The Phantom Of The Opera Was A Role Gerard Butler Never Expected To Actually Land

The classic tale of "The Phantom of the Opera," about a man with facial differences living in a secret lair under the Paris opera house, has been turned into several films and a wildly successful Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on the 1910 French novel "Le Fantôme de l'Opera" by Gaston Leroux, the story revolves around a young singer named Christine Daaé who has been vocally coached by a mysterious opera ghost, her romance with Count Raoul de Chagny, and the phantom who will go to any lengths to have her for his own. 

A 2004 film based on Webber's musical and directed by Joel Schumacher starred Emmy Rossum as Christine, Patrick Wilson as Raoul, and Gerard Butler as the Phantom of the Opera. There were a number of actors known for their musical talents, like Hugh Jackman, who were up for the role of the Phantom, but Butler won out in the end, surprising even him. He wasn't sure he was up for the task, as he admitted in a video for GQ in 2019.

The role of the Phantom is notoriously difficult to sing, as Gerard Butler was well aware of going into the film. As he explained to GW, he used to sing in a rock band when he was a law student and had taken a few vocal lessons, but was nervous all the same. When Joel Schumacher called his agent to ask if he could sing, Butler's agent replied (according to Butler), "Eh, he can sing, but I don't know if he can sing that." Butler added:

"So it went from me going for my first ever singing lesson and singing to the professor of music from the Royal Academy of Music in London, and I said, 'Look, just tell me: am I wasting my time? I don't wanna make a fool of myself.' And we finished, and she said, 'You can absolutely do this. You need to put in a lot of work, you need to learn the rules, but you can do this,' you know? So that's all I needed to hear."

Obviously, getting the role worked out for Butler. The film only has a 33 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes among critics, so whether or not it worked out for "The Phantom of the Opera" itself is up for debate.

Being cast in a role is one thing. Actually singing for Andrew Lloyd Webber, who composed one of the most well-known musicals of all time, is quite another. In an interview with Tribute.ca in 2013, Gerard Butler called the audition "hairy," saying that he felt confident until he found himself standing in front of Webber, Joel Schumacher (who hadn't heard him sing yet either), music supervisor Simon Lee (who was playing piano for him), and executive producer Austin Shaw. "My leg took on a life of its own. I couldn't stop it. I thought, could they see this? I was just shaking it. Simon's going [mimes deep breath] 'just breathe.' ... It was funny. I look back now and laugh," Butler noted.

In the GQ interview, Butler also mentioned the fact that he was the one cast in the first place popped into his head a lot during the making of "The Phantom of the Opera." He laughed, explaining, "There would be so many times I'd just be sitting there going, 'How the hell did I get here? This is awesome. I can't even sing." 

Butler may not have been perfect in terms of vocal production, but he managed to plow through a difficult score. At the time of this writing, "The Phantom of the Opera" isn't streaming for free, but you can rent it on Prime Video, YouTube, and Apple TV.