The live-action How to Train Your Dragon almost exactly recreates many moments from the 2010 animated movie, including a nausea-inducing aspect of the beloved main characters’ first interactions. 2025’s How to Train Your Dragon stars Mason Thames as Hiccup, everybody’s favorite outcast Viking who encounters a supposedly ᴅᴇᴀᴅly Night Fury, who he discovers is not so vicious after all. Hiccup christens the dragon “Toothless” and the two form a life-changing friendship, which Hiccup soon has to explain to his crush Astrid (Nico Parker), and father Stoick (Gerard Butler, who also voices the character in the animated version).

However, first Hiccup is learning his own way around Toothless, initially bringing him a fish as a peace offering — which Toothless partially regurgitates to share, as a kind of friendly gesture. In an interview with The New York Times, Mason Thames said that the fish he shared with Toothless was fake, but that he still “almost puked“ due to his own dislike for any kind of fish. Check out his comments below:

Oh, that was disgusting. About three days before, they were like, “OK, Mason, we have a fake fish head, and we’re going to fill it with either chicken — because we know you don’t like fish — or tuna.” Chicken sounded like the right option, but I went with tuna because I thought it would get the better reaction, which it did. It was so gross. When I took that first bite, I legitimately almost puked. It took me probably about 20 seconds to fully swallow it. Dean [DeBlois] yelled “cut,” and then he goes, “Perfect. I just need you to take a bigger bite.”

What Mason Thames’ Fish Story Means For How To Train Your Dragon

Everything Is Going To Be Grimier In Live Action

In the process of translating How to Train Your Dragon into live-action, the filmmakers tweaked many of the dragon designs to make them more realistic. In a similar vein, things like the fish moment aren’t so much cartoon humor but are genuinely gross. The raw, whole fish on its own isn’t so bad, but once Toothless throws it up, some people will naturally be squeamish.

For his part, Mason Thames could have opted for the “chicken fish” to make the shooting of this scene more bearable, but decided to go with tuna because of his commitment to giving the best and most organic performance possible. So, his reaction in this scene of the new movie is somewhat authentic. It might not have been the make-or-break moment of the production, but Thames’ dedication to making it real, as it is a key moment with Toothless, is admirable.

Our Take On Mason Thames Eating Fish (Which He Hates) For How To Train Your Dragon

Hiccup Gets An A For Effort

The fact that Hiccup is willing to eat a raw fish to please a dragon in the early stages of their relationship says something about how terrified he is of a misstep at this point. I don’t think Thames needed to have suffered like this if he was confident in his ability to perform gagging, but he decided that the instinctive reaction would look better if it was real. People may find this scene in How to Train Your Dragon more amusing if they’ve heard the story — rather than complimenting Thames’ acting, they might just pity him and appreciate the effort.

Source: The New York Times