The Butler done it

Gerard Butler muses that filmmakers like to kill him off. "Last year, I led the Spartan army to its annihilation in '300.' Now in 'P.S. I Love You,' I'm dead of a brain tumor after half an hour," the 38-year-old Scottish star joked during a recent visit to Japan, his 4th.

Directed by Richard LaGravenese (who wrote the screenplays for “The Bridges of Madison County” and “The Horse Whisperer”), “P.S. I Love You” is based on the tear-jerker novel by Irish author Cecelia Ahern. Butler stars as Gerry, a guitar-playing Irishman married to Holly (Hilary Swank) in New York. After he dies, Holly receives or finds a series of 10 letters from Gerry in her first year of widowhood, each one asking her to do some task intended to ease her out of grief and transition her to a new life. For example, the letters ask her to sing at a karaoke bar, take up fishing, go dancing in a gay bay and go to Ireland, and so on.

The film was savaged by critics in the U.S. where there has been a surfeit of grieving spouse movies recently (“Grace Is Gone,” “Things We Lost in the Fire”). However, Butler seems proud of the film and said its themes appeal to men as well as women. “Actually, I’ve seen this movie three or four times with audiences and I was surprised at how much the men enjoyed it. It’s not like men have no interest in life after death, relationships and love -- they just don’t like to admit it. Also, there are a lot of good-looking women in it -- Hilary Swank, Lisa Kudrow and Gina Gershon.”

Butler said his biggest challenge was quickly losing weight after he had beefed up for “300.” “Apart from that, I had to learn to play the guitar which I hadn’t done since I was 8, and speak in an Irish accent, which was surprisingly difficult,” said the Glaswegian. “Other than that, Gerry is not so far away from me. Of course, I’m not a letter writer like he is, although I used to be a member of a pen pal club. There was this beautiful French girl I was crazy about … well, never mind that. Sadly, letter-writing has gone out of fashion.”

As he speaks, Butler suggests an impish quality. Wherever he has gone to promote the film, he said he gets asked a lot about the words “I love you” and his favorite kissing experiences. “I’ve had a lot of great kisses. It’s one of my favorite activities, but really, how can I name my favorite kiss? As for ‘I love you,‘ you have to mean it when you say it. Let’s face it: Nothing can make another person feel more wanted and accepted than those three words.”

Butler said he enjoyed working with two-time Oscar winner Swank. “Watching her perform, I kept looking for this Hilary Swank process. She used to go off somewhere in between scenes and I thought she had some secret that she used to prepare for a scene -- until I learned that she was watching baseball on a mini-TV.”

Butler said he has had enough of romantic comedy for now. He has already finished work on Guy Ritchie’s gangster movie “RockNRolla” and has four other films in the works, including “Law Abiding Citizen” and “The Untouchables: Capone Rising.” And he said he will be happy to come back to Japan. “Just once, I’d like to see the real Japan. They keep us in hotel rooms all the time doing media interviews. You’d think we had an infectious disease,” he joked.

© Japan Today