Gerard Butler took on Plane because of a friend, but he added his own touch to the ‘every man’ role.
via YouTube, Lionsgate Movies channel
While fans would know Butler for his Has Fallen movies lately, the Scottish star returns to the big screen with his latest action flick, Plane. In the film, the actor plays pilot Brodie Torrance who ends up landing his commercial airliner in a war zone because of a storm. Once they land though, the passengers are taken hostage and it’s up to Torrance (and an accused murderer played by Mike Colter) to save them.
And while the film looks every bit like a proper action film from Butler, the actor insists that his character is not anyone’s typical action hero.
Gerard Butler Signed On To Do Plane Because Of A Good Friend
In 2018, Butler starred in Christian Gudegast’s action-crime Den of Thieves and since then, the actor and the director remained in touch (they’re even working on Den of Thieves 2 now). And that’s how Butler also learned about Plane.
“There was a time when all my agents and my friend Christian Gudegast — who was actually originally attached to the project, he directed Den of Thieves — they all started going, ‘Plane, Plane, Plane,’” Butler recalled.
“And then I got the script and it’s a page-turner. I think, “Is this something I could spend time with, a few months to a year with this character, with a story? Is this something that I would enjoy as an audience member? Is this something that has potential?” And it did all those things.”
In particular, Butler was drawn to how the whole story unfolds. “The first act is almost all set in this plane going through hell,” Butler continued.
“Then you can actually get in more detail to these characters and how they react to that situation. What does it pull out of them? They’re on this island in this impossible situation and they’re underdogs. It felt like a great setup for a white-knuckle entertaining ride.”
For The Actor, His Plane Character Is ‘An Everyman – A Regular Person’…
By now, Butler is used to portraying characters with superhuman strength (like the ripped King Leonidas in 300), but the actor insists that this is not the case when it comes to his playing pilot Brodie Torrance in Plane. It’s also part of the reason why the character appealed to him.
“The Has Fallen movies are … it’s like this man here in Luke Cage. They’re almost superhero,” Butler said during an interview with co-star Mike Colter.
“As much as you want to climb into a more interesting character like that, it is fun to play an everyman — a regular person. He’s a pilot. Yeah, he needs those skills, but he’s not prepared for the world that he’s about to enter into. He’s not prepared to be having to go on a journey with an accused murderer who’s sitting on his plane in handcuffs, trying to rescue passengers from the militia.”
The actor also said that in Brodie’s case, he becomes an action hero because “these circumstances pull something out of him that he didn’t even know he had.”
And while Butler was playing more of a regular guy, his preparation for the movie was anything but typical.
“I did a bunch of training for this,” he explained. “I was in simulators for as much as I could and then our cockpit was really … it was an actual cockpit from a plane. So [I] spent many, many hours in there because I wanted to feel like I earned my seat and I wasn’t just pretending and pressing buttons. The audience really believed they were sitting with two airline pilots.”
But Gerard Butler Still Does Crazy Action Scenes In The Movie
At one point, the actor even flies a plane to the bad guy, which turns out to be Butler’s idea. “Yeah, and it was something I had to pitch to everybody,” he confirmed.
“I sometimes think I prefer that, prefer it to the performance. I love developing scripts. I love being able to put into big ideas, the small ideas, and think of them from an actor’s point of view. What are those magical moments? What are the challenges that we can put in? What are the surprising bonding moments, twists, and turns? But then the bigger moments, always, I’m all about that.”
Aside from that, Butler and Colter were also involved in some intense action sequences. Among them was a scene that Butler managed to film in just one take. And that was the result of the actor internalizing the role as he shot it.
“So when I’m in that moment fighting, I remember that everybody’s life depends on me surviving. I’m not just fighting for me, I’m fighting for the lives of all the passengers,” Butler said.
“So it’s desperate and it’s messy and it’s exhausting. And we did it all in one shot, which is rare; normally we break that stuff up. So it was messy and it was exhausting. And a lot of the time was literally just pushing with strength and to me that’s a lot more believable than a stunt — punch, kick. I love this fight.”
Meanwhile, many may also be wondering about the title of the film and how it came to be. As it turns out, that was Butler’s doing too.
“I’m taking responsibility for that, too. Because some people said it was a working title and I never look at a movie like that,” the actor explained.
“I’m very superstitious because any movie that I’ve made that they changed the title on us has always failed. There’s been three now, haven’t done well.”
