GERMANY: Scottish actor Gerard Butler presents new action film "Law Abiding Citizen"

Record ID: 810824

  • Title: GERMANY: Scottish actor Gerard Butler presents new action film "Law Abiding Citizen"
  • Date: 4th November 2009
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (NOVEMBER 2, 2009) (REUTERS) (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) BUTLER ARRIVING AT PHOTOCALL VARIOUS OF BUTLER POSING PHOTOGRAPHERS VARIOUS OF BUTLER POSING BUTLER LEAVING ROOM
  • Embargoed: 19th November 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA2CS8SJFPJJNQF3DZ2UBMAJVO
  • Story Text: Scottish actor Gerard Butler says he had to spend a lot of time in his "own head" preparing for his latest role in the thriller "Law Abiding Citizen."
    Clyde Shelton, played by Butler, is an upstanding family man whose wife and daughter are brutally murdered during a home invasion. When the killers are caught, Nick Rice, played by U.S. actor Jamie Foxx, a hotshot prosecutor, is assigned to the case. Nick offers one of the suspects a light sentence in exchange for testifying aginst his accomplice.
    Ten years later, the man who got away with the murder is found dead and Clyde Shelton cooly admits his guilt. He then issues a warning: Either fix the flawed justice system that failed his family or key players in the trial will die.
    Shelton then goes on to carry out his threats, all orchestrated from his jail cell, leaving the city of Philadelphia gripped with fear. With his own family now also under threat, Nick finds himself in a desperate race against time facing a deadly adversary who always seems to be one step ahead.
    Although Butler was originally to have played the role of the lawyer, he says he soon became fascinated with Shelton, and swapped from what he called "the good by to the bad guy." He also said he had to spend a lot of time preparing mentally for the role of the mass murderer.
    "I think we've all had period in our live when you watch it in the news, you watch these brutal criminal acts and you think: what would I do if someone did that to my family, my loved one? That's already a great starting point. Then I did a lot of conversations with criminal specialists and even a specialist in revenge killers actually and then talking about it with the other actors and the director. A lot of time spent just in your own head though and really just climbing into the role," Butler told Reuters TV in Berlin on Monday (November 2).
    The film is also Butler's first producing project. He worked on it together with Alan Siegel, his partner in the production company Evil Twins.
    "It meant there was an awful lot more pressure, a lot more fear," Butler said, adding "But it was kind of great to be able to take a project from its inception when my producing partner Alan and I got the script and we worked from there and developed it over two years and you could really shape it into something that we felt would make a great movie. That had it all. It has the popcorn element, it has the thought-provoking element. It's full of surprises and twists and turns and is scary and exciting and we had a chance to make that happen so that was a really kind of cool part."
    39 year old Butler, who is from the southern Scottish town of Paisley, actually studied to become a lawyer. He spent seven years at law school in Glasgow before choosing to become a professional actor.
    "I'm living my dream," Butler said "I always wanted to be an actor but I went through law school and I spent seven years studying and training as a lawyer. And I loved studying I just didn't really like the working part of it. Fortunately fate has brought me this way and I'm much happier doing this. This feels right to me. I don't think I would really have been a great lawyer I feel like I fit into acting much better."
    Law Abiding Cinemas will be released in German cinemas from November 19th.
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