Gerard Butler shot action-packed “Den of Thieves 2” on 'a freshly torn ACL': 'It was a nightmare'

If Gerard Butler's onscreen pain looks especially convincing in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, there's good reason. It turns out the Scottish actor, 55, essentially shot the entire action-packed heist sequel on one leg.

"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," Butler tells Entertainment Weekly alongside his returning costar, O'Shea Jackson Jr.

"So I was not in the best shape, and it was a pretty physical movie, and I didn't have a chance to get the surgery on my ACL, so I made this movie with a freshly torn ACL, and it was pretty rough," he reveals.

"But yeah… I wanted to put a 'but' in to make it sound positive, but it wasn't positive; it was a nightmare!" he continues before joking, "and I was a whiny little bitch!"

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Laughing along with his costar, Jackson Jr. says, "Oh my God, there were so many stairs in that movie too!" 

"There were so many stairs," Butler agrees. "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."

Hitting theaters a full seven years after the sleeper hit original, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (out Friday) takes place immediately following the events of the first film, with Butler's sheriff "Big Nick" O'Brien hunting Jackson Jr.'s master thief Donnie Wilson, who escaped to Europe and is already busy planning another heist.

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Butler's surgery and torn ACL are just the latest health issues that have plagued the actor in recent years. In a 2020 interview with The Courier Mail, he went as far as to say his medical issues made him "reconsider my whole career."

"I had a surgery that went wrong, which then became seven surgeries. I had a motorcycle accident that almost killed me, and I suddenly thought, 'There has to be something more,'" he told the outlet, which reported that his injuries from a 2017 motorcycle crash "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."

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Hopefully, Butler will be at full strength when it comes time for Den of Thieves 3. Speaking about the possibility of reteaming for a third film, Jackson Jr. teases, "As long as [the fans] have more demand, we will supply."

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