We all remember America Ferrera, with her braces, bushy eyebrows and dorky glasses, as Betty Suarez on the hit TV show Ugly Betty. In 2010, she lent her voice for Astrid in How to Train Your Dragon and reprised her role for the sequel
Tell us something about your character Astrid.
Astrid is a natural born leader and a winner. We come into this second film with a big competition, since dragons and the people of Berk have partnered up and are kind of living together, they play these big stadium like games of dragon racing. So we come in and immediately see Astrid kind of kicking butt and winning this game and needing to be the best, which really follows from the first film where she wanted to be the best dragon trainer there was and now she wants to win the dragon racing.
What about the Isle of BerkIJ
Since Hiccup helped the people of Berk see that dragons could be trained and could be friends with people, Berk has completely changed and now the dragons have been integrated into the everyday life of Berk and they’re their pets, but they’re also their partners in crime. In the beginning of the film it's one big happy family.
What about Astrid and Hiccup’s relationshipIJ
The second film is five years after the first film and it seems as if Hiccup and Astrid have gotten a little bit more romantically involved and comfortable with each other, and I’d say they’re boyfriend and girlfriend. They never say boyfriend and girlfriend, but I think that’s what’s going on. You know they’re both incredibly independent spirits and very independent in their own right, but very supportive of one another. Astrid is Hiccup’s number one defender and champion, but she’s her own leader in her own right.
How have the characters grownIJ
All of their looks have progressed; they’re all a little bit older, a little bit more mature. Definitely there’s a difference, you can see the difference. They’re all just a little bit more confident in themselves and their bodies and in their uniforms that they’ve chosen that are unique to them. And it’ll be really exciting to see how that progresses in the future. But for now it really feels like they’re starting to own themselves physically.
What about Astrid’s dragon StormflyIJ
We come into the second film and everybody has really, really tight relationships with their dragons. It’s not just any dragon you’re riding, it’s your dragon, and Astrid’s dragon is Stormfly. It’s her buddy, it’s her friend, it’s her partner and her confidant. They’ve put each other’s lives in each other’s hands and that relationship is true for all the characters and their dragons, as much as it is for Hiccup and Toothless.
The sequel drew a lot of hype...
The fans, both young and old, were really excited about the second movie coming out. I couldn’t have imagined how we could top that first film, but the second one…it did. It’s so beautiful and so action packed and it goes even deeper into the emotional complexities, and I think kids love that. I know the kids in my life really are drawn to good storytelling and complex storytelling and characters, albeit animated, who really feel and you really get that in Dragon, in the first one and even more in the second one.
What’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 all aboutIJ
The centerpiece of the second film is Hiccup finding his mother. He thinks that she’s been gone all these years dead and he finds her. And who she turns out to be is a lot like who Hiccup is and he starts to understand more about what his connection to dragons is and that that comes from his mother. So that connection he thought was an accident or a coincidence turns out to be something a little bit more in his blood; meant to be. We get to watch the relationship between Hiccup and his mom and it really does become a movie about a boy finding out about who he is. That’s one layer and element of it.
Will the viewers get to see new dragonsIJ
You get to see new dragons; you get to see baby dragons, which is my favorite part. You also get to see this really stunning awesome dragon, which is called the Alpha dragon, which is this majestic huge, large dragon… all the other dragons kind of obey the Alpha dragon. And we come to learn later that there’s more than one Alpha Dragon.
How was it working with director Dean DeBloisIJ
It was great to get back into the recording booth with Dean. He’s so passionate and such a wonderful storyteller. He has such love for it, and it shows. You can see that it means something to him, as it does to all of us, and that makes all the difference - when you have a leader, the creator, kind of leading the ship with a lot of passion and a lot of belief in what we’re doing.
(The film is set to premiere on Star Movies on 26th July at 1pm and 9pm)