Gerard Butler had nothing but praise for Katherine Heigl in The Ugly Truth.
If there’s one thing that Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl have in common, it’s that they’ve had to do a lot of pivoting throughout their careers. By now, everyone must have heard some version of the ‘drama’ that went on while Heigl was still playing Dr. Izzie Stevens on Grey’s Anatomy before the actress made her way to more recent projects such as Suits and the Netflix series Firefly Lane. As for Butler, the 300 star famously ventured into romantic comedies before cementing his action star status once more in the Has Fallen franchise.
Several years back, Butler and Heigl also co-starred in the rom-com The Ugly Truth. And while the film wasn’t that well-received, it famously featured an NSFW scene reminiscent of Meg Ryan’s diner moment in When Harry Met Sally. And even to this day, Butler is impressed at how Heigl pulled that off.
After playing Zack Snyder’s King Leonidas on the big screen, Butler worked to show off his range, taking on action, drama, and romantic comedy projects in close succession. This was also the time that The Ugly Truth came about and when Butler was first pitched the film, he found something brutally honest about it, which was rather refreshing.
“I know I am going out on a limb with my career here, but there are times when I just have to turn around and look at an a**. Men do that. So at the end of the day, that is what is beautiful about the movie,” Butler explained in a 2009 interview.
“It shows that through our games and weaknesses we all want the same thing. We all want companionship. I think that when the movie comes out, the battle of the sexes will be a battle of the audiences. The things the characters are saying will be so shocking and unexpected, the guys will be saying, ‘I am so glad that someone has said that,’ and the women will say, ‘I knew it. I just knew it.’ In a way, it is a relief that it is out there.”Meanwhile, being quite new to the genre at that time, sharing the screen with Heigl also helped a lot. “She’s incredible. She has so many great ideas,” Butler said of the actress.
“I’ve learned a lot from Katie especially about comedy. I understand now about keeping it real but at the same time getting as much out of it as you can. She’s a joy to work with and we have great chemistry together.”Written by Legally Blonde writers Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith and relative newcomer Nicole Eastman, The Ugly Truth features a diner scene that pays homage to that iconic scene in When Harry Met Sally where Ryan fakes an orgasm while at a diner. And if anyone asks Butler, he believes Heigl nailed it.
“Maybe one of the funniest scenes that I've ever done in a movie because she's supposed to obviously have something stuck inside her,” Butler recalled while on The Drew Barrymore Show.
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