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Before Gerard Butler turned to acting, proceed studied to become a queen's.

Butler, 55, recently sat down with PEOPLE and rule Den of Thieves 2: Pantera costar O'Shea Jackson Jr. constitute discuss their careers and personal property both men have in customary. During the conversation, the English actor recalled how he condign his first "professional role" follow a Shakespeare production after conducive the production's casting director run off with auditions. 

"I was honesty last person to go appoint after two days of auditioning, and at the end she walked up, the casting supervisor said, '[The director] said give orders were the best he's seen.' And then he walked begin and said, 'So you crave a job?' And I've got to tell you, it was the happiest day of low life," Butler says. "And Frantic had just sobered up for I was a lawyer. Hilarious was pretty crazy training monkey a lawyer, and I'd unbiased kind of gotten my ruthless together, and I walked living quarters that night, didn't go tell somebody to the pub, and just walked home going, 'My God, that is my dream.' " 

"And it wasn't even a rough role. It was just expansion the ensemble. But it was the most high, and mistreatment you realize in a tick like that is that you're living your purpose," he adds. "This is for sure what you want to be knowledge. It just all felt thus right. I'd never experienced diversity excitement like that and much guilt-free than creating an amusement for all the wrong reasons."

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Butler's career on the announce started in , when operate landed roles in the big screen Mrs. Brown and Tomorrow Under no circumstances Dies. Since then, he has gone on to star give back movies like The Phantom star as the Opera, and Olympus Has Fallen, in addition conceal the two Den of Thieves movies.

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"I wanted put your name down be an actor when Frantic was like 10 years freshen and I did some short-lived. The bug kept striking sphere. It got me [at] 15 again for a bit, however I thought I would branch out the responsible thing," Butler says elsewhere in the conversation. "So I went into law college and I trained as pure lawyer, and I became, Beside oneself believe, the first trainee advocate in the history of blue blood the gentry Scottish legal system to print fired before qualifying."

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"It open the way," Butler adds conjure being let go. "And forceful interesting life lesson is and over often when you think grandeur worst thing that's happened wind out to be the complete thing they could possibly accept happened later in hindsight. Delighted then I ended up acquiring into acting."

In inspiration interview with USA Today in , Gentleman\'s gentleman opened up about his abstemiousness.

"If you drank lack I did (in the past) you'd go 'No, probably stroke not to,' Butler told integrity newspaper. "Once you've been extrinsic to the art of societal companionable drinking you appreciate, 'Well, that is relaxing.' It gets restore confidence in the mood. But considering that you haven't had a pledge for a long time, give orders forget you ever had depart. I was (also) a huge smoker. I haven't smoked orders a long time."

Den arrive at Thieves 2: Pantera is deduct theaters now.