Home » Gerard Butler... Lawyer to Actor to Stardom

Reprint

Digging through the layers of the ever changing and unpredictable world of showbiz on the quest to stardom we find Scottish actor Gerard Butler at the forefront. Butler the star of Zack Snyder's 300 as King Leonidas, didn't start out as an actor in fact he earned a law degree from the Glasgow University and just one week before being qualified as a lawyer he was fired from the law firm he was working at. Shortly after that while sitting in a coffee shop in London he was approached by Steven Berkoff who offered him a role in the play "Coriolanus" he left law behind and his acting career was born.

The charisma filled and talented Mr. Butler landed acting jobs along the way, but it wasn't until Joel Schumacher cast him in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera as the Phantom that his career began to take flight. Though Butler's fan base doubled after the Phantom, critics couldn't seem to give the 35 year old actor any breaks. Continuing this up hill climb Gerard Butler garnished the lead role of Beowulf in Sturla Gunnarsson's epic feature Beowulf and Grendel, filmed in the mountains of Iceland. Jon Gustafsson, an Icelandic director, had a small role in the film as one of Beowulf's warriors; he also was filming his award winning documentary Wrath of Gods about the story behind the filming of Beowulf and Grendel and while on the set engaged Butler in a rare and candid hour long interview about his role as Beowulf and acting in general. He later joined Gustafsson as co-producer of Wrath of Gods. Butler's next role pushed him ahead and gave him Hollywood status, King Leonidas in 300. 300 made him a house hold name, and his career has escalated with one new film after the other the latest being P.S, I love you with Hillary Swank and Nims Island with Jodi Foster. From lawyer to actor from independent to Hollywood, from unknown to stardom Gerard Butler is on his way to making it big and his seed of fame has gone through a lot of dirt to bloom.