Gerard Butler Talks 'Gamer' Action, '300' Fitness and His Ass

Gerard Butler shot to the height of fame after an epic turn as King Leonidas in 300. Back with another big-budget action flick, in an interview with Shortlist.com the star of Gamer shared his take on shooting hard-core Hollywood action, fitness, and why his immature sense of humor leads him to flash his backside. An actor equally impressive as a warlord or a Phantom of the Opera, Butler shows he's no average Hollywood-handled hunk.

The multitalented man was getting in touch with his playful side while preparing for Gamer's heavy artillery action. "More than anything, it was about how to move with a gun, with the perfection and precision of a well-trained soldier or SWAT teamer,” Butler told ShortList.com. “The way they walk, the balance, how they don’t bounce, the way they turn the corners.... When I started firing guns it felt like I was climbing a mountain. It was hard to get the movement right. But then at times you’re running around with Glocks, AKs, submachine guns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, and now that I know I can do it, well...it’s f*cking fun, man. It’s the ultimate in boys with toys."

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But Butler isn't without his reservations when it comes to glorifying violence in films. He admitted, "There is a level of guilt. Not because you don’t know what you’re doing with the gun -- you do -- but because you think sometimes that much as it’s fun to do a movie that’s kickass, it’s also a comment, in an underhanded way, about the dangers of gaming, the dangers of entertainment. How close we can feel to war and the real thing. When you’re doing that as an actor you do feel some responsibility."

While immersed in the boys’ club atmosphere on the set of Gamer, Butler reconnected with his childlike enthusiasm, which inspired some pretty immature practical jokes. He shared his funniest on-set memory but prefaced it with a disclaimer: "This is going to show my maturity now," he said, before continuing, "I wrote to the two directors [Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor] separately. I wrote that me and the stunt guys are having a blast and sent them half a dozen doughnuts each as a thank-you. They were so chuffed. The next day we got six fresh doughnuts and shoved them between our ass cheeks...and took a Polaroid.... 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.... It was my birthday that day, and in the evening about 10 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." Butler was reminded of another behind-baring flick on his résumé, Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla, and joked, "There’s another film where I showed my ass. I’m hardly following the same career path trajectory as George Clooney, right?"

Butler also spoke with pride of his leading role in the Spartan epic 300, based on a historic battle. "I feel blessed to have done 300 because I think it will go down as a seminal movie and a classic," Butler mused. "And it came out of nowhere." He also said 300 contained not only his favorite death scene in a movie but his favorite on-screen moment period. The Scottish actor said, "The final death in my long slaughter march in 300. That’s actually my favorite moment in any movie I’ve been in, full stop. It’s so well-shot and it’s the most proud I’ve been of my body. But there’s this moment at the end when I knock this guy over with my shield -- he’s coming at me with some momentum, but this just sends him flying. Then there’s this slow motion-moment as I walk up to him. Then it speeds up as I [Butler stands again and holds an imaginary sword] boom! Force it right down into his stomach. There’s not many moments in film that I congratulate myself, but when I watched that I thought, Yeah, you bastard, that’s awesome!"

The actor, who recently came in second on an online Best Torso Poll for his precision-cut physique in 300, lamented he was now "one 50th as in shape and about one third of the size" as he was for the 2006 movie. He offered his tried-and -true fitness pointers, though, and recommended "doing a huge amount of cardio with supersets, allowing for short but intense training sessions, ideally with someone else so there’s an element of competition. And you eat six times a day, in small amounts. That allows your metabolism to become more efficient."

For more on Butler's view of Hollywood and his sobriety, read the full story here. Gamer is in theaters now, costarring Dexter's Michael C. Hall, Milo Ventimiglia, Ludacris, Amber Valleta, Kyra Sedgwick, and Alison Lohman.