Gerard Butler explains why filming Den of Thieves 2 was a ‘nightmare’

Actor says he essentially shot sequel on one leg

Gerard Butler injured himself directly before filming Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, making his on-screen pain all the more convincing.

The 55-year-old Scottish actor reportedly filmed much of the high-octane heist sequel with one leg completely out of action.

Butler said: “This was a weird time for me at the beginning of this movie because I’d been through a pretty intense surgery, and then I tore my ACL fully about a month later and then started this movie.”

With the physical demands of filming, Butler revealed the action scenes were “pretty rough”.

The ACL is one of the knee ligaments that connects your thigh bone (femur) to your shin bone (tibia).

“I didn’t have a chance to get the surgery on my ACL, so I made this movie with a freshly torn ACL,” he told Entertainment Weekly, quipping: “It was a nightmare and I was a whiny little bitch.”

Butler’s co-star, O’Shea Jackson Jr added: “Oh my God, there were so many stairs in that movie too!"

"There were so many stairs," Butler concurred. "I’m like, ‘Really, we have to set this whole movie on a hill?’ So it was intense, but it definitely made the action scenes… I had to do less acting."

The highly anticipated Den of Thieves 2: Pantera – in US cinemas now – is hitting screens seven years after the original was released. The sequel follows the action of the first film, with Butler’s character “Big Nick” tracking Donnie (Jackson Jr) across Europe as he plans another heist on the world’s largest diamond exchange.

Gerard Butler returns in the sequel to 2018’s action-heist hit ‘Den of Thieves’ (Lionsgate)

A torn ACL is just one in a long list of health issues that Butler has had in recent years. In 2020, the actor told The Courier Mail that his medical issues have made him “reconsider my whole career”.

Undergoing more than seven surgeries, including one that went wrong, Butler suffered a motorcycle accident in 2017 that he said, “almost killed me”. He told reporters that these injuries included “fracturing five bones in his right foot, a microfracture in each foot, a pinched nerve and a bruised bone, and injuries to his ankle and both knees."

While his injuries have not stopped him in the past, fans are hopeful Butler will return for a potential Den of Thieves 3. Butler teased that as long as there is a demand, “we will supply”.