'I almost killed her.' 10 things you probably didn't know about P.S. I Love You.

I don’t want to give you a heart attack but the film P.S. I Love You is 16 years old this year, and I’m feeling ancient. 

The 2007 rom-com starring Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank was based on Cecelia Ahern’s novel by the same name published in 2004, but why are we talking about it in 2023?

Well, Gerard Butler was a guest on The Drew Barrymore Show earlier this week and confessed to accidentally hospitalising Hilary Swank during filming and that got us thinking about what else we may not know about the movie.

Here are 10 things you probably didn't know about P.S. I Love You.

Need a refresher on the film? Watch the trailer here. Post continues below.

1. Gerard Butler seriously injured Hilary Swank on set.

Appearing on The Drew Barrymore Show, Butler admitted that one of his lowest days on-set was when he accidentally sent Hilary Swank to hospital in need of stitches.

"I almost killed her," he recalled. "You know the scene where I’m dancing and I have the suspenders?"

Butler said that scene took a day and a half to film and he already felt silly dancing around non-stop when it got so much worse. 

"At one point, the clip which was a crocodile clip got stuck on the television as I’m crawling towards [her], she’s right in front of me and she’s laughing hysterically.

"It released, BOOM, flies over my head, hits her in the head, slashes her head, I mean I cut her [open], you could even see the teeth of the [clip]."

"She had to get taken to hospital, I’m just sitting there in my Irish shammy boxer shorts, and my boots and a pair of socks and I just started crying," he added.

The actor says that the combination of feeling self-conscious in his dancing scenes and injuring a superstar like Swank had him experiencing massive imposter syndrome on-set.

2. Butler publicly apologised for his terrible Irish accent.

Not only did Butler experience imposter syndrome, but he also faced massive backlash after the film's release because of his poor attempts at an Irish accent.

Irish dialect coach Nic Redman shouted out Butler’s performance on Den of Geek as he ranked best and worst accents for the publication.

"I really want to give shout outs to Gerard Butler in P.S. I Love You... as an Irish person I found that pretty horrific," Redman said.

The criticism was so bad that during an interview on his press tour for Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla, Butler publicly apologised to fans.

"I was hoping they’d be quite forgiving of me, me being a little Scottish boy whose whole family are Irish," he told Movies Ireland. 

"When people bring it up, they try not to say anything... I get the feeling it wasn’t that good."

Both the interviewer and Butler laugh as he apologised for his attempt.

"I would like to apologise to the nation of Ireland for completely abusing your accent, I realise that it’s a much more beautiful language and accent than what I gave, but I tried my best."

Image: Alcon Entertainment.

3. None of the leads are Irish!

Terrible accents aside, despite the author of the book being Irish, it being set in Ireland and the movie being partially filmed there, none of the lead cast are Irish.

A lot of the novel’s storyline was changed to suit an American audience, including moving the main character’s lives to New York over Dublin and changing Swank’s character to be an American. 

However, many fans of the book felt this made the story lose its charm.

Headstuff identified the only two actors in the film who are actually Irish were the pair cast as Butler’s parents. 

Yet even this casting appears lazy as "both have distinctly upper-class Dublin accents" according to the publication, despite Butler’s character supposedly coming from a working class background. 

4. The Letters remained the same.

While the film took a lot of liberties with the novel, one thing that remained untouched were the letters.

The backbone of the story is the letters Gerry leaves behind for the love of his life Holly, to help her get past his death.

Apparently the screenwriter left all the letters identical to how they appear in the book.  

5. Jeffrey Dean Morgan learnt guitar for his part.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays Swank’s love interest, a symbolic character representing her ability to move on from loss. 

While he had little screen time in the movie, he took his role seriously and organised to learn guitar for it.

His homework paid off as it became borderline impossible not to fall in love with him, his guitar and his dimples by the end of the film. Am I right, ladies? Gents?

Nancy Wilson, guitarist for the band Heart, was organised to be his tutor and apparently Morgan was over the moon because Wilson was his childhood crush. 

6. Gerry’s urn design had meaning.

In the film, Holly, who has a flair for design which she figures out later, designs Gerry’s urn after his death at his own request.

This detail is used to suggest that her husband knew her better than she even knew herself, picking up on her interests and talents when she couldn’t see them.

But what the audience may not have picked up on is that the specific design on Gerry’s urn was intentionally made to match his guitar case which we see in some scenes set in the couple’s apartment. 

Image: Alcon Entertainment.

7. There was a little Enniskerry Easter egg.

The business Gerry owns in America is called 'Enniskerry Limo', which is mentioned in passing in the first half of the film.

This little nugget becomes far more meaningful in the latter half when the audience realises that Enniskerry is Gerry’s hometown and where he ultimately sends Holly to reset. 

Enniskerry is also a very real village in Ireland, 30 minutes south of Dublin with a population of only 1,889! 

8. Hilary Swank needed some diversity in her portfolio.

Director Richard LaGravenese intentionally cast Swank in the role of Holly after having just worked with her on Freedom Writers.

The director believed that Swank needed to show her audience a lighter side of her, but that might have been to her detriment.

Her 'comedic' moments in the film are considered to be her worst, whereas the darker more emotional moments are where Swank shone. 

9. Harry Connick Jr can’t get a break.

Harry Connick Jr. plays Daniel, a bartender with Asperger’s Syndrome who is head over heels in love with Holly but kind of stuck in the friend zone. 

As Holly heals throughout the film, Daniel plays a part in helping her, actually getting her to laugh again and she responds by accidentally calling him Gerry.

The fun fact here is that this is at least the second time one of Harry Connick Jr’s characters gets called the wrong name by a potential love interest - this also happens in his film, Hope Floats.

10. A sequel was/is in the works.

Author of the original novel, Cecelia Ahern, wrote a sequel to her novel in 2019 called Postscript.

Set seven years after Gerry dies, Holly joins her sister on her podcast to tell the story of Gerry’s letters. 

Her story inspires a group of fans called the P.S. I Love You Club who function as a support group and look to Holly for advice on how to leave their own messages to loved ones after they pass away. 

According to MindFood in 2020, Alcon Entertainment who produced the first film, also gained the rights to Postscript, and Swank was reportedly keen to reprise her role as Holly.

However, there has been no news on the project since, which might mean it was canned.

Image: Cecelia Ahern via Amazon.

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Feature image: Alcon Entertainment.