Gerard Butler: A true Hollywood maverick

BEVERLY HILLS - Rule No. 1 of extreme surfing: Don't confuse fear with panic. "You panic," says Gerard Butler's character, a craggy surfing pro in new film Chasing Mavericks, "you die."

It's a line that would reverberate through the actor's head just two days after he delivered it. With film cameras trained on him, Butler, 42, was bobbing in Northern California's Half Moon Bay when a massive swell crashed over him, ripping away his surfboard and pinning the actor underneath the churning sea. Lungs burning and quickly losing breath, seconds clicked slowly by as a thought crossed Butler's mind: "Why was this necessary?"

Chasing Mavericks (out Friday) is based on the true story of Jay Moriarity, a fearless young surfer who gained worldwide attention surfing a big-wave mecca near Santa Cruz known as Mavericks. Butler plays Frosty Hesson, Jay's rugged, real-life mentor who schools Jay (played by Jonny Weston) on the rules of survival around 50-foot swells.

Underwater, "all of those things were going around my head, going 'This is it. If I panic now..." Butler was barely able to gasp a breath before a second wave hit and the cycle began again.

Submerged again, Butler fought the urge to scream. "I felt very present. There was something that felt very normal about it. But by the time I got to the point I got to thinking, 'I'm in big trouble now,' that was only a about a quarter of the way through it. It went on and on and on. And then I started thinking, I just wanted to scream. And I was so deep underwater. I wanted to scream 'Help, somebody!' Or 'Mom!' Or something. And yet I knew the second I did that I was done."

Close to being jettisoned onto jagged rocks, Butler finally grabbed a crew member's hand, was pulled to shore and taken to the hospital (he was released the next day).

It wasn't the first time he'd taken a beating in the ocean.

USA Today