Gerard Butleris no stranger to action movies, and having appeared in many explosive blockbusters over the last two decades, he has some war stories to tell. This was handy when he was asked to recount some of the near-misses he has experienced while filming, which, it turns out, includedPierce Brosnan“destroying” Butler’s neck in a car stunt, and Butler almost shootingAngelina Joliein the face while filming her secondTomb Raidermovie.
The dangers of filming big action movies have been there from the early days of cinema, even for comedy value when the likes of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd often risking serious injury in a time when CGI effects were not even on the edges of Hollywood dreams. In recent years, despite increasing levels of safety precautions, serious injuries and, in some tragic rare cases, loss of life have occurred when things failed to go to plan. For Butler, that included a brutal car crash stunt going slightly wrong while filmingShatteredwith Pierce Brosnan. As Butler recalled toPeople:
“I’ve been in car smashes with Pierce Brosnan, drove me straight into a wall. James Bond himself. This thing was supposed to stop as he was supposed to slam on the breaks. We hit a wall on a rooftop, a three foot wall full speed in a Range Rover. It destroyed my neck and it was after 300 and I was already so beaten up off 300.”
Gerard Butler “Almost Killed” Angelina Jolie Filming ‘Tomb Raider’ Sequel
The ‘Den of Thieves’actor continued to relay othermishaps that happened on movies he was involved in, from surfing disasters to accidentally hitting costars in the face. However, one particular story that stands out from the rest is Butler’s recollection of almost shooting Angelina Jolie when they worked together onTomb Raider: The Cradle of Life.
“I almost shot Angelina Jolie in the face. I was coming down, hanging upside down. I had to fire a gun but I had no control over where this thing went, so I was just firing and I just missed her. I mean it is insane. I’ve been shot by bullets, casings, explosions, a whole camera rig once fell down. It’s a lot of stuff.”
While he did not specify, it seems that Butler was firing a gun filled with blanks during the scene, but this does not make the moment less scary, especially considering recent tragedies such as the shooting that occurred on Alec Baldwin’s Western movieRust, which ended in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
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To many, there are lines that should not be crossed to make a movie, and while Butler’s description of hisTomb Raiderscene sounds reckless, it is to be assumed that some precautions had been taken to ensure filming was as safe as it could be. Butler’s version of events could also be slightly exaggerated in the telling, but regardless, there are some scenes that would probably be created much differently now, through the use of CGI or simply being written/filmed a different way. That being said, it often appears that even with safeguards in place, Hollywood can frequently be a dangerous place to work for those in the business of making movies.
Fans of Gerard Butler can see him getting brutal and bloodied in his latest movie,Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, which has been performing well at the box office on its way toa third movie in theDen of Thievesfranchisegetting the green light from Lionsgate soon.
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