Jay Baruchel loves providing the voice of Hiccup and loves being a part of How to Train Your Dragon 1, 2, and the TV series. In fact, while at the 2014 WonderCon in Anaheim, CA, Baruchel explained the main reason he committed to voicing Hiccup on the television series was because he cares so much about the character that he didn’t want another actor coming in and taking on the role.
Teaming up with director Dean DeBlois, Baruchel also talked about preparing to do voice work, what we can expect from the franchise, and creating the dragons featured in the second film.
Jay Baruchel and Dean DeBlois Interview
Can you talk about moving the story forward in this sequel?
Dean DeBlois: “We very deliberately advanced the narrative by five years because we realized that coming out of the first movie Hiccup had achieved everything he wanted. He had the admiration of his father, the respect of the town, and even had the affection of Astrid, the girl that he was pining for. So, to give him a new problem we looked at most of our journeys in life and realized that there is that moment when you are kind of looking back at your childhood with longing and realizing that the future looks daunting because you have to become an adult.
In Hiccup’s case, he’s being groomed to become chief and that seems like a very dull and bad fit for him, as a future. So, it’s about him really discovering that other half of his soul that’s kind of lurking out there in the world and he expresses that by constantly mapping and going deeper into uncharted lands, and finding new dragons and finding new conflicts.”
Will there be other Night Fury dragons?
Dean DeBlois: “Toothless is a very unique dragon. Hiccup is as curious as to whether they’ll find another Night Fury out there in their travels, but it has yet to be seen whether or not that will pay off.”
What is Cate Blanchett’s involvement, and how does her character play a part in the story?
Dean DeBlois: “Part of Hiccup realizing that there’s a part of him is missing is kind of drawn out from the first movie this idea of what happened to his mother and where was she. We thought, ‘Well, wouldn’t it be interesting if she’s been missing for 20 years and in those 20 years, like Diane Fosse, she’s been living among dragons and learning their ways and discovering their secrets and becoming their fierce protector?’ And if Hiccup were to run into that person, well, of course, here’s this other side of him that’s just living this intense, interesting, dragon-centric life. No wonder he’s this dragon whisperer and this square peg. It’s really about expanding his own self-discovery.”
How do you decide what storylines are part of the films and which should be in the TV series?
Jay Baruchel: “One of the cool things about the TV show is that we get to go a bit more everyday life type of thing. We don’t have enough screen time in the movies; we have a very specific finite amount of time that things have to happen in in the movies. What the TV show gives us is the chance to put the audience in that neighborhood on that island, experiencing the minutiae of everyday life of what it is to be a Viking on Berk.”
Dean DeBlois: “The idea of doing a sequel needed to be necessary to me. I think that there were enough unanswered questions in the first movie that it did feel there was more story to be told. But my pitch was that it be a trilogy, so that it could be the middle act of a three-act story and that it will culminate in a very finite way, in much the way that Cressida Cowell’s books end – the disappearance of dragons and what happened to them, and Hiccup’s completion as his coming of age.
There’s a lot of interesting stuff there, lots to explore. The stories kind of write themselves. The moment that you leave the island of Berk and venture off into this rich world that Cressida Cowell created where there are different types of dragons with different abilities all over the place. It’s just a fun world to live in and very easy to write, actually.”
Jay, it’s rare for the star of the movie to be involved with the TV show. How did that come up and how do you think it’s worked out for you?
Jay Baruchel: “Well, for me there was no question. I didn’t want anyone else to play the role. I think part of an actor’s job is to take ownership of the character and to be defensive and protective and all that stuff. So, when there was even the first mention that Hiccup might have a life on television, it had to be me – in my opinion.
What is really cool about the TV show is that it kind of takes place in between the two movies. And so, when all is said and done and we walk away, we’ll have given the world a pretty full, complete story. Selfishly, it’s kept me in that mind space. A lot of people have been asking me what it’s like to come back to this character and come back to this world, and my answer has constantly been, ‘I never left.’ I just love that we’re creating this pretty deep, open platform, multimedia world. What it all comes down to is that I just didn’t want anyone else to play Hiccup.”
Is there anything specific that you do or are there any particular challenges in preparing for voice work?
Jay Baruchel: “How do I get ready for it? My getting ready involves waking up, taking a shower, and going in there. Sometimes I don’t even shower because I don’t have to. I don’t have to put make-up on or a costume or anything. Sometimes I give myself a cool mission and I try to not shower for two weeks, if I know I’m going to be in a room with [Dean] for a few hours. But, no, I adore it. When I started acting when I was 12, which is strangely 20 years ago, one of the first gigs I had was in dubbing shows from France into English, in Montreal. If you can do dubbing, you can do any of it. Dubbing is about as thankless and labor intensive as voice acting gets. So, this is just a dream.
I love it because I have a pretty overactive imagination; I’m a chronic daydreamer. Being in that booth that’s what’s required because there are no actual dragons in front of me, nor anywhere in the world I suspect. So, it caters to what I love to do. Also, at this point, I’ve been working with [Dean] for seven, eight years and we just have a shorthand. I much prefer to take notes from him than most people.”
Dean DeBlois: “One thing I want to say about Jay is he’s one of those actors who embodies the character so well that he’s an authority on it. I’ll write lines that are in the neighborhood, and Jay will even do one or two passes of that but then he’ll just give me a line that’s perfect because it’s in character. It’s better than I’ve written. And the ad-libs have so much more life to them, as well.”
You probably had about 10 dragons in the first movie. How many different types of dragons will we see in the new movie and what was the thought process in creating them?
Dean DeBlois: “We have a group of dragons that were designed to fill the spaces because Valka has a dragon sanctuary filled with dragons that she’s rescued. We actually came up with a modular system where we could pair different heads with different bodies and wings and tails, and come up with endless varieties that way. So, they are the background, in a sense, thousands of new dragons. But featured, there are probably about the same amount of new dragons that have hero moments that are really well-rigged and really well thought out, that are hopefully every bit as surprising as the other ones, if not more so.”
Do you ever get to work with the other voice actors and play off of each other?
Jay Baruchel: “I think on this one I was only ever in the same room as another actor once. But here’s the thing, this is a fairly international cast and a really big cast. Some of us are in Australia, some of us are in Canada, some of us are in the States, in different parts of the States. One of the cool things about it being voice acting is that that doesn’t step in the way of things. We can still find a way to create and record together. For me, it’s usually in isolation.”
Dean DeBlois: “It’s nice when we can get actors together because you can let them run the scene and step on each other’s lines and sometimes go off script, if it feels right. I think the voice acting in animation is probably the only spontaneous element. Everything else is so meticulously planned and executed, and it happens over the course of several years. So, I encourage it whenever I can, just to have actors interact or in the case of Jay, go off script if it feels right to do so. Oftentimes, that’s the material we end up using.”
Can you talk about the new characters?
Dean DeBlois: “The scope gets really big in this movie. What Hiccup discovers while he’s out mapping the world is that there’s a brewing conflict, and that conflict is being incited by a very ambitious conqueror who’s looking to build a dragon army. He’s played by Djimon Hounsou and his name is Drago Bludvist. Drago Bludvist employs dragon trappers. One of the best dragon trappers, the self-declared greatest dragon trapper of all, is Eret, Son of Eret, played by Kit Harington. He’s a guy with some misplaced loyalty.
And then the third character who I’ve made mention of is Hiccup’s long-lost mother who is played by Cate Blanchett. She’s waging a one-woman war against Drago’s ambitions by actually rescuing those dragons and whisking them back to a sanctuary where she mends them back to health.”
Jay, do you get to give much input into the story and Hiccup’s reactions after having played him for so long?
Jay Baruchel: “I’d like to think so, but I really have no idea. They might just be humoring me, you know what I’m saying? ‘Yeah, sure, go and do that,’ even though they won’t ever use it. I’ll say that I argue a lot…no, not a lot. I adore that character and I’d like to think I’m one of the people that knows him the best. Call me old-fashioned. And so that’s kind of one of the nice things is that we’ve been at this together for a while now, so it’s just a beautiful collaboration. If nothing else, they allow me to chime in.”
Dean DeBlois: “It’s absolutely true. I think Hiccup is so similar to Jay in so many ways that when Jay has an opinion about the character, about what he would say or wouldn’t say, and how he might say it, I give up the fight because that I know I may have heard it a certain way in my head, but that’s me second-guessing him. He’s the greatest authority on the character. I try to get it in the neighborhood and he takes it home.”
What’s the plan for the TV series moving forward?
Dean DeBlois: “I know that they’re preparing for a third season of the TV show, but I don’t know if it’s been greenlit yet. The idea of the third season would actually begin to set up the second movie. That’s the beauty of it. They’ve done two seasons that were intentionally not stepping on our toes, in terms of the surprises and reveals that we have. Now that the second movie will be out there, then the third season that would follow it could get a little closer to the setups of those things and hopefully create a seamless narrative.
I know that there’s been quite a lot of talk about expanding the world with different young adult novels that would explore different characters and different backstories. That’s all yet to come. I know the general idea is out there. It’s a big ambition. We want to keep developing the world and going as far as we can, but specifics I’m not that aware of.”
Dean, do you voice a character in this movie?
Dean DeBlois: “No. I do a lot of the temporary voicing. In fact, I’m the temporary voice of Hiccup until Jay comes in. It’s horrible and embarrassing and I’d never let any of you hear it. I’m not an actor. I’m very happy to hand it over to Jay.”
Jay Baruchel: “It makes my life wonderful. I look forward to it so much. His temp work is the reason I get up in the morning. [Laughing] He tries to do a little impression and everything. It’s the best!”
