Summary

Nick Frost chats to Steve Weintraub ahead of How to Train Your Dragon.

Frost gives an update on the Harry Potter series, as well as the potential of a future re-team with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright.

Frost discusses the filming of How to Train Your Dragon and getting to work with Gerard Butler.

One third of the trio behind the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, Nick Frost, might be making headlines thanks to his casting as Hagrid in the new Harry Potter series in the works at HBO Max, but there’s another big-name project of his that is ready to arrive on our screens much sooner. Directed by Dean DeBlois, the hotly anticipated live-action How to Train Your Dragon is just around the corner, with Frost’s Gobber the Belch ready to join the likes of Mason Thames as Hiccup and Nico Parker as Astrid in a stacked line-up. In the movie, Viking communities are at war with dragons. They live in fear and animosity, but take comfort in their leader, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), and his determination to protect them against their perceived sworn enemy. However, everything changes when Stoick’s son, Hiccup, comes to the aid of a wounded Night Fury he calls Toothless. The two develop a strong bond that puts into question the ongoing conflict between the two species. Headlined by a returning Butler, who reprises his role as Stoick the Vast, a close friend of Frost’s Gobber, the latest installment in a beloved franchise is already receiving rave reviews, including a 9/10 from Collider’s Maggie Lovitt. Ahead of the film’s release, Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat with Frost to discuss all things How to Train Your Dragon, if he’ll be doing anything with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg soon, as well as getting a production update on the upcoming Harry Potter series.
Will Nick Frost Work With Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright Again?

“Him and Edgar need like six months to write a first draft.”

Image via Rogue Pictures

COLLIDER: Nice to see you in LA. NICK FROST: It’s nice. We got in yesterday evening, and it doesn’t happen often, but I got off the plane, and I was like, “It kind of feels like home every now and again.” You know what I mean? It’s like the city other than London that I know the best. It’s a nice place to spend a couple of days. You’ve been here for a while. What’s the restaurant you always go to? FROST: There’s a little Italian place on the 1, on the PCH called Don Giordano’s. It’s an Italian place. When I did Tintin with Steven Spielberg, he said that’s his favorite place. So I went, and it was amazing. I’ve got a ton of questions for you. First, let me start by saying the movie’s fantastic. It’s so good. It’s going to be a huge hit. I’m obsessed with getting more people into movie theaters. Do you have a favorite movie theater? FROST: There’s a couple. There’s one near me called The Curzon, and there’s a shopping center in a town called Kingston, where I live. It’s a really great screen. The sound’s amazing, and the chairs are really beautiful. If someone has never seen anything you’ve been in, what’s the first thing you want them watching and why? FROST: I mean, this [How to Train Your Dragon] would be amazing to see in a lovely big theater. Also, I know I did the Cornetto trilogy with Edgar [Wright] and Simon [Pegg], but I really love Paul. That’s probably the only thing that I’ve made that, if I come back from somewhere, and it’s on, I’ll always probably secretly watch it.

Image via Universal Pictures

Whenever I speak to you or Edgar or Simon, everyone at Collider always wants me to ask when you’ll be doing something together again. So, is there a possibility that in the next like two years, you might be doing something? FROST: I doubt it in the next two years. I mean, I think Simon came out to say him and Edgar need, like, six months to write a first draft, so they need to do that. Then, I mean, I just got Harry bloody Potter… I’ve never heard of it. FROST: I think it’s going to be big, I think it’ll take off. It’s apparently based on a book. [Laughs] But once I finish that, I’ll be 63. So, maybe it will be a film about old men who are friends.
Nick Frost Gives a ‘Harry Potter’ Filming Update

“I’m never going to try and be Robbie.”

Before I get into How to Train Your Dragon, I do have to touch on Harry Potter. What is it like getting ready to play a role like this that means so much to so many people? FROST: You get cast because you’re going to bring something to that. While I’m really aware of what went before me in terms of Robbie [Coltrane]’s amazing performance, I’m never going to try and be Robbie. I’m going to try and do something, not “different,” I think you have to be respectful to the subject matter, but within that, there’s scope for minutia. I always read Hagrid as he’s like a lovely, lost, violent, funny, warm child. I think the beauty of being able to do a book a season means I get to explore that a lot more, and I can’t wait. He’s funny! I want it to be funny and cheeky and scared and protective and childlike. That’s what I’m planning on doing. Do you start filming in July or August? How long is a shoot like that? FROST: 10 or 11 months a season. It’s a huge commitment. FROST: Yes. It’s amazing. But I’m just so excited to get going. I’ve gone in to do head sculpts and have your hand stand and stuff, and they say, “Oh, have a look at this.” And you’re like, “Wow. That’s the coolest thing.” I love films. I’ve loved cinema my whole life, so to be part of that universe now and that they’re showing me, like, a dancing mushroom, it’s like, “That is so cool!”

8:52

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Making ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Was Like Nothing Else in Nick Frost’s Career

“It felt like these were creatures that were in reality with us.”

Jumping into Dragon, as I said, the movie’s fantastic. What was it like for you seeing the finished film? Because this is one of those rare films where the VFX, even in the daylight, looks fantastic. FROST: Talking about Paul, I was at that thing when me and Simon went to see an assembly and a rough cut. It was only until probably a week before the film was released that we saw the finished Paul. So I’d come out, and I’d be crying, and Simon would be like, “It’s fine. It’ll be fine.” I’m like, “It looks terrible. It looks awful!” Going through that, I realized that that’s the process of making an effects-heavy movie. But this was something different in terms of, I came out, and it didn’t feel like scene effects at all. It felt like these were creatures that were in reality with us, you know? I would question Dean [DeBlois] throughout the process, “How are you going to make something which essentially was animated not look animated, even though it’s animated?” And he was like, “It will be fine,” and I’m like, “Okay.” And then it was. I fully believe that those dragons are with us. I think it’s because he did so much practically. In the movie, you don’t look like yourself. You have the hair, you’ve got the stuff on the body. How much did you want to leave set and take that for a spin in public? FROST: No, I could not wait. Someone just asked me, “What was the best bit about the film?” And for me, it was getting to take that mustache off at the end of the day. The first couple of months, I was really respectful of the mustache team, but then by about month three, as soon as they wrapped me, I just peeled that thing off. But I always kept it because I knew I only had two or three.

When you think back to the shoot, what’s the day you’ll always remember? FROST: I think there was a day when it was just me and Gerry [Gerard Butler], and there’s that scene in the Great Hall where he gives a speech and then all the Vikings file out, and it reveals me sitting on my own. Walking onto that set, that was the first time I’d gone, and you had to walk onto the set via the big doors, and it was just massive. It was like they’d built a cathedral to shoot that scene in, which was incredible. Then you get to do that thing that I love as a filmmaker, where you and Gerry, and Dean, we’d just break the scene down. What’s it about? What do we want to say? Where’s the comedy? Where should I stand? What do you need? And you put it all together, and I think that day was great. Because also, you get to watch Gerry act, too, because it’s like, if I’ve done my job right, I don’t have to think about the acting. It just kind of falls out of my face. [Laughs] But that enables me then to sit in my eyes and look at Gerry act and think, “Oh, that’s great, look at that! It’s Gerard Butler.” That was a great day. How to Train Your Dragon is now playing in theaters and IMAX.

How to Train Your Dragon

Release Date

June 13, 2025

Runtime

116 Minutes

Director

Dean DeBlois

Writers

Dean DeBlois

Franchise(s)

How to Train Your Dragon

Mason Thames

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

Nico Parker

Astrid Hofferson

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