Q&A with Actors Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Gerard Butler, and Director Dean DeBlois 

Q : Congratulations on the film. Everyone here loved it. 

Gerard Butler: Fantastic.

Q : To start maybe you can tell us as an animated film, how do you approach making it live action? What do you decide to pay homage to? What do you decide to change or update? Where do you begin?

Dean DeBlois: From the first conversation with the studio, they did want to present that story. We decided, let’s figure it out, how to carry it over with the wonder and hearts, and beautiful performances with real actors in a grounded world, with photo reel dragons and find little ways to be additive. that was our mission statement from the start.

Q : And Gerard, you were part of the original as well. How do you update the character or do you approach it entirely new when you’re doing it as a live action performance? 

Gerard Butler: You can’t help how they come with preconceived notions about the character, of course. But once I put on that costume, which is pretty transformative, and once Steve and I talked about what we’re gonna try with this live action, then it felt like I could play go in the sandbox..would you pay attention(facing Mason said it as a joke), now we did perform with actors, we could never do that in animated movies, we were always ending our own, except for one in three movies. So getting to work with these incredible young actors, this man here, even though he is not listening to me brought out a whole new color and emotion.

And that’s what this brings, even compared to the animated, which is very emotional. This is so raw. It’s, that I think there’s so much more just an emotional experience than even the animated. But anyway, guys, I’m gonna shut up

Q : Now, Mason and Nico, How do you act with dragons, what is that process like, interacting with them on set? 

Mason Thames: Unfortunately dragons aren’t real, I’ve always had a vivid imagination, so I had a lot of fun pretending a dragon was there, we had an amazing puppeteering team, with a big foam head I could touch and look at it was really nice.

Q :  If Astrid and Hiccup were to go on a date in New York City, where would they go? 

Nico Parker: I don’t know…

Mason Thames: I feel like a romantic flight is nice sceneries. We find nice scenery.

Nico Parker: Why are we finding the scnery

Mason Thames: I don’t now.. maybe like the top of the Empire State, right!

Gerard Butler: On bikes, go along the Hudson. Walking along the Hudson, bicycle. Dean, you and I should go on the date!

Dean DeBlois : Yeah,Long time coming.

Q : How do you build a connection with Toothless on set ’cause the dragon comes later.

Mason Thames: Hiccup and Toothless connection is so special to me and so many other people and that’s something we really wanted to get so right. And I have a dog, his name’s Brish, he’s a pit bull. He’s everything to me, so I use that connection me and him had from the cup of Toothless, which was a lot of fun.

Q : Do you have the reunion with the original cast? 

Dean DeBlois: No, but when we were casting for Hiccup and Astrid, I was in touch with America Ferrera and Jay Baruchel. And when we were down to our top three Astrid and our top three hiccups, I shared them with America and Jay and try to get their sense of who they thought would be the best representation of the characters that they brought to the screen. And it was funny because Astrid thought, I think all your Astrid are great. I really love Nico, but Mason is the hiccup. Which was really great.

Q : How did the fish taste? 

Mason Thames: Not very good. I remember they asked me what they had was like a fish head bowl, with chicken or crab? And I feel like any reasonable person would probably go with the chicken. But I don’t like fish very much. So I went with the crab because I wanted a really good reaction. And that was my genuine reaction. ’cause that was horrible.

Dean DeBlois: he was taking timid bites. At one point I was shouting from off stage saying, take a bigger bite!!

Mason Thames: No, that’s not true. I took the biggest bite on the first take and I was like, okay, tone it down And then he just goes bigger bite. And I was like, you’re kidding. And he goes, no, seriously. That’s the one that ended up in the movie.

Q : How do you understand the dragon?

Mason Thames: You got to build the chemistry, kind of like how I understand my dog the weirdest things with how he sits and how he glares at me, kind of like that with Toothless, you just have to build that chemistry.

Q Have you ever read the books?

Dean DeBlois: Yes. I read the first book when Chris Sanders and I were brought on to rethink the movie. They tried to do a very faithful version of the books. And then at one point they decided the story was too small.

So we were encouraged to just come up with a different story, but still have the spirit of the book.

©Couretsy of Universal Pictures 

Q : What did it feel like when you put your costumes on first time?

Gerard Butler: I think that I became very concerned that this whole movie was gonna fall apart because I wouldn’t be able to wear this costume all day for nine weeks. The costume was heavy big beard, hair, getting stuck in your mouth it was crazy, but transformative to wear that.

The costume was incredible and I think when you put it on and then you step on scent, you got Mason and Nico and the other trainees dresses, and the hundreds of Viking extras, and you’re in this world with big arenas. The sets all built conventionally was just you stepped into the world of Burke. So it was as fun for us as for you guys.

Dean DeBlois: Nico, when you first put on your costume, talk about that, ’cause I’ve heard you say you suddenly felt like the character right?

Nico Parker: I put my costume on I didn’t really know what it would look like because I didn’t know how close they were to the animated one. I turned around they had a version of the ax. Before you look, just hold the ax too. I was like, I feel so silly and whatever. And then I turned around and looked to myself in the mirror and nearly cried. I was so excited. We all had that experience. Then I tried to do stunts in the boots and immediately hated the costume. But before that I was loving it.

Dean DeBlois: And also Mason. You were hiccup for Halloween one year. what did it feel like putting on that costume for the first time?

Mason Thames: Hiccup means so much to me My whole life had a trainer dragon is, I grew up with it and I remember even in the audition I didn’t think I was gonna get job, but I really just wanted to tell Dean how much it meant to me it shaped me as a person.

And when I got to set and I had that first costume fitting and I saw myself in the mirror, I got emotional it was me seeing myself as my childhood hero. It meant a lot.

Q : How did you make the dragon queen?

Dean DeBlois: Yeah. we started with the animated movie and thought maybe we can make it even bigger, we kind of make her feel like she’s a creature of that volcano. And so her coloring and her texture feels like volcanic rock and lava. And we wanted her to feel like she was just ancient. So we, as an animal reference, we were thinking of an old lion lumbering around, probably doesn’t fly very much, it’s alway used to being fed, but very cranky when she doesn’t get fed.

And she’ll devour her own dragons. So the idea that this thing was gonna eventually start flying should feel like a big deal and then everything underfoot was gonna crumble under her weight. So it was a fun creature to design The animators at Frame store, they brought it to life, so it feels very real.

Q : Are you gonna make a second live action movie?

Dean DeBlois:  Yes. We’re planning on it and I’m busy writing the script now, if all goes well, we will have a movie in theaters in June 2027.

Q : Who had the scars? Hiccup or Everyone?

Dean DeBlois: We had an amazing makeup artist. He won an Oscar for his makeup artistry in the past.  His name was Alessandro Bertolazzi. He had all different scars that he would show us. He even put some on my face at one point. And then they paint them and they make them seem like they’re just part of a person’s face. So that distinctive scar that Gerard had was created out of silicone and then they would paint it and they would feel like it was part of face all the time.

Gerard Butler: That’s not true, I did it myself ’cause I’m brutal. it just healed very well.

Q : How’s the movie different from the book? 

Dean DeBlois: The movie’s different from the book, if you read the book that you all know that it’s about a 10-year-old, young Viking of the chief, that’s real, that’s we carried that over. Hiccup son of the chief, the kids raise dragons from an early age. They’re from eggs, and so they teach their dragons to do tricks. And in the book Hiccup is kind to his dragon instead of yelling at them or making them submit.

Toothless in the books is the size of a dog and he talks and that’s very different. So when we came into it and we decided maybe the bigger fantasy adventure story is about the first Viking to take a chance. And befriend a dragon and end an age old war. We then thought the dragon that he befriend should probably be something big and impressive and dangerous, and that’s why we reinvented what Toothless is and made him this big black dragon that could be flown.

Q : Was the crab raw? 

Mason Thames: Yeah, It tasted raw.

Dean DeBlois: No, it was cooked.

Mason Thames: No, I think it was raw…

Q : You (mason)and Nico got into a giant fist fight?

Nico Parker: Not true, I don’t think we’ve already had anything.

Mason Thames: No, I don’t think we ever did. All of us got along so well, so it was a breeze.

Q : How did you achieve the effect of the metal leg? 

Dean DeBlois: That was visual effect, so the company we work with is called Frame Store, they basically put a boot on Mason, so that he would walk with the right kind of limping, and then they would just erase the leg frame by frame and replace it with his prosthetic leg.

Q : That’s all we have time for, thank you all so much for coming.

©Couretsy of Universal Pictures 

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