'300' Leading Man Gerard Butler Enters Rehab

Issues with pain management and prescription painkillers have sent actor Gerard Butler into rehab, reports TMZ today.

The 42-year-old actor apparently checked into the Betty Ford Clinic about three weeks ago, and is due to leave today.  According to TMZ, he checked himself in with concerns about how reliant he'd become on prescription drugs. Butler started experiencing pain-management issues after 2006's physical shooting of the swords-and-sandals blockbuster "300," in which he played Spartan Warrior-King Leonidas leading an army against tens of thousands of advancing Persian soldiers invading ancient Greece.

"When you finish filming, your whole routine changes and suddenly you don't have to do what you did anymore. It's kind of weird," Butler was quoted as saying about the post-"300" experience. "You feel a little lost. You don't have to hold yourself the same way physically. I noticed in watching the video journals that even when I wasn't performing, I was still walking around as the king and talking like him. I don't do that anymore! I can slouch again!

"There was definitely a period of adjustment and physical pain because I stopped training. That was the worst thing I could have done."

His issues seem to have been exacerbated by a surfing accident this past December while filming "Of Men and Mavericks." Large waves at California's famed Mavericks surfing location reportedly held Butler submerged while shooting, to the point that he was taken off the set by ambulance and hospitalized at Stanford Medical Center for observation overnight.

"We took like four to five pretty big waves on the head," said pro surfer Zach Wormhoundt, who was in the water with Butler at the time. "Basically, there's nothing you can do. It was intense for myself, and I've been through a lot out there."

Though unconfirmed officially, TMZ also claims Butler received treatment for cocaine abuse while at the facility. According to Yahoo! blog OMG!, an email to Butler's press representative wasn't immediately returned.

"Of Men and Mavericks" hits theaters October 2012.