Gerard Butler stated actors were injured every day on the set of 300

Zack Snyder’s 300 consist of intense, gory, and uncomfortable depictions of killings and bloody imagery. But even behind the scenes, there was a lot of pain and discomfort during the filming process.

According to People, during a chat with Den of Thieves 2: Pantera costar O’Shea Jackson, Leonidas actor Gerard Butler claimed that injuries and trips to the hospital occurred daily when filming for the 2006 historical action blockbuster film. 

The King of Sparta star explained the whole debacle:

“I remember every day somebody was getting taken to the hospital. You’d be doing a fight, you turn around, there’s a guy down there, a spear went in his eye. Another time, you turn around, there’s a guy over there who just fell, broke his ankle. I mean, it was insane.”

People’s YouTube channel uploaded a whole video where Butler briefly talks about the injuries that took place during filming.

The actor never really remembered how he got himself injured while on the set of Snyder’s 300, but he did bring up getting “taken down by a huge set of waves” when filming for the 2012 surfing film Chasing Mavericks.

At one point, he said he nearly drowned even after learning about surfing just for the movie. Butler thought he was done for.

“They had to take me out, take me to hospital, put me out, give me the defibrillator. I mean, it was intense.”

The 55-year-old actor also remembered being in “car smashes” with James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan where the latter drove him straight into a wall. “And this thing was supposed to stop as he was supposed to slam the brakes,” the actor elaborated.

The How to Train Your Dragon voice actor recalled how both him and Brosnan hit a “three-foot-high wall, full speed, in a Range Rover” until he injured his neck. “And it was after 300. I was already so beaten up in 300,” Butler stated.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is Butler’s new film, which came out on January 10, 2025, and is currently screening in theaters. The movie claimed the number one spot in the box office for the film’s first opening weekend and is well-received by both critics and filmgoers.