ET spoke with the 'Greenland' stars about their new film, premiering Dec. 18 On Demand.
Morena Baccarin and Gerard Butler spent a lot of quality time together while filming their new movie, Greenland. During their long days on set, as the actress tells ET's Lauren Zima, Baccarin acted as a sort of "therapist" for the newly single Butler -- and now considers him "marriage material."
"There are some deep, deep issues there but they're solvable. So if you're looking for marriage material, it's possible," Baccarin joked about her co-star and spending hours with him on set. "It's a diamond in the rough situation. So you just chisel away at some of the roughness and you're good, you've got a gem."
Butler -- who split with Morgan Brown after six years of dating in August -- added, "I'm a way better person after my time with Morena as my therapist, definitely. I wouldn't say I'm marriage material yet, but I'm definitely further along that road."
In Greenland, Butler and Baccarin play a husband and wife who face the end of the world as a planet-killing comet hurtles toward Earth. But in real life, the 51-year-old actor is facing something more daunting: Dating.
"I became single during the pandemic, so I'm definitely back on that road," he shared. "Family, friends, adventure, nature and spending time with myself, getting to know myself even more. The pandemic has been brutal, but it's also shown some a lot of silver linings I think."
Previously calling himself a "workaholic," Butler added that the pandemic "helped break that."
"I think it did for a lot of people," he said. "I remember the first few days thinking, 'How am I gonna get through this?' Not necessarily making movies, but everything else that you do. And suddenly after a week or two you breathe and go, 'Oh, there's other things to life that don't have to be about that,' and in fact I'm forced only to embrace these things."
One of the big takeaways of time in lockdown for Butler is appreciating his close ones more than ever before, explaining, "I appreciate now so much more my family, my friends, and the connectedness of everything that I feel. Often if there's a disaster, that's when the world comes together and you realize we're all the same."
"But a disaster on a prolonged level like this has given us much more time to really appreciate the similarities...and by the way that's also the theme of our movie, is the fragility of humanity," he noted. "We think we're at the center of the universe and then something so small like the virus or so big like the comet -- which is symbolic of any of the tragedies or pressures we have to deal with in life -- comes along and we have to quickly develop a different outlook and appreciate taking away all the artifice and the crap in our lives."
Baccarin agrees. However, she, unlike her co-star, is happily married to Ben McKenzie. The two share daughter Frances, 4, and she is also mother to son Julius, 7, from a previous marriage. The Deadpool star acknowledged that she's "definitely less connected" to her phone and staying in the "present."
"I have not become single during a pandemic, which is a good thing. I don't want my marriage to fall apart," she quipped. "But you suddenly realize that you cannot expect that person to fulfill you in every way that you were being fulfilled before with the outside world as a stimulation. So, you have to really be conscious of yourself with other people around you."
And while she admitted it can be a little stressful not knowing when she can go back to work and things will get back to normal, she cherishes all the time she's spent with her family.
"I have so much more free time and yet I'm not getting back to people as quickly and it's because I'm present. I'm with my kids," she explained. "Whatever I'm engaged in, I'm engaged in fully, which is something that I think before was scattered. That's been really amazing."
"I have this free time with my family that I otherwise wouldn't have," she continued. "I don't know that I've ever been in one place for so long and that's been a really, really nice aspect to it. And like Gerry said, just working on little aspects of yourself."
Greenland will be available on Dec. 18 On Demand.
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