Gerard Butler Talks 'Tomb Raider' Sequel

"I think the best way to describe him would be as kind of like a Han Solo from Star Wars," Butler said in an interview from London. "He's this kind of roguish bad boy with a cheeky smile who you don't want to mess with."

Butler plays a British ex-spy named Terry Sheridan, who hooks up with Jolie's Croft to find Pandora's Box. "He's quite edgy in the movie, edgier than I would have expected Tomb Raider to have allowed their characters to be," Butler said. "And when he has to be, he's exceptionally brutal."

Butler says he took on the physical role after completing another as the sword-fighting Andre Marek in Paramount's Timeline. In Cradle of Life, he said, "I was jumping out helicopters from 60 feet and dangling off and coming down from the top of the 007 stage [at London's Pinewood Studios], loads of scary machine-gun fire with glass smashing all around me. I particularly loved the fight sequences that they gave me, because they just make me out to be very, very tough and very, very callous at those moments." Cradle of Life opens July 25.