Gerard Butler Says Live-Action ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ Was Destiny

Gerard Butler didn’t see a live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon coming, but it feels like it was always meant to be.

“When I was voicing the original movies, I didn’t imagine making a live-action version, but I was wondering what it must be like to be in this world and be Stoick,” the Scottish actor confirms as we chat in the SLS Beverly Hills hotel. “It never crossed my mind once in all those 15 years of a live-action film. Nobody ever mentioned it to me, and I never thought about it, so it came out of the blue.”

“Part of me was like, ‘That could be awesome,’ and another part of me was like, ‘Well, hold on.’ On the first day of visiting Belfast, where we filmed the movie, I saw a lot of the artwork on Toothless and the other dragons, as well as some of the digital effects, and then toured the sets. I was thrilled that I had the opportunity to be a part of it.”

Just like the original film that kicked off a franchise, How to Train Your Dragon takes place on the Viking isle of Berk, where an ancient threat endangers both the human occupants and dragons alike. However, an unlikely friendship between Hiccup, the son of Butler’s Viking leader, and Toothless, a Night Fury dragon, proves to be the key to both species creating a new future together. How to Train Your Dragon is now showing exclusively in theaters.

However, as writer-director Dean DeBlois revealed, Butler almost didn’t return to the role he made his own due to scheduling conflicts. However, serendipitously, luck was on his side.

“It was good luck for them,” he laughs. “No, it was a stroke of luck. I was in the middle of making another movie; we had just had a meeting and said, ‘Okay, I think we have to push this and do some more work on the script.’ I got a text from Dean two hours later saying, ‘We tried you again. You’re not available. I just want you to know I wanted you to do this so much, and I’m heartbroken.’ I said, ‘Wait. When is this?’ So, the other movie was pushed back, and I could fit this in the middle. It was destiny that the timing worked out, and everything unfolded as it did. I can’t imagine me not having done Stoick.”

“It reminds me of a line in the movie with the Trial of Flame, when Hiccup takes the knife, and I say, ‘I would have taken the hammer.’ I think that’s what I would have been like watching another actor in the role.”

In addition to reuniting Butler and DeBlois, How to Train Your Dragon also reunites the actor with his Chasing Mavericks cinematographer, Bill Pope. Being in the hands of people he trusts and has a rapport with made him feel safe.

“Bill is amazing. We were working with Curtis Hanson, and he was ill at the time, so he had to leave the movie. Therefore, at times, it was Bill and I directing the movie, so I got to know Bill a lot better than your normal cinematographer,” he recalls. “Also, especially with Dean, being able to go and play and know I’m backed up by an incredible visionary who’s so specific is great. When he would talk to you, it was amazing to listen to. I felt so relaxed. What I feel I brought to Stoik was the understanding that, despite everything I knew about him, I could almost forget it once I put on his costume and entered a whole new world where I could play in the sandbox. Therefore, I could be a lot freer and give the character a lot more levels and colors.”

Gerard Butler Suffered For His Art A Little In ‘How To Train Your Dragon’

While the experience of making How to Train Your Dragon was a pleasure, Stoik’s Viking costume was less of a walk in the park. It is impressive to look at, but it wasn’t fun to wear.

“The costume was 90 pounds, and you felt every pound of that being put on because it was seven layers,” Butler explains. “Things had to be wrapped, clipped, and pulled, and the first time I put it on, it took three hours. Once it was on, it wouldn’t come off, so that helped me climb into Stoik. I watched the movie the other night, and I’ve never had this before, but I went. ‘That’s me.’ It was such a metamorphosis. The costume was incredible, with its beard, makeup, and even what I was able to do because of it; I felt like I had truly transformed. The world-building that was there was immense.”

“On set, there was a different challenge for me than for everybody else. It was Belfast, and it was winter, so everybody was freezing. I was boiling. I don’t think I was cold once throughout the whole movie, and I was soaking wet the whole time because I had so many layers on. It was often raining, so the ground was also extremely muddy. In the movie, you don’t see that; it’s always fresh grass and lush forests; however, when you were walking the set, the mud was sometimes six or eight inches deep. It was pretty messy.”

Going around the world to promote the movie has brought Butler, also known for other popular franchise kick-starters such as Olympus has Fallen, Den of Thieves, and Greenland, face-to-face again with fans who have formed deep connections with the world of Berk. The film’s status was something he hadn’t quite realized previously.

“I knew people enjoyed the original, and it resonated, but I think I’m hearing it more now,” he muses. “We went to CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and when Universal showed their slate of what was upcoming, but it also went right back, and you saw things like Back to the Future and Jaws, we kind of thought, ‘Oh, my God, that’s us now.’ In 20 years, I think they’ll be showing How to Train Your Dragon up there. It feels like we made our E.T.“

Speaking of E.T., How to Train Your Dragon also has the honor of being immortalized at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. The Isle of Berk is one of the worlds at the groundbreaking new theme park, Epic Universe and Butler attended the opening event with DeBlois and some of the new film’s cast.

“The park is amazing,” he enthuses. “I think they did a fantastic job, and it was very surreal to go, ‘We made this movie, and now it’s a theme park. It felt a lot hotter than it would in Berk because it was boiling, but it also felt good to walk in my shorts and not have to dress in that six-foot-wide costume. It’s incredible. The imagination and the artistry are super fun. I think kids are going to love it.”

Encouraging fans to see How to Train Your Dragon in theaters, Butler believes that’s the only way to truly appreciate the fantastical flight of fancy. For some, it’s where they’ll fall in love with cinema, reminding the actor of an experience he had as a child that changed everything.

“The adventure movie that I saw and would have loved to have starred in was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Some movies move you, and others feel like they impact your life, and I felt that movie did that,” the actor reveals. “By the way, it’s why I’m here doing what I do, and it’s especially why I do movies like this because, for me, the idea of stepping into a fantastical story that would grab me in such a powerful way and partly feeling like I was living or performing in it is incredible. That’s why, when you make a movie like this, even though it’s fantastical, you do your best to ground it and make it as believable as possible. I love that about fantasy films. How to Train Your Dragon is a great example of that.”