| No stars, please, we're British - Gerard Butler wants his countrymen to show his director more respect - Metro News |
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September 5, 2008
Well, somebody had to do it. It may as well have been Gerard Butler. Here in Toronto to promote his latest movie in TIFF, the star of such hits as 300 and Nim's Island is sticking up for his RocknRolla director Guy Ritchie. "I kind of pisses me off because it seems to be the very people that we're the most proud of, especially in the U.K., are the very people that we want to give the hardest time." Butler is referring to the fact that, after the English filmmaker carved out a name making such popular films as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, Ritchie was lambasted by fans for his last two features — Revolver and Swept Away. "I think that's kind of happened to Guy and it just seems a little unfair." Butler says it's ironic that many of the people who unfairly vilify Ritchie are the same ones who treasure his earlier films the most. "Knowing Guy as I do, he's such a decent, humble person and I think that if you're that and you have talent, it feels a little undeserved." With this in mind, followers of Guy Ritchie will be happy to see the filmmaker has returned to the genre he began with — that of frenetic, highly-stylized gangster crime drama. In RocknRolla, Butler plays a small-time crook who gets caught up in a twisted, labyrinthine real-estate scam between a Russian mobster (Karel Roden) and an old-school mobster (Tom Wilkinson). Along the way, Butler (whose character goes by the moniker of One Two) has run-ins with a sexy accountant, indestructible Russian hit men and a buddy who surprisingly comes out of the closet. For those who are familiar with Snatch, they'll recognize (and hopefully appreciate) the complex, labyrinthine ways of Ritchie's unique film. For Butler, it was part of the reason he signed on. "It's still a Guy Ritchie movie, just like a Quentin Tarantino movie is a Quentin Tarantino movie," says Butler. "He shouldn't have to apologize for the fact that he's not had a sex change or become a different person. "He's still … doing what he does best." by Steve Gow for Metro Canada |