“It’s always nice to show a bit of butt. I don’t think it was gratuitous. I think there is a good reason for my nakedness in this movie.”

“It is a little more difficult to be private.”

“Anyone who happens to be in the street at the same time as you is your woman, I mean literally, you’re sitting in a restaurant with your buddies and they know somebody who comes over to say hello and you have a photograph taken and everyone wonders who that woman is in Gerry’s life.”

“My leading lady is at home. I couldn’t find her a dress because she is so small.”

"I love her to death," he said, but was quick to add, "She`s the coolest and she`s become a great friend, but there`s nothing going on. And if there was, I`d be happy to say it!"

"It`s great that she did that," Butler said of Heigl`s decision to adopt a special needs baby. "It`s just a testament to her character and to her personality that she went out of her way to do that. It`s a beautiful thing."

"She mothered me," he said. "Anytime I was feeling under the weather or was having a hard day, that`s when she was amazing. She would always come and check on me. I think she`s naturally a caretaker in the best way."

"She will be an amazing mom," Butler told PEOPLE at the premiere of his new film Law Abiding Citizen in New York City Wednesday. "She`s incredibly responsible, smart and loving. This is a huge deal for her and she`s going to take to it like a duck to water."

“I can’t remember drinking,” he said. “When I stopped, I would look at a beer and think how great it would be. I’d get this pang in my stomach to go back out and have fun, but then I’d remember that I used up that right — that I did a full life worth of drinking between 14 and 27. I have no connection with it,” he said. “I’m not afraid of it and I don’t celebrate it.”

To be honest, when guys hear all of this, they will admit that they have had those thoughts. They don’t live by those principles. Many are outrageous and they are pushing the boundaries to new levels of outrageousness. I have to be careful when I answer these questions because this could all come back and kill me (laughs). People will say, “How dare that b*****d say that?” (laughs)

We cannot deny that men are visual creatures. Look, half the time you don’t get the chance to actually talk to a woman because you only pass her on the street or see her in the car so you don’t get to know her personality. You will check out her eyes and go from there. That would be one thing. I do love the fact that they will laugh at everything we say (laughs). Most of the time I am making jokes and not being funny and so it is nice to be helped out by a woman. Men are turned on by sexy women though

She has to have a good sense of humour. I love spontaneity in a woman when she can just surprise you. I am real sucker for sweetness and a good heart. When they show me that, it just melts me and I want to hug them.

I will see a woman in a really short skirt and wonder why she is doing that. It looks so stupid. Other times I will think what a nice pair of legs. It all depends on how a woman carries herself. At the end of the day, sexiness only lasts about three seconds. A woman to me can be sexy in so many different ways. Sometimes she is sexy just by the way she carries herself. Sometimes she is sexy by her opinions or the way her mind works. Sometimes she can surprise me by being so tender or just loving me. There are other times when it is none of those. I also appreciate it when a woman knows when to just shut up. After saying that, I think I better shut up as well (laughs).

"You know, getting out the vacuum cleaner, washing up the dishes, maybe a bit of dusting. I`ll try and remind her that I`m a major Hollywood star and she`s like, great, get in there, wash the dishes. It doesn`t work with your mum!"

"It`s just all about sticking your shoulders up and puffing your chest up," Butler laughs. "Pretty much from an hour before I`m finishing my last kind of topless scene or really body scene, I`m already, the Pizza Parlour has been called, it`s on it`s way, together with apple pie and ice cream and everything you can imagine. And that carries on for about 4 months... (laughs) until I get the next role I have to get into shape for and I panic and go back into this 24 hour a day training," Butler says.

"Oh yeah, I`d definitely like to settle down, but I`m.. (laughs) somebody here has a Wildcats hat on and I keep seeing it and you just said `Would you like to settle down?` and the first thing I was going to say is, but there`s a bit of a wildcat still in me."

"I am dating a bevy of beauties and it`s exhausting trying to keep up this film career. I don`t know why you bother setting the record straight because it doesn`t matter, people just print it anyway. But no, there`s nothing going on between Jen and I. I`ll say it again and I`ll be asked it for the next couple of months - can you set the record straight, I`ll set it straight and people will still go on saying it, but no," Butler said.

"it was quite romantic," Butler says. "We were joking about it: `We might as well make this real. Keep everybody happy,` " including the entertainment magazines, which have been speculating all summer that there`s more to their relationship than innocent, "we`re-just-totally-good-friends" hand-holding, as Butler characterizes it.

It`s been a mixture of learning to adjust to slightly different realities in terms of your career, how you`re viewed by the industry and the public and in terms of how you`re viewed when you walk down the bloody street. It`s been a mixture of coming to terms with that and then relaxing into it and really enjoying it.

Paul Newman, Steve McQueen could do a drama with a really cool edge to it, but then also do comedy. ... The kind of career trajectory that I`ve had, a more modern example, would be a Mel Gibson."

The most incredible turning point. I`m not exaggerating when I say seven days from qualifying after seven years of my life and I was let go. I couldn`t deny any more that I had issues in how I was living my life. But I also was in many ways set free from what did feel like a prison sentence for what my soul was. Obviously, I was meant to be here."

I joke with that because it`s way better to be appreciated than to not be appreciated. For anybody to blow it off and dismiss it, they`re either insane or they`re just not being honest or they`re being extremely arrogant. ... As you`re saying that, my natural response is going to be, "Well, I don`t really see it." But then again, I do — just on the street sometimes."

I am very much a man and I naturally bring a masculinity to those roles. Mike Chadway in "The Ugly Truth," for example, could have been played in many different ways. ... But I also think I`m attracted to roles where guys get to talk about the mythical struggle of guys and what it is to be a man.

"If women could hear what men talk about when they`re not around, it`d be over. You`d all turn gay or celibate."

"I`ve had some terrible dates. I had a girl throw up (vomit) once - I`m from Glasgow, people like to get smashed (drunk). "I went on another date and I ended up getting so drunk that I smashed a glass on my head as a joke and didn`t realise my head was bleeding. Those were my crazy days."

"I would love to have a wife and kids, but you can`t magic them out of thin air. I`ve never been that `seven-year relationship` kind of guy. (But I`m ready) for the big relationship. I guess I`ve got to settle down soon, but I`m nervous to say it out loud because it might not happen."

"A fan is fantastic - they`re what makes your career worth it - but it doesn`t mean you want to marry them. They`re putting you on a pedestal and it`s hard to date somebody like that." GERARD BUTLER breaks hearts by ruling out a relationship with a female fan.

"When I did Dear Frankie, throughout the movie they were always talking about fish and chips. "They were always putting salt and vinegar on fish and chips, my mouth would water and when I went to film, three nights in a row I had fish and chips in the centre of Glasgow. By the end I felt sick."

"I go home and they (my parents) cook Christmas dinner, and she`s like, `C`mon, give a hand, come on, wash the dishes or put the dishes away`. And I`m like, `Mum, I am a major Hollywood movie star, I can`t be doing this. It`s embarrassing`," said Butler. "I end up on my hands and knees, wiping up the floor," he added.

“I’m not comfortable enough do American accents only when we film so I have to keep it up all the time. I really hate myself for doing that.”

"When Sheena Easton made it in America and suddenly stared talking in an accent I swore and threw shoes at her on the television."

“I hated anyone from Scotland who lost their accent in the slightest."

“I guess I’ve got to settle down soon, but I’m nervous to say it out loud because it might not happen.”

“Everyone in Hollywood fancies me because I’m a manly man,” he said. “Jen, Cameron Diaz, they all do… they love me. I mean, there aren’t many real men in Hollywood, let’s face it. No, I’m only joking, but it’s so flattering that people could think that any of those girls would be interested in me.

"I do tend to get asked to take my clothes off in films quite a lot. Trust me, if I could leave my clothes on in a movie, I’d rather do that any time. But if I’m going to get undressed I’m going to do it as well as I can. Whenever I hear people say that’s sexy... for the few people that say that, I think, ‘Are you insane?’"

"Sometimes along the way in my life I don`t want a smart woman right now, I want a dumb woman. But then you think, ``That doesn`t work, now I want a smart woman.`` Then you get a smart woman and you go, ``No, that doesn`t work.`` So it`s just killing me right now."

"I couldn`t actually tell you what I look for because it`s different in each woman, but part of it is being smart and part of it is being dumb.”

“Now going on a date is going to be well publicised. I would be lying if I said my love life is amazing at the moment. It’s actually pretty miserable.”

“I’ve definitely had lots of fun. Now I’m more serious about things - I don’t mess around anywhere near like I used to. It was a lot more fun when I was under the radar."

“Love is something that I’ve definitely felt a couple of times. It never worked out, it made me nuts, but I absolutely want to experience it again. And it’s about f--king time!”

“Men are much more weak and vulnerable than they let on. I am full of phobias about commitment. Yet, when you break through those barriers, it’s great.”

“I live very much in my own head and I don’t always like that somebody else is playing such a big part in your mind and your psyche. It’s tough to deal with that vulnerability because I still have that element of ‘I can’t do this! I can do this on my own! I’m all right! — and then suddenly, someone holds this power over you."

"If I see a woman who is sweet and innocent, I fall in love with her, I want to hug her and take care of her and all that lovely stuff. Then I see this sex-kitten type walking past me and I think, `Wow! That`s my woman!` I appreciate women for all sorts of reasons and it can get complicated."

"My problem with women is I love them all, really."

"We`ve taken something as simple as sexual attraction, something that`s in our DNA, that`s basic to society, and turned it into something complicated. We`ve made the rules we must abide by that make it difficult to connect with each other."

"If a woman has great breasts, I`d love to tell her so. But in polite society, you can`t do that. Which is a shame,"

"They (paparazzi) get in the shot sometimes and we can`t film - there`s a hundred people waiting for a guy hiding in a roof to disappear," he recalled. "They put you off when you`re filming. If they`re right in front of you, they get in your eye line."

"I don`t care. You know, I probably rather they didn`t make up the stuff that they do," he said. "It`s ridiculous but I don`t ever see them any more. I don`t think I have picked up one of those papers in five years."

"In between premieres, it`s not something I seek. I love to live my own life and do my thing but you come here and it`s a time when you realise, `What I do affects people, they like you, they appreciate it` and you can`t ever turn up your nose to that."

"I never thought as a six-year-old I could make that noise with the turn of the head, you know, it`s amazing - I get into the middle of that, I really appreciate it, I lap it up, you know."

"I said `soccer` instead of `football.` They will crucify you for that. I was flush red for a day after that."

I remember once going back to Scotland after a summer here and nobody could understand a word I was saying. I remember being in a bar and a guy saying: `What the fu** is that? You`re a ****ing Yankee.` That`s very much the Scots attitude."

``There`s nothing worse than being a Scots guy with an American accent,`` he complains.

"Is that really how we should be communicating with each other?`` he asks. ``If we like somebody?"

"I think when this stuff is thrown out there, it`s so kind of shocking and unexpected, but the guys are saying - `Thank god somebody said that.` And the women are like - `You know what? I knew it! I bloody well knew it!` That`s why I think it`s a huge relief that this stuff is put out there in this movie."

"At the end of the day, that`s what`s beautiful and that`s where the redemption is in the movie. We all at the end of the day - through our games and our weaknesses and our flaws - are after the same thing. We all want companionship... and it comes together really well. And I think the battle of the sexes is the battle of the audiences in this movie."

``I must say that I think Katie is deeply flawed in her misunderstanding of what goes on in a lot of men`s minds,`` he says mischievously. But guys are often in the dark too. "We`ve never known as guys what the hell women talk about when they go to the restroom - they always go to the restroom together."

"I know I`m really going out on a limb here and ending my career," Butler grins. But he`s just trying to be honest. And he has this particular thing for running his eyes over a shapely behind. "There are times when I just turn around and look at an ass." And, he adds with cheerful defiance, most guys he knows do the same thing.

"I don`t think I`m pushing my luck too far with Mike, although that is something that I like to do," Butler says. "There`s definitely a lot of me in this character, but I think it`s more about me just being boisterous and fun. But I do think a lot of those values Mike espouses go on in both men and women if we`re honest about how we look at each other," he adds. "At the end of it, we`re both human."

"Now, I feel like I`m sitting pretty," he says. "I`m loving the work and loving keeping up with it all. It`s good times at the moment; I sometimes complain, but then I`m reminded by people that I could be mopping up toilets somewhere or, which is even worse for me personally, be back as a lawyer in Scotland!"

"Let`s just say I`ve been dating," he shrugs. "I`m pretty good at keeping that silent. Y`know, my last two girlfriends - one was two years, one was a year-and-a-half - nobody at the tabloids ever found out that I was dating them. Yet, at the same time, according to the press, there were five other relationships - or 100 other relationships! - that I was having which were completely fictitious."

"I think it`s funny when an actor plays a role, and suddenly everybody asks, `What`s your secret to a happy relationship?` " he says. "I want to go, `I don`t f-ing know!` I`m not Dr. Gerry. I have no idea."

"If you ever sit and watch a movie with me that has any kind of emotion in it, you`ll see the tissue box come out," Butler confesses. "I can really get into the masculine thing, my default is definitely a guy`s guy. But there are a lot of other parts to me, too."

"You don`t even know where I`m from. This is unbelievable. I`m from... where am I from? I was born in Glasgow. But my family is pretty much from a little town called Paisley, famous for its cotton mills and paisley pattern. At one point the mills employed 80 percent of the town. Some towns progress forward and upward — how do I say this without losing every friend I ever had in Paisley? — let`s just say Paisley never managed to make that quantum leap."

"I know. People would go, `That`s great. You`re still young.` Over the last couple years, though, it`s become, `Wow. Really? Why?`"

"The new one (rumor) is Jennifer Aniston. I think it`s because she`s single and I`m single. The sum total of our conversation was about four minutes at the Toronto Film Festival. The next day, the story is: Gerry Butler and Jennifer Aniston get cozy at the Toronto Film Festival. Cozy? We were standing up and surrounded by forty people."

"You know what`s funny? In the last year, there have probably been rumors of ten different women I`m supposed to be involved with. I think maybe one is true. You can walk around with a hundred of your buddies and it`s cool, but the second there`s a woman involved..."

"Look at this. After Megan Fox, who`s ever going to want to look at me on the cover of Esquire?"

"The problem with my mind is it sways from side to side. The idea of me fantasizing about becoming an actor quickly led to depression. No, it was never going to happen to me. I was a sixteen-year-old kid on the other side of the world from where they made movies. Scottish actors never really got play. There was Sean Connery, and that was it."

"I don`t know if I ever went to those extremes," he says. "I did spend a lot of my childhood playing out movie scenarios in my head. I`d walk along the road, pretending like I was in the army, talking on the radio, and doing maneuvers. I dreamt a lot about performing in movies and living in fantasies. I had a lot of powerful dreams — some of them terrifying. One was about being in an underground tunnel, and this train was coming behind me. I smashed up my room trying to get away and then climbed out the window. My mom had to pull me back in by my legs. When I woke up, I thought my heart was going to explode. These were the kind of dreams I had. Some were fantastical, like skateboarding through planets and space. I`d wake up and wish I could manipulate these dreams and control them."

"I don`t drink. But I don`t give a shit."

"Guys, we have lists too, but we don`t stick to ours!"

"And we`re way more carnal than women would like to believe. We want arousal, we want to have fun. This is me as Mike, my character speaking by the way," Butler jokes. "No, the idea is that we`re looking for two different things. And men and women, we need to find a way to meet in the middle

"Men are far more simple than women might think."

"The first few times it`s happened, I actually got really upset by it because you think, `somebody made that up,` and it`s a little bit ridiculous. But then you think, `Oh, you know what...it`s just silly. Then there are days it just frustrates you," Butler said. "One day, we had dinner when we first discussed the movie, and that day she had been linked to three different people! I was already one of them."

"It depends what mood I`m in, but most of the time I just laugh it off."

"She is one classy lady," he says of Aniston. "Everyday I go to work with her I`m always surprised about how cool, easy and down to earth and real she is." He adds, "I`m in New York right now filming and I`m in heaven. I can`t always say that about movies, but to be filming this romantic comedy with Jennifer and a story that made my side split when I read it – I`m lucky. I`m happy as a pig in s---, as they say."

"That is just annoying. People say I`m always dating so and so, and sometimes it`s three people in one day," says the actor, 39. "I`m trying to make movies, work hard and do my best. Then this kind of thing happens and people start to associate me more with that. It gets ridiculous."

I find playing the field less and less exciting. I enjoy being single less and less."

"I`ve managed to have decent long-term relationships that nobody ever found out about. But meanwhile, apparently, I`m dating Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, anybody who I`ve ever been spotted talking to or become friends with. None of those are true."

“Yeah. I think so,” Butler said, and reflected for a moment about movie Hangover. “My career just went down the tubes, eh?”

“Women are in denial about what goes on at batchelor parties. They just don’t want to face it, but if they were honest with themselves, they’d go, ‘Oh, you know what? They were f-king chickens´. That’s why the chicken was in the movie (Hangover), by the way,” Butler explained. “They couldn’t go that far, but I have no doubt they were f-king chickens.”

“I’ve got to tell you, it was kind of crazy (Movie Hangover), but a lot of the stuff that happened in that movie I’ve been through myself. That sounds like a huge exaggeration, but it’s really not."

“I’d love to date an Indian girl. I would’ve dated Priyanka but she has a boyfriend.”

"I wouldn`t say it`s been that tough, but it`s enough to make me seriously consider retiring. It`s the intensity of it. I did a ten-man fight sequence recently, and we did the whole thing over a hundred times. Kable`s a warrior, but he`s not fancy and he`s using full force and brutality to kill ten guys. And in the middle of that fight I`m getting smashed, I`m falling all over the place, I`m pounding guys. And, I had to do it time and time again. That`s where, in some ways I blossom, because when my backs up against the wall, that`s when I really turn it on. It`s that 300 mentality."

"If I`d done Crank, maybe I wouldn`t have ended up doing this movie. To me, this is layered. It`s showing how society allows real violence into our lives. And Mark and Brian are so naturally talented. They`re guys who understand testosterone and masculinity, and they`re just going for it."

"Kable is like a classic silent hero, there`s a beauty to that, and it also means I don`t have to learn so many lines. I`ve been crossing them out! They said that about Steve McQueen and they`ll say that about Gerry Butler" He unleashes an infectious giggle. "He only had three and he took two away!"

Guy Ritchie: “Thank you very much. I won’t say much more because Gerry Butler is the eloquent one among us. But thank you very much for this.” Butler: “This was supposed to be Guy speaking but as usual he dumped it on me. Listen, I want to thank Guy who really wrote all the words and directed all the stuff and did a great job and it’s about time he got SOMETHING right…” Ritchie: (chases Butler away from the mike)”That’s quite enough out of you Gerry.” Mark Strong: “It’s great that people who know about movies and love movies decided to vote this Best British Film; thank you very much.”

"In actual fact Game wasn’t an obvious choice for me. There were bigger budgeted and more obvious films that I could’ve done, but I felt these guys have an incredible imagination and a freshness and an edge and a risk-taking about them."

"If I take a dog for a walk, apparently I`m f—king my dog!"

“I do love to have a good time. So do you Aussies. I’m Scottish and we are very similar. We are down to earth. We like to take the piss and we love to party.”

"I was like, why my groin? I met a group of French-Canadian girls while we were filming and they said it was called `manscaping` and that everyone did it now.” Butler says he’s more a “Braveheart-type of guy."

“I had my whole body shaved. We started waxing - and I had a lot of respect for women after that - but I left for the girls [the eyebrows], because it just hurt so much that the next day I asked for a razor and shaved my whole body. But here we actually tried some prosthetics on first — tried to change my forehead or something like that. And then Zack [Snyder] just said, ‘No, no, no, I just want Rodrigo the way he is.’ The eyebrows were actually the makeup artist`s idea, just to cover with prosthetics. There was no need to, really. ‘Oh, after all my body, I`m going to be scared of this? No.’”

"I was pretending to be this lawyer in a very traditional Edinburgh firm, but I felt like a little Glasgow boy who was totally at sea and could barely scramble a meal, let alone deal with clients and do complicated legal work."

"It’s only recently that I’ve started to think that everything I am, good and bad, is what makes me. Instead of fighting all the bad and just being so unhappy. That’s just me, that’s just the way I am. I am not saying I’m going to try to improve but there is a level of acceptance. I’m doing well and I’m doing well because of who I am."

“No, seriously. I’m so proud. I worked really hard on the movie. I loved being a part of it — and the reaction to the film has just blown me away.”

"I took some time off and went to America. This is when things started to go a little crazy. Something very compulsive and dark and lusty and pleasurable but damaging took over. It was suddenly knowing I could go out and have a life of traveling, craziness, adventure, partying, women, and all the other things that go with that — including a sense of abandonment. Being away from home and not having the same kind of discipline and structure in front of me meant I could do whatever the f-k I wanted, and I did. For a while, I was living in an apartment in Venice Beach with three Irish guys who drank every day. It was perfect. We just got smashed. I started getting odd jobs. My buddies turned up one day and said they`d gotten a job working in a carnival that was going around the state fairs in California. In this year out of school, I did many things. I drove from L. A. to Miami, from L. A. to Chicago, from Miami to Chicago. And I kept getting arrested for stupid stuff — basically just being too drunk. I was out of control, and justifying it with this idea that I`m young, this is life. This is me just being boisterous. I remember getting arrested once and they actually put me in shackles. I was walking around chained to eight other guys. And technically, I was still president of the Law Society in Glasgow. I ended up in L. A. County Jail. I was in a cell with my 501s and my tight leather jacket and my long hair thinking I was Jim Morrison. I can`t believe I`m talking about this. I`d better not."

"I wasn`t going to be an actor. I was going to be a lawyer. I came from a family just above working class, just below middle class, a great family of wonderful values. The idea of me having a chance for a law degree was enticing. Enticing to me but also very enticing to my family. Wow, one of our own is studying law at university!"

"The first few times it`s happened, I actually got really upset by it because you think, `somebody made that up,` and it`s a little bit ridiculous. But then you think, `Oh, you know what...it`s just silly. Then there are days it just frustrates you," Butler said. "One day, we had dinner when we first discussed the movie, and that day she had been linked to three different people! I was already one of them."

"I was never into law. Even now, I never read contracts. I just sign them."

"I think it`s one of the nicest privileges as an actor is to know that you can move people in one moment, make them think about their lives, or make them laugh or make them cry or make them understand something. Or just make them feel something because I think so many of us, including myself, spend too much time not feeling enough, you know?"

"No matter what you have to go through and what you suffer, when you have true love, you can put up with anything."

I am for equal opportunities. Why should it be the guy`s job to kiss? "If a woman wants to kiss she should totally do that. I think it is awesome when women take the lead. I love that idea."

"I think I`m a man out of place. I love Scotland. You can stand amidst those mountains and fell the history. It emanates all around you. When I`m there, I fantasize about the Celts coming over from Europe in bearskins. And the simplicity and purity of society back then--it wasn`t as complicated or discolored as it is now. I imagine roaming those hills, fighting those battles..."

“I love the music in this film. I think it’s a great job and this is exactly the type of movie, the music I hoped for. At times it’s very operatic and it also contains an element of mysticism of another type, and then its absolute rock as well. That’s really what sets it apart. It says, ‘We’re not taking this too seriously, but at the end of the day this is also a very entertaining story told in an action packed way.’ If you can be moved or inspired or just feel something about these people and what they went through and what they stood for, then that’s awesome too.”

“Listen, I’d rather… I’ll be honest, I don’t get too caught up in that. I’m really far more about, ‘Is the film good? Did I perform okay? Did people dig it?’ And if people want to go further than that, of course, that’s a huge compliment. I would rather that then they say, ‘He’s an ugly son of a bitch. That Gerry Butler has no sex appeal whatsoever.’ It’s good to be appreciated. I’d rather be appreciated for talent than just looks, but hey, I’ll take that as well.”

“I thought, ‘Oh s**t. Here we go again!’ (laughing) This script was so inventive and had a real mystery, it was very poetic. In fact, some of it I found quite funny because when you describe, ‘a falling virgin lets the dying gasps of a soul out as he hits the ground,’ you think, ‘How can he possibly show that?’ And in some ways there is a suggestion as to the type of world and feel that you are coming into. It felt very classy and very dark and very difficult. I just thought, ‘This guy is fierce, this guy is ferocious. This guy is awesome and I want to try and be that guy.’”

"You know that every bead of sweat falling off your head, every weight you`ve pumped -- the history of that is all in your eyes," says Butler of his dedication. "That was a great thing, to put on that cape and put on that helmet, and not have to think, Shit, I should have trained more. Instead, I was standing there feeling like a lion."

I knew I`d just done one of the most amazing things that I will ever get a chance to do. Just to be part of a musical that`s not your background and to pull it off and to think that we`ve done something that`s really special.

By that point, I had started taking singing lessons. And after the first session, I mean, I was surprised that the windows didn`t shatter. And after the third session, I really didn`t know where this voice had come from.

I was amazed and upset by the looks I got just walking around the studio... It illuminates the ugliness and the beauty that exists within each of us, and that`s what this story represents to me.

I felt like retiring after The Phantom.

Choosing the right mask helps you... We went through many masks. It was very particular leather that as soon as you smudged it, you had to get a new one. We went through about 55 masks.

My manager and my agents, they go over my contracts.

I always find stuff in my characters to relate to.

I was training to be a lawyer... I was president of the law society at Glasgow University, and my bass guitarist was my secretary of my law society; the lead guitarist and writer worked at the law firm that I worked.

I spent many years not knowing where my dad was... Not knowing if my dad was alive, even. He turned up when I was 16 out of the blue.

I love doing the stunts. It`s as simple as that.

I had to go and sing with the musical director of the film, Simon Lee, who is just incredible, and it went great. I sang with him about five things, things we`d worked on. And then I went to sing for Andrew Lloyd Weber.

I mean, I made The Phantom, although The Phantom was, believe it or not, an independent film. It was just a very large, expensive independent film.

The Phantom, as well as being backed up by that music, it just so was a role that I identified with so powerfully. From the first second that I walked on to perform.

I went from somebody who didn`t sing to somebody who didn`t speak.

Generally I don`t like doing remakes, but I think that`s more in the cynical world of Hollywood where normally remakes are purely for commercial reasons.

Funnily enough, when I originally went in for my screen test, that set was already built.

I had to prove myself to a lot of different people.

As long as you do the best work that you can and not make it bland... because you`re going down a lane that is trying to make everybody happy. You have to take an angle on these things.

I had to get used to wearing a mask and wearing a prosthetic and performing with those things while singing and expressing myself through stylized movement, while keeping it as human as possible so the audience could be closer to the horror of the Phantom.

Angelina came up, and as soon as we said hello, I thought, This is going to be great. I`m really going to love doing this with her. And I did. And then I was very excited to do the movie after that.

Angelina had wanted a stronger male character to play opposite her, and I think one of the other advantages in that was a sense of competition.

I started singing for The Phantom in January, and we started filming in October and I sang all the way through to the next June. In fact, I was singing for about two months before I even knew I had the role.

There was certainly a beautiful buzz going on last year, and now it feels like, as you say, we`re having to kind of get that momentum going again.

I sang in a rock band when I was training as a lawyer. You know, not professional, we just did it for fun. We just did gigs all over Edinburgh and some in Glasgow and some at festivals.

I was getting to bed about 10 P.M. so wound up and not getting to sleep by 11, and because I was putting the prosthetics on for five hours, I had to be up at 3 in the morning.

The chance to be both artistically appreciated and commercially appreciated... That`s what you hope for.

You`ve got to move on and it`s a shame because there`s a part of you that thinks, `I was so attached to that movie and it`s success and what it meant to me.` There`s a part of you that wants to pull that off again. I heard some back room chatter about another 300 movie. I don`t know if it would be a sequel or a prequel but I haven`t read anything. I can`t see it myself, the idea in general. I`m not sure which way they would go with that. When Russell Crowe did Gladiator he didn`t come back and do another one. Like mine, his character died.

In Scotland I`m just like a lot of other guys, but in America I`m seen as a very strong, masculine guy.

On his new acting career: "[During] some of the most miserable periods of my life, people thought I was very happy. And now that I`m actually happier, I don`t have to show it. I`m more comfortable with myself."