Gerard Butler Details How His Live-Action How To Train Your Dragon Costume Helped Him Deal With The Freezing Weather
Filming for How To Train Your Dragon has not been a simple process for star Gerard Butler. The upcoming How To Train Your Dragon remake is currently in development and is expected to be released in June 2025. Filming wrapped in May 2024, and the months since have been devoted to editing, CGI, and VFX work. The movie will feature an all-new cast, featuring Mason Thames as Hiccup and Nico Parker as Astrid. Butler is expected to be the only actor to reprise his role from the animated movies, as he will appear as Stoick the Vast.
Butler spoke with Collider about the production and revealed a funny but arduous anecdote. The production took place in Northern Ireland from January to May, where it often falls to below-freezing temperatures. Butler took ice baths each morning by choice and then proceeded to film. The other actors were shaking, but Butler recounted wearing such a heavy costume that “it was like a furnace in there.” Despite his ice bath, Butler was hotter than any other star. Check out his full story below:
Yes, it was very cold and kind of miserable because we went at the worst time. It was December, or really starting in January. I had a hotel room that had glass right down by my bath, and for some reason, I had decided I was going to take ice baths every morning . So, at five in the morning, my [physical therapist] — because I’m like, “I’m not going to put the ice in the bath,” — would come in and fill my bath with ice, and I would get in this ice bath, but outside it would be dark with wind blowing, soaking wet. You know how freezing it was. At least if you’re doing an ice bath, and you’re in LA it’s a blue sky. This was like, “I am going out into that.”
But I had seven layers, thick layers, and a thick beard, and then I had a kind of bearskin or wolfskin over it . It was heavy as sh-t. When I had my sword and my shield and the helmet, which was heavy, and all those layers with the clasps that went around, it was 90 pounds, my costume. I was, in the middle of the coldest day, soaking wet from sweat inside because it was like a furnace in there. So, I guess I had the benefit of… I was rarely cold while everybody else was like this. I was like, “Yeah, my beard’s coming off because of the sweat.” You gotta stick it back down. My eyebrows were coming off. I had to stick it down because I was sweating so much.
As horrible as it must have been to be sweating his beard off, Butler’s filming challenges are a good sign for the movie. After all, if the costume was thick enough to keep him warm in the frozen environment, then it is likely fairly realistic for what real Vikings might have worn. Real-world Vikings needed to rely on tunics, leathers, and buckles to ensure that they could remain warm while raiding along the water and being buffeted by winds. Butler’s costume appears to have kept him warm in similar conditions.
The live-action How To Train Your Dragon cast will need to remain faithful to the animated original, but that alone can be a severe challenge. However, Butler’s comment also provides some details about his live-action appearance as Stoick the Vast. With the mention of the thick beard, the layered clothing, and the armor, it seems that his live-action Stoick will be close to the image of the original animated version. With the first look at the live-action Hiccup already released online, it is only a matter of time before more photos of the remaining cast, including Butler, become available.
Some movies are far easier to adapt to a live-action environment. Many upcoming live-action Disney remakes, including Robin Hood, lend themselves well to a remake format with minimal need for excessive CGI. A movie about dragons, however, will inevitably run into the same VFX and budgeting issues that House of the Dragon has been facing. Producing a live-action How to Train Your Dragon was always going to be challenging for the stars, and Butler’s willingness to wear such a limiting costume is proof that they are up to the task.
Source: Collider
