Making new movie How To Train Your Dragon 2 brought back abandonment issues for Gerard Butler.

The animated sequel features a child abandoned by his mother, voiced by Cate Blanchett, but the Scottish actor had his father on his mind as he took on the character Stoik.

He tells Wenn, "That part of the movie was quite profound for me. I didn't see my father for 14 years. I didn't even know he was alive and he turned up out of the blue.

"I had this dream just before and I went to my mum and said, 'I'm never gonna see my dad again, am I mum?' And she said, 'No, I don't think so'. Then I came home one night and my stepfather said, 'Keep your jacket on. We're going into town. Your dad's here'.

"I had to go into this restaurant and walk around this packed restaurant and go from table to table literally looking at men going, 'He's not my dad. He's not my dad. He's not my dad'. Then he stood up and he was the weirdest looking guy in the restaurant, with a big shaggy beard!

"It's profound for anyone to imagine that the parent you didn't think was there is, and the love of your life that you thought was gone is alive and well and there is a chance to rekindle everything that you thought was lost in life."