Reprising a role can be tricky for some actors. You don’t want to do the exact same thing you did however many years before, yet you have to make sure that this is a version of the same character the fans enjoyed, adapting them in a way that feels natural. But Gerard Butler has put himself in a unique scenario, bringing his animated character Stoick the Vast from How to Train Your Dragon into the flesh, playing him for the upcoming live-action version.
Going into reprising Stoick the Vast for this month’s How to Train Your Dragon remake, Gerard Butler said he had to find that balance between what he’s already done and what he hopes he add for fans of the animated films. “When I watch myself, there’s moments where I go, ‘That’s very like how I did it before,’ then there’s moments where you just go completely different. What I did want to do was be fresh, coming in there and starting as a new story and suddenly I’m embodying that all day long — I didn’t get to do that when I was just doing the voice. I wore my pajamas every day.”
\But it’s not as if Gerard Butler is alone in having to bring a freshness to an already familiar – and beloved – story, as How to Train Your Dragon trilogy director Dean DeBlois is behind the camera here as well. And he sees his own set of challenges that not only have to appease fans but the studio. “For better or worse, it has that continuity to it, but I promised [the studio] even though I hadn’t made a live-action film before, I would do everything I can to deliver the wonder and the emotion of those original stories to the screen.”
Here is the official plot of How to Train Your Dragon: “On the rugged isle of Berk, where Vikings and dragons have been bitter enemies for generations, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the inventive yet overlooked son of Chief Stoick the Vast, defies centuries of traditional dragon-fighting practice when he befriends Toothless, a feared Night Fury dragon. Their unlikely bond reveals the true nature of dragons, challenging the very foundations of Viking society.” The movie opens on June 13th, just over 15 years after the original.
Will you be checking out How to Train Your Dragon next week?
