 15-year anniversary last year(!) — would have the cultural staying power that it wound up having.
“I remember the first screening of it in a packed cinema with my whole team next to me,” Butler began.
“All the agents and managers and I’m so used to being in a movie where there’s something wrong with it. There’s always an issue. But this just went from good to great and, I’m like, ‘When is it going to let me down?’ And then it finished, and I’ll never forget looking down the line and seeing everybody literally leaning like this…”
“And the audience is screaming and cheering and I knew then we had something special. But that opening weekend when it did that huge box office and people weren’t getting into cinemas and I knew then, ‘Okay, we have a big hit,’ but it had to be further down the line that you could actually see — suddenly they’re playing it at Yankee Stadium, they’re using it at carpet events, they’re using it all over the world, and in sports, and in every kind of context — that is actually now starting to settle into part of the culture.”
Butler can next be seen starring in Lionsgate’s action thriller plane, which hits theaters on January 13. In addition to Butler, the film also features Mike Colter and Tony Goldwyn.
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