It’s easy to forget that our Hollywood idols and heroes are actually, at the end of the day, just like you and me. We spend so much of our time fantasising about the characters that our favourite film celebrities embody that we actually forget to think about the person behind the persona.

Gerard Butler Wearing Dolce&Gabbana at the Chasing Mavericks Premiere 

Well, Gerard butler has thrown a spanner into the works and has identified personally with a near fatal stunt of his latest film Chasing Mavericks with a real-life event that saw him saving a child’s life. While filming a surfing scene, he was knocked down by two huge waves, hospitalising him. While talking on ‘Live With Kelly and Michael’ he said that he recalls thinking, ‘wow, I’m going to die making a movie’.

Butler says that it was the sounds of his own heavy and uncontrollable heaving that came from him after the incident that reminded him of the incident with the small boy, whom he dragged from a river 14-years ago in Scotland. He plays the story down, saying that he doesn’t feel like a hero, but I am sure that those that witnessed the event think quite the opposite.

But his action hero shenanigans don’t stop there! He’s also gone and stolen a kiss in the rain from his girlfriend, Madalina Ghenea, like a professional superhero. Check it out:

What’s next? Well, if you want to see more of Gerard being a hero then you’d better get yourself down to the cinemas and catch him in Michael Apted and Curtis Hanson's surfing flick Chasing Mavericks or if you’re after his softer side then catch him in Gabriele Muccino's romantic comedy Playing for Keeps, which also stars Jessica Biel, Dennis Quaid and Uma Thurman. 

...and then there is this! Check out the trailer for Movie 43… a movie with an amazing cast including Gerard Butler, saying and doing the most outrageous things. We can’t wait. Check out Halle Berry’s moment in the clip below. Cringe. Movie 43 is expected to hit cinemas at the end of January 2013.

Chasing Mavericks is in theaters now.

Written by Ben Taylor