Which 'Dragon' Star Had the Misfit Teen Years: Gerard Butler or Jay Baruchel?

By Bryan Alexander Posted Mar 29th 2010 03:10PM

'How To Train Your Dragon' was the most popular kid on the box office playground this weekend. Clearly, the story of a young misfit, Hiccup, trying to find his place in rugged Viking life connected with audiences.

But which of the film's stars related to the misfit theme most? There's Gerard Butler (hunky man-slayer in '300' and woo-er of Jennifer Aniston in 'The Bounty Hunter') and Jay Baruchel (Hiccup's actual voice and the star of 'She's Out of My League').

Apparently the answer was not as obvious as it seems.

"It was easy to play Hiccup," Baruchel said at the film's press day. "Look at me."

He makes a convincing argument. Further, the actor's younger years sounded like a modern version of Hiccup's: "I spent plenty of time behind closed doors, writing or drawing or doing whatever. Just escaping into my daydreams," he said. "Hiccup is a great character for any kid who isn't playing sports in high school."

But Butler wasn't about to let Baruchel run away with the misfit crown without a fight.

"I don't think there's any teen in the world who doesn't feel awkward or the odd one out," Butler said. "We all go through the same thing."

Yet you get the feeling that no one was stealing Gerard Butler's lunch money as a kid -- or calling him whatever Scottish people call geeks.

"There's still that coming-of-age thing where you want to get the girl and you want your friends to love you," Butler said. "And you want your family to appreciate you."

Comments

(4)

Monday 29 March

By Quan C. Luu

Vote down Vote up Report this

That's great!

By Bob Sanderson

Just because you're a hunk doesn't mean you didn't have some awkward times.

By trixi534

gerard butler never has awkward times, he is always hottttt

Wednesday 31 March

By Elizabeth Sully

Its so great watching Jay grow as an actor. He used to be on a show in Canada called PMK "Popular Mechanics for Kids" with a young Elisha Cuthbert (I've also enjoyed watching her grow up) and I really believe that he's going to go a long way in his career. He definitely deserves respect.

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