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Q: Was that Gerard Butler I saw in "Tomorrow Never Dies"? He's only on screen for a minute, but I feel like it was him.

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

You're overestimating his screen time by about 50 seconds, but otherwise you're exactly right.

A young Gerard Butler, nine years before he became an action superstar with "300" (2006), appeared as an unnamed seaman on a ship that's under attack in the 1997 James Bond movie "Tomorrow Never Dies."

He could very easily have ended up as an uncredited extra, but his character does get one line: "Sir, we're now 14 degrees down by the stern."

You can barely even make it out — partly because there's an alarm and a lot of shouting going on at the same time, and partly because Butler's Scottish accent was even thicker then.

Despite its size, the role was not Butler's first. Two months before "Tomorrow Never Dies" was released, Butler debuted (in a larger role) in the historical drama "Mrs. Brown," produced by BBC. The film also starred the great Judi Dench ("The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," 2011) as Queen Victoria.

Fun fact: Dench and Butler also appeared together in "Tomorrow Never Dies," though she didn't share any of his 10 seconds of screen time.

 

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