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Scottish actor and producer Gerard Butler has amassed an impressive net worth of $40 million over the course of his career. Gerard James Butler has been doing small roles in a lot of projects when he started in the mid 1990s but he has now built a reputation as one of top actors in his generation. After a string of small roles, he has landed different big time production where he played key roles. Although he’s had a very successful acting career these days, some people might not know that he used to be a practicing lawyer before entering the world of entertainment.
Career As A Lawyer
Before making a mark as one of the hottest actors in the movie industry, Gerard Butler has held a high position in the law division at his Scottish university. When he finally graduated from the University of Glasgow with honors in 1992, he has fallen into a fellowship with some prestigious law firm located in the Edinburgh. Upon his graduation, he took the trainee lawyer position at an Edinburgh law firm. However he did not make a good impression because he was always showing up late in the office and sometimes he just miss work altogether. He stayed out late drinking which put him in a tough spot in their law firm as a trainee.
At the age of 25, he was seen as an unqualified lawyer. And just one week after he became a qualified lawyer, he was fired from his job. Instead of pursuing a job at another law firm, he decided to try his luck at acting which he has been passionate about since he was in high school. Butler moved to London to finally pursue his dream of becoming a famous actor. He admits that when he started out in acting, he was not sure if he was in it for all the right reasons, all he knows is that he wants to be famous and well known, although he does love acting.
Entering The World Of Entertainment
When he entered the world of show business, he initially was not able to win any acting roles even small ones. He then worked different odd jobs which include being a telemarketer, a waiter and even a demo person where he showed people how toys work at some fairs. While he was in London, he met an old friend of his from his teenage days who used to work with him in the Scottish Youth Theatre. The said friend is already a successful London casting director. During their time together, he was her boyfriend and her assistant as well, she then took him to different auditions including the Steven Berkoff's play of Coriolanus. The director was impressed and said that when he read the lines during the audition, he read it with such vigour and enthusiasm which the director did not see in other people who auditioned. It was then decided that he will join the ensemble of cast.
It was Butler’s first ever professional acting job at 27 years old. Just less than a year of his first acting job, he won a part in the theatre adaptation of Trainspotting. When he turned 30 years old, he decided to move to Los Angeles to further pursue acting, this time in a bigger scale. With his luck and skills, he won the part in Dracula 2000, Dear Frankie, Tomb Raider 2 and Phantom of the Opera. Soon, he has become a popular actor with worldwide recognition especially for his portrayal as King Leonidas in Zack Snyder's fantasy war film 300. This has solidified his career as an actor with earning different recognition from different award giving bodies. It was not clear how much he was earning in different movie roles but it was reported that he was earning about $5.2 million per movie. Currently, acting is his main source of income and he is doing at least one movie a year.
Forming His Own Production Company
Gerard Butler has founded his own production company together with Alan Siegel which was called G-Base. It was reported that in 2008, Butler decided to form a production company with his manager, Alan Siegel. The production company has had numerous successful feature films including Olympus Has Fallen, the sequels London Has Fallen and Angel Has Fallen, Them That Follow, Law Abiding Citizen, Septembers Of Shiraz, A Family Man and a lot more. To this day, the company is still producing different films.
It was initially called Gerard Butler Alan Siegel Entertainment, which was the production company that produced the movie Olympus Has Fallen which grossed worldwide with $172,878,928 with just an estimated budget of $70,000,000. The production continued in the new company called G-Base which has produced a lot more movies and their biggest by far is the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen which was Angel Has Fallen which grossed $133,365,452 worldwide with only an estimated budget of $40,000,000. Suffice to say, Gerard Butler is also banking as a producer with G-base.
Sources: L'Attitude, Celebrity Net Worth, The Numbers, US Magazine