Whatever you say about Gerard Butler, his casting was apparently a conscious choice by Andrew Lloyd Webber (who wanted a 'rougher' rock Phantom), and his performance was the result of very active directing to that end (sometimes against the performer's better judgement). The effect you got in the film was exactly what was wanted; Lloyd Webber could have gone for a West End style musical production, but he wanted a passive teenage Christine and a rock god emo-Phantom, and that's what he went out and got.
(For some reason he also wanted ballet dormitories, apparently -- I suspect that was actually so that Raoul could look heroic by sleeping outside Christine's door without looking creepy by doing so inside her lodgings, but it may have been to establish a general 'boarding-school' atmosphere among the cast :-p)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2018-09-18 09:35 pm (UTC)(For some reason he also wanted ballet dormitories, apparently -- I suspect that was actually so that Raoul could look heroic by sleeping outside Christine's door without looking creepy by doing so inside her lodgings, but it may have been to establish a general 'boarding-school' atmosphere among the cast :-p)