You always hurt the ones you love, sang the Mills Brothers. Tell that to Gerard Butler, who is still feeling guilty over an incident with costar Hilary Swank on the set of their 2007 romcom, P.S. I Love You.
During a recent episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the 53-year-old actor talked about how he “almost killed” Swank on the film set.
It seems that Butler’s character was required to dance shirtless, garbed only in a pair of suspenders.
“I literally shot that scene for a day and a half and I had to dance like an idiot in the suspenders,” Butler recalled. “At one point, the clip, which was a crocodile clip, got stuck in the television as I’m crawling towards her and she’s right in front of me and she’s laughing hysterically.”
The clip was “so dangerous” that the camera crew devised plastic covers as protection.
“I had to ping it, and it would go past my face. And this time I’m crawling towards the bed. It gets stuck,” he said. “It releases, flies over my head, hits her in the head, slashes her head. I cut her open.”
Swank was taken to the hospital.
“Imagine a studio, and in three seconds, everybody’s gone, and I’m just sitting there in my boxer shorts and my boots and a pair of socks and I just started crying,” he said. “‘I just scarred Hilary Swank!’ I almost took her eye out and I just made a fool of myself for two days and this is what I have to show for it. She’s off to the hospital.”
Swank has forgiven him.
