Because the 2024 film launch schedule winds down and the slate of 2025 new films looms, it’s the right time to get hyped for what’s forward. Topping my pleasure checklist is the live-action remake of The way to Prepare Your Dragon. Gerard Butler, no stranger to difficult shoots (bear in mind his epic flip in 300?), is taking up the function of Stoick the Huge. And it feels like his newest problem is as intense as ever. With ice baths, freezing climate, and a 90-pound Viking costume, The Bounty Hunter actor and his fellow HTTYD forged didn’t simply act like Vikings—they virtually turned them.
Talking just lately with Collider, the Scotland-born actor opened up concerning the bodily toll of the manufacturing, and it feels like each little bit of it was as intense as you’d anticipate from a film about fire-breathing dragons and battle-hardened warriors. Whereas followers could think about sweeping vistas and awe-inspiring visible results as probably the most difficult elements of filming, the actor revealed simply how punishing the off-screen surroundings was, too. He revealed to the outlet:
I had a resort room that had glass proper down by my bathtub, and for some purpose, I had determined I used to be going to take ice baths each morning. So, at 5 within the morning, my [physical therapist] — as a result of I am like, ‘I am not going to place the ice within the bathtub,’ — would are available in and fill my bathtub with ice, and I’d get on this ice bathtub, however outdoors it could be darkish with wind blowing, soaking moist. You understand how freezing it was. Not less than should you’re doing an ice bathtub and also you’re in LA it is a blue sky. This was like, ‘I’m going out into that.’
That positively feels like an intense course of. However it may need labored out, as Butler appears killer within the function.
Apparently, the cruel circumstances didn’t finish there. The Regulation Abiding Citizen star described the sheer physicality required for the function, notably his weighty Viking ensemble, which is perhaps a contender for the heaviest costume in cinema historical past. He continued:
I had seven layers, thick layers, and a thick beard, after which I had a type of bearskin or wolfskin over it. It was heavy as shit. Once I had my sword and my protect and the helmet, which was heavy, and all these layers with the clasps that went round, it was 90 kilos, my costume. I used to be, in the course of the coldest day, soaking moist from sweat inside as a result of it was like a furnace in there.
As I discussed earlier, Gerard Butler isn’t any stranger to intense on-set experiences—it’s par for the course once you’ve been an motion film star for the reason that early 2000s. The Taking part in for Retains actor even just lately shared how he “burned alive” and by chance poured acid on his face whereas filming Airplane.
In a coincidence, whereas his The way to Prepare Your Dragon co-stars braved freezing temperatures, the Gamer performer’s hefty Viking costume turned him right into a strolling furnace. In fact, this got here with its personal quirks—like a always slipping beard and melting eyebrows. The Gods of Egypt star hilariously recalled:
So, I suppose I had the advantage of— I used to be hardly ever chilly whereas everyone else was. My beard’s coming off due to the sweat. You gotta stick it again down. My eyebrows have been coming off. I needed to stick it down as a result of I used to be sweating a lot.
If Butler’s onset glimpses of the The way to Prepare Your Dragon set are any indication, this live-action adaptation isn’t simply aiming to seize the adventurous spirit of the animated movies—it’s bringing the depth you’d anticipate of a fantasy epic.
Based mostly on the first The way to Prepare Your Dragon teaser alone, followers ought to anticipate a visceral, grounded tackle the story of Hiccup and Toothless, with Butler’s portrayal of Stoick including loads of gravitas and grit.
Right here’s hoping all that sweat and frostbite interprets to a film as epic because the P.S. I Love You A-lister’s behind-the-scenes tales. Followers of the Dragon franchise and Gerard Butler’s action-packed résumé received’t need to miss it when the movie roars into theaters on June 13, 2025. Whilst you wait, take into account revisiting the OG animated The way to Prepare Your Dragon, which is offered to stream with a Max subscription.