Gerard Butler once discussed how Angelina Jolie and others responded after he made comments comparing their acting.

Angelina Jolie has worked with many actors over the years, including her Lara Croft co-star Gerard Butler. But the Plane actor once made a slight quip about the actor that landed him in a little hot water.

Angelina Jolie thought Gerard Butler could be her equal in ‘Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life’

Gerard Butler | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Cradle of Life was the 2003 sequel to Jolie’s original Tomb Raider film. It saw Jolie reprising her role as video game character and adventurer Lara Croft.

But the second film saw her teaming up with a new co-star. Whereas the first film Jolie saw herself paired with Daniel Craig, this time she was acting alongside Gerard Butler. Jolie felt Butler’s onscreen presence was perfect to match hers.

“I think we wanted to make sure there was a man who wasn’t some weak boy that loved her. We wanted to find a man that would be equal to her and just as strong and military and wild and he’s certainly has that and he’s a strong man and he has a great role and they are equal. He sometimes has one up on her and vice-versa,” Jolie once said according to Black Film.

Meanwhile, Butler also felt that he and Jolie had nearly instant chemistry when they first met.

“And then 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,” Butler once told IGN.

Gerard Butler once got heat for saying he dumbed down his acting when working with Angelina Jolie

Butler caught a bit of flack behind the scenes for poking fun at his co-star. During a media run, Butler commented how he had to lower his acting skills in Tomb Raider for Jolie’s sake. Even though the 300 star wasn’t serious, he was able to see how others took offense from his words.

“I sat down and said, ‘Hey, you know, she may have won the Oscar, but I think I really had to bring my acting down to do these scenes with her.’ It was a complete joke. You read it in print and you think it sounds terrible,” Butler once said according to Daily Record.

Jolie and a major film studio would later catch wind of his quip. According to Butler, the two had drastically different reactions.

“Angelina was cool. She said she knew I was joking, but Paramount said I was going on a media training course,” he said.

Gerard Butler and Angelina Jolie felt a sense of competition when working with each other

Because of the man that Butler was, Jolie and her team felt he was able to bring a bit of competitiveness to the film.

But Butler asserted that the competition between himself and Jolie was more lighthearted than intense. The Copshop star even found himself admiring the amount of effort Jolie put into her physical scenes.

“I love doing the stunts. It’s as simple as that. I also loved watching her doing her stunts, and I loved watching her train. She trained really hard. And it was nothing but an inspiration to me,” he said.

The two also managed to encourage each other while doing the movie’s more harrowing scenes. There was a take he and Jolie did where Butler’s hanging upside down. The scene was so uncomfortable Butler felt like he was going to vomit. Still, despite his own discomfort, he found himself also concerned about his co-star’s wellbeing.

“I’m doing this, and I’m trying to tuck both my knees in. And I’m like, ‘Fine!’ And doing this for two days, over forty times, it was a killer. I would then be looking to Angelina and thinking, ‘How’s she lookin’? How’s she gettin’ along?’ It was a tough stunt for both of us. We were only there to encourage each other, and that kind of stuff,” he said.