Gerard Butler Has Had Numerous Accidents On Set That Could’ve Ended His Movie Career

Gerard Butler does amazing things onscreen and walks away but in real life he is surprisingly accident prone.

When movies are produced, the people in charge typically do everything they can to keep everyone involved safe. Sadly, however, there are many harrowing stories about actors getting injured on the set of movies or TV shows.

During Gerard Butler’s career, he has starred in many movies and has been able to work with actors he has praised publicly. As it turns out, however, working with Butler doesn’t always go well as he has injured himself and others while making several of his movies.

What Accident Did Gerard Butler Have While Filming Copshop?

In 2021, a movie titled Copshop which starred Gerard Butler, Frank Grillo, and Toby Huss was released. Despite Copshop earning a respectable 82% on Rotten Tomatoes, very few people saw the movie and it didn’t even make $7 million at the worldwide box office according to IMDb.

Unfortunately for the people who were involved in Copshop, not only did the movie flop, but filming it went wrong in multiple ways. For example, Copshop’s filming was shut down for almost two months after three crew members tested positive for COVID-19.

When the people involved were able to film Copshop, things went wrong one day when the movie’s lead injured multiple people. Amazingly enough, it has been revealed that Butler was involved when three people were injured on the film’s set in one day.

During an interview with Metro, Butler described the first incident when a stuntperson was injured.

“I was fighting one stunt guy and he smacked his head on the lockers and his head split open, just because of where it was. He’s a friend of mine, by the way, and I’ve worked with him before, and he was totally cool about it but it was just so much blood coming out.”

Another stuntperson was injured later in the day as Butler went on to describe. “I was fighting another stunt guy and I didn’t actually touch him but he had to move his head and he hit it against a pillar – his head split open!”

Finally, Butler wound up injuring one of his co-stars when he fired a stun gun. “I had to shoot somebody with a stun gun, Ryan O’Nan. And Ryan, for another role, has quite a big belly – he had to put on quite a lot of weight for that. So the pad – because these things have spikes in them – the pad came up and his belly was sticking out and I shot him!”

What Happened To Hilary Swank In P.S. I Love You?

When Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank agreed to star in the rom-com P.S. I Love You, they should have had nothing to worry about. As it turns out, however, Swank wound up suffering a nasty injury because of an accident that involved Butler.

During a memorable scene from P.S. I Love You, Butler’s character dances for Swank’s character in a bedroom. For the scene, Butler can be seen wearing nothing but shoes, socks, and a pair of boxers that are attached to suspenders as his character dances.

When Butler and Swank filmed that scene in the movie, all that her character had to do was lounge and watch. Despite that, Swank suffered a serious sounding injury as Butler described during a 2023 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show.

“You know the scene where I’m dancing and I [am wearing] suspenders? I shot that scene for a day and a half, and I had to dance like an idiot in the suspenders. At one point, the clip, which was a crocodile clip, got stuck in the television as I’m crawling towards her, and she’s right in front of me, laughing hysterically.

“Butler continued, “The camera people had these plastic fronts to protect themselves from this crocodile because I had to ping it, and it would go [flying] past my face. I’m crawling towards the bed, it gets stuck, it releases, flies over my head, hits her in the head, slashes her head. I mean, I cut her open. You could even see the teeth of the [crocodile]. She had to get taken to the hospital.”

Fortunately for Butler, he still gets along with Swank after what happened. Swank has even downplayed the seriousness of the injury she suffered.

What Movie Did Gerard Butler Get Hurt In?

Even though Gerard Butler was involved in several incidents where his film co-workers were injured, he often walked away unscathed. However, when Butler was working on 2023’s Plane, he hurt himself in a truly remarkable way.

During a pivotal scene in Plane, Butler’s character attempts to fix a faulty brake on a plane. As Butler explained during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, he got a dangerous substance on himself while filming the scene.

“Now I’m sticking my hand in between these two wheels, kind of pretending that I know what I’m doing. Every time I bring my hands out, they’re covered in blood and green fluid, right? And I’m like, ‘I don’t know what this green fluid is.'”

“I’m rubbing my face and, suddenly, it’s in my throat. It’s in my mouth. It’s up my nose. It’s in my eyes. It’s burning my face, and I mean burning.”

In life, it should go without saying that it is a horrible idea to get an unknown substance on your face or in your mouth, nose, and eyes. Even still, it is shocking to know what the substance that Butler got all over himself was and why it was “burning”.

“It turns out this is essentially phosphoric acid. And the airline pilots that were there watching go, ‘No!'” Once everyone realized what was happening, Butler didn’t get relief immediately. The reason for that is some of the people on set thought he should watch his face and others thought that would make things worse.

As Butler explained to Meyers, the pain was intense as he waited to get cleaned up and even after. “I’m just, like, burning alive… So it was intense. It actually burned for hours, but it was great for the sequence.”