Mason Thames was very, very nervous. The actor, then 15 years old, had arrived in London for another round of auditions on his quest to land the lead role in Universal’s live-action adaptation of “How to Train Your Dragon,” and the pressure was mounting.
He had been a toddler when the original DreamWorks Animation film was released in 2010, and he grew up obsessing over the animated trilogy about Hiccup, a teenage Viking who befriends an injured dragon named Toothless. Now, the chance to play his childhood hero was within his grasp.
As Thames fretted between chemistry readings with potential co-stars, Nico Parker, the actress who would eventually land the role of Hiccup’s love interest, Astrid, caught a glimpse of his anxious energy.
“He was pacing back and forth, and my chest hurt from how cute he was,” Parker, who was then 18, recalled. “He was just the sweetest little angel; I can’t even put it into words.”
Thames continued to be on edge as the two actors performed a scene together for the film’s executives. But when he delivered one of his scripted comedic lines, Parker broke character and burst out laughing, causing Thames to follow suit. Her flub, Thames said, instantly put him at ease and changed the course of the session.
It wasn’t until after they’d both won the roles that he learned the truth: “She said she messed up on purpose to make me feel better because she saw how nervous I was,” Thames said. “That was the sweetest thing anybody could have ever done.” (Parker noted that she was also nervous. “I was just trying to hide it a bit more than he was.”)
For Thames, beating out more than 300 other potential Hiccups to star in the live-action “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise — the first film is now in theaters, with a sequel to follow in 2027 — is the height of a fledgling career that began as a kid dancing ballet with his sister in Dallas.
Ballet led to modeling, which led to acting auditions, which led to a small role in the Apple TV+ drama “For All Mankind” and larger roles in the Universal horror film “The Black Phone” and the Netflix high-school comedy “Incoming.” (He’ll next star in “Black Phone 2” and the Green Day-inspired “New Years Rev.”)
“If production had anything to say about it, they would have preferred casting somebody who was over 18 so they didn’t have to deal with child hours,” the “How to Train Your Dragon” director Dean DeBlois said. “But when Mason came in, there was something immediate and intuitive that came out in his performance, not just in the physicality of being 15 and being a little bit awkward and self-deprecating, but he loved the character of Hiccup so much that it didn’t require a lot of shaping.”
DeBlois, who also directed the animated “Dragon” trilogy, solicited what he deemed “completely unauthorized” input from Jay Baruchel and America Ferrera, the original Hiccup and Astrid voice actors, when choosing among the finalists for his new lead and, ultimately, Thames “rose to the top as being the most Hiccup of Hiccups.”
In a video call from Atlanta, where he was shooting the film adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel, “Regretting You,” the now 17-year-old Thames was as endearingly candid as his “Dragon” counterpart.
These are edited excerpts from our conversation.
What was your audition process like for “How to Train Your Dragon”?
I stayed up all night every single night the week before that audition, rewatching the first movie. Not that I needed to, it was embedded in me. But I was so nervous. Never in a million years did I think I would get the job — I just really wanted to meet Dean and tell him how much those movies meant to me. They flew me to L.A. to audition, and I was such an idiot. I’m pretty sure I blabbered for about 30 minutes, I was so embarrassed. After that, I went to London to do the chemistry read. When I got there, I was so jet lagged and, once again, I blabbered about planes or something. I just needed to shut my mouth. I think I blacked out.
That’s very Hiccup of you to come in with that awkwardness.
Honestly, maybe that’s what helped me get the job — being a blabbering idiot. When they told me I got the part, I was at home in Texas. I was yo-yoing back and forth, screaming at my mom. I started crying. My dad came home from work with a little dragon balloon for me. That was probably the happiest moment of my life.
This franchise has huge fan expectations around it. How did you feel going in with that weight attached?
I wanted to do Hiccup the best justice I possibly could. All the important things about Hiccup I wanted to keep: his nature of making fun of himself, his sassiness, his humor. But I also had a lot of time to talk with Dean about new things we wanted to explore: a darker side and the lingering sadness with him. His whole village doesn’t accept him. He has no friends. His dad barely accepts him. He has such a name to live up to, and all he wants to prove is that he can.
Dean has so much love for these movies, so much knowledge. This is basically his baby. Everybody who made the film was in love with the original. So this one feels like, at least to me, a love letter.
Hiccup and Toothless’s relationship is the core of this whole franchise. How did you develop that chemistry with a non-sentient scene partner?
In preproduction in London we met with a puppeteering team who took us through these drills, which were really strange at first. I had to steal a key from a tiger puppet and try not to get killed. Once I flew to [the film set in] Belfast, I worked with a giant foam Toothless head, and we would go through little sessions of trust where I would put a blindfold on and put my hand on Toothless. We’d walk around, and I would have to trust him not to run me into a wall. [The creature puppetry supervisor] Tom [Wilton] was so incredible. He was mainly my Toothless. We all wanted to call him Tomless.
There’s a great moment in the film where you give Toothless a fish, and he regurgitates it back up for you to eat. What was that “fish” really made of?
Oh, that was disgusting. About three days before, they were like, “OK, Mason, we have a fake fish head, and we’re going to fill it with either chicken — because we know you don’t like fish — or tuna.” Chicken sounded like the right option, but I went with tuna because I thought it would get the better reaction, which it did. It was so gross. When I took that first bite, I legitimately almost puked. It took me probably about 20 seconds to fully swallow it. Dean yelled “cut,” and then he goes, “Perfect. I just need you to take a bigger bite.”
You’ve now done romance, comedy, horror and fantasy films. What does your ideal career trajectory look like from here?
I’m just doing all the movies that I loved growing up. Like with “Incoming,” I loved “Superbad,” so that was me knocking that off my list. I’ve always loved “10 Things I Hate About You” and “The Notebook,” that’s “Regretting You” knocking that off. “How to Train Your Dragon” is like the biggest dream ever, so that has completed my life’s bucket list. I’m done.
What aspects of “How to Train Your Dragon 2” are you most excited to bring to life?
I’m very excited to get into Hiccup’s armor. Getting to put that armor on and have the flame sword? The kid in me is going to freak the hell out.
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