Harry Trevaldwyn Enters The Myth

JS: I'm so excited to chat with you today. I watched the film and I'm one of those emotional Pisces, so I shed a few tears. 

HT: I don't know much about astrology, but apparently I'm on the cusp of a Pisces. I'm right at the end of Aquarius, so I feel your emotions. 

JS: How to Train Your Dragon is a world rich in fantasy, and it’s special to so many fans. What does this movie means to you?

HT: It means so much to me. All of us that were in it knew it and watched it growing up. It’s such a special place, and the Isle of Berk means so much for so many people. It’s a world that people care about. We had Dean [DeBlois] who directed the animated films - the fact that we had him at the helm and he trusted us to do our own interpretation, really helped get over those nerves. I think you can tell through every part of the film - from the set to the costume to the puppetry workshops that we did with the dragon - every single person wants to honor that universe. It's an expansion of it. To walk on set, you felt like you were in Berk. 

JS: You play Tuffnut - how did the role come to you, and what was it about the character that drew you to him? 

HT: To be honest, Tuffnut is unlike any character I've ever played, so it was fun. I remember going through the audition process — I had a pretty good idea of who he was and how I would play him — but it really clicked for me when I was doing a chemistry read with Bronwyn [James], who plays my twin. So much of those characters is that they exist together, and even though they're always at each other's throats, that competitiveness drives them. I remember meeting Bronwyn and doing the chemistry read, and we did some improv exercises, and that was when it really clicked. I’d be like, “I get who he is now. I understand who he is” — because I was only seeing half of him before Bronwyn came along. Then it all made sense. We looked nothing alike, and subconsciously or not, we kind of played into that during the improv exercises, thinking that we looked identical. And Dean and the casting director obviously saw that it kind of worked. When I found out I got the job, I was so excited, and I was like, “Did Bronwyn get it?” I was so happy that she did, because I feel they exist together.

JS: You felt that real connection that drove your excitement. What was the dynamic like on set each day? 

HT: It was so much fun. I think we were delirious for so much of the shoots - early mornings, long days, it was shooting in Belfast, cold. You could tell very quickly that the dynamic really worked, and we were lucky that we had a month of rehearsal in Belfast before we started shooting. We did all sorts of things together – we had meetings with Dean, we did horse riding, we did fitness, and we did stunt training. It was always so much fun when we were all together.

JS: You’ve written and performed in stories that tend to be rooted more in sharp, modern wit. How did your instinct as a creative and a writer meet this world of dragons and fantasy? 

HT: I'm obsessed with fantasy. The books that I always read are fantasy books, because I find them so escapist. There’s a reason that people find so much solace in fantasy worlds, and it's because they’re so fully realized, and you can exist however you want to exist. The way that I interacted with it was sometimes we got to do bits and bobs of improv, that line between saying what you wanted to say to make someone laugh, but also keeping it grounded in the world that you were in, and in Berk. Even though it's a fantasy world, it's so easy to stay connected to the humanity of the story, because it's got such a heart in it. It's about family, and it's about masculinity, and it's about changing your perception of the world, and I think those are such themes. It’s so interesting that often you need to be outside the real world and those themes to see the real world clearer, and How to Train Your Dragon does that really beautifully.

JS: And that’s what provoked my Pisces tears during certain parts. 

HT: Which bit was it?  There's so many tear jerky bits.

JS: A scene involving Hiccup’s dad Stoick the Vast. The look in the father's eyes, that human moment. 

HT: Yeah, it’s amazing that you can have so many human moments in such a wild world.