Angelina Jolie has collaborated with a wide range of actors, including her Lara Croft co-star Gerard Butler. However, the Plane actor once made a passing remark about the actor that put him in hot water.
Angelina Jolie thought Gerard Butler could be her equal in ‘Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life’
Cradle of Life was the 2003 sequel to Angelina Jolie’s first Tomb Raider film. Jolie reprised her role as an explorer and video game character Lara Croft. However, in the sequel, she collaborated with a different co-star. In the first picture, Jolie was paired with Daniel Craig; this time, she was coupled with Gerard Butler. Jolie thought Butler’s on-screen demeanor complemented hers perfectly.
“I think we wanted to make sure there was a man who wasn’t some weak boy that loved her. We wanted to find a man that would be equal to her and just as strong and military and wild and he’s certainly has that and he’s a strong man and he has a great role and they are equal. He sometimes has one up on her and vice-versa,” Jolie once said according to Black Film.
Gerard Butler, meanwhile, felt he and Jolie had almost instant chemistry when they initially met.
“And then Angelina came up and as soon as we said hello, I thought, This is going to be great. I’m really going to love doing this with her. And I did. And then I was very excited to do the movie after that,” Gerard Butler once told IGN.
Gerard Butler once got heat for saying he dumbed down his acting when working with Angelina Jolie
Gerard Butler received backlash behind the scenes for making fun of his co-star. During a press tour, Butler mentioned how he had to tone down his acting abilities in Tomb Raider for Jolie’s sake. Even if the 300 star wasn’t serious, he could understand how his statements offended others.
“I sat down and said, ‘Hey, you know, she may have won the Oscar, but I think I really had to bring my acting down to do these scenes with her.’ It was a complete joke. You read it in print and you think it sounds terrible,” Butler once said according to Daily Record.
Jolie and a major film company eventually discovered his remark. Gerard Butler claims that the two had very different reactions.
“Angelina was cool. She said she knew I was joking, but Paramount said I was going on a media training course,” he said.
Gerard Butler and Angelina Jolie felt a sense of competition when working with each other
Because of the man Gerard Butler was, Jolie and her crew felt he could bring a sense of competition to the film. However, Butler claimed that the rivalry between himself and Jolie was more playful than intense. The Copshop star was even impressed by the amount of work Jolie put into her physical scenes.
“I love doing the stunts. It’s as simple as that. I also loved watching her doing her stunts, and I loved watching her train. She trained really hard. And it was nothing but an inspiration to me,” he said.
They were also able to support one another while performing the film’s more distressing parts. He and Jolie did a take where Butler is hanging upside down. Gerard Butler felt like he was about to puke because the scene was so uncomfortable. Despite his own suffering, he became concerned for his co-star’s well-being.
“I’m doing this, and I’m trying to tuck both my knees in. And I’m like, ‘Fine!’ And doing this for two days, over forty times, it was a killer. I would then be looking to Angelina and thinking, ‘How’s she lookin’? How’s she gettin’ along?’ It was a tough stunt for both of us. We were only there to encourage each other, and that kind of stuff,” he said.
