STACK #181 Nov 2019

FILM FEATURE

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D O N ' T M I S S . . .

STACK talks father-son issues and submerging an elderly POTUS with Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman and Nick Nolte. Words Gill Pringle ANGEL HAS FALLEN

When STACK meets with Freeman later, he is sanguine: “Well you would worry about hurting an ancient actor if you’re making him do stuff, especially since I’m not a very good swimmer. For me the worst of it was that they had me fitted out in a floating device beneath my clothes, so it was really hard to get me below water. Other than that, the director wasn‘t keen to submerge an old man under water for any longer than necessary.” As well as all the usual high stakes stunts we’ve come to expect from the franchise, Angel Has Fallen contains an important message about PTSD and finding help. On the run and desperate for refuge, Butler’s Banning finds help from an unlikely source – his long estranged Vietnam vet father, played by Nick Nolte. Banning Sr. has PTSD, retreating into a paranoid life as a lone survivalist in the woods. “Since I was playing his father, at least I didn’t have

• Angel Has Fallen is out Nov 20

W ith his own body battered and bruised over two decades as an action movie hero, it wasn’t hard for Gerard Butler to envision how his Angel Has Fallen Secret Service agent might feel after 25 years in active service. If life imitates art, then in reprising his role for a third time as special agent Mike Banning, filming was postponed after Butler broke his foot in a motorcycle accident. Back in fighting form and reporting to the set of Angel Has Fallen , his greatest concern became how to avoid

inflicting mortal injury on co-star Morgan Freeman, now promoted to US president in the latest film in the action franchise that began with Olympus Has Fallen (2015), followed by London Has Fallen (2016). “I was pretty nervous

I think our father- son relationship really deepened this action picture and makes it something more than ‘bang, bang, bang

to run as fast as Gerry,” laughs Nolte. “But I think our father-son relationship really deepened this action picture and makes it something more than ‘bang, bang, bang.’” Butler was utterly

that I was gonna hurt him because I’m always the one there holding him, trying not to trip on his feet because he’s got big long

charmed by Nolte. “I have to say, having made this movie, I kinda wished that I had Nick Nolte

legs,” says Butler when STACK meets with him in Beverly Hills. “We put Morgan through a lot in this movie – days of throwing him

as a father. “I thought it would, at least, be incredibly entertaining on those few moments when I found him. It was a bit like my own father – he was very entertaining on those few moments when I found him! I didn‘t see my father for 14 years – didn‘t even know he was alive, and then I found him. And from then on, I would find him from time to time, so this story had a lot of personal bearing for me. “There’s a lot of great ideas in this movie that I find are very touching, without having to have been in the service but just in life; in families,” he adds. Ask Butler how he feels about turning 50 in November and he says he’d prefer to let the milestone pass by quietly. “But I’m sure my ego will get the better of me and I’ll end up having an enormous party instead.”

into cars, throwing him into wheelchairs and running him up stairs and pushing him through doors. I was amazed by his endurance and his lack of complaining,” adds Butler, whose character is this time framed for the attempted assassination of the President. The toughest scene was

one where Butler rescues Freeman’s President in an underwater scene.

“We had Morgan in this big pool where we had to immerse him under water and then I had to grab him and then take him down as far as I could – so it’s partly ‘go down as far as you can’ – but remember he’s 81 and he’s gonna have to breathe at some point, so bring him back up in time!”

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NOVEMBER 2019

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