Movies - TV
The Phantom Of The Opera Was A Role Gerard Butler Never Expected To Actually Land
By JENNA BUSCH
The tale of the “Phantom of the Opera'' has been made into multiple movies and one famous Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. In 2004, Joel Schumacher adapted the musical to film and cast Gerard Butler as the lead, much to the actor’s surprise as he was up against other performers known for their musical talents like Hugh Jackman.
Butler had sung in a rock band during law school and taken a few vocal lessons, but he knew the role of the Phantom was notoriously difficult to sing. Nervous about the audition, the actor expressed his doubts to the professor of music from the Royal Academy of Music in London, asking her, “Look, just tell me: am I wasting my time? I don’t wanna make a fool of myself.”
The teacher responded, “You can absolutely do this,” reassuring Butler and giving him the confidence to sing in front of Webber, Schumacher, and music supervisor Simon Lee. Butler got the role and later shared his disbelief, saying, “There would be so many times I’d just be sitting there going, ‘How the hell did I get here? This is awesome. I can’t even sing.’”