“I Just Don’t Care”: ‘How to Train Your Dragon’s Nico Parker Responds to Backlash Over Her Casting

The live-action How to Train Your Dragon arrives in theaters everywhere this weekend, and one of the stars from the film has responded to backlash over her casting. Nico Parker, previously known for playing Sarah Miller in The Last of Us Season 1, was cast to play Astrid in How to Train Your Dragon. She takes over the role from America Ferrara, who voiced the character in previous films. In the animated movie, Astrid is a young white girl with blonde hair, and Parker is from parents of mixed descent — her father is white and her mother is mixed. Fans have unfairly lashed out against her casting for not being a one-for-one lookalike of her animated counterpart, and during a recent interview with The Times, she responded to those who have a problem with her casting:

“There’s some people that really love the animated movies and really want to see an exact play-by-play of that film, and I hope that you can watch [the new version] and find something that you love about it, regardless. But for the people that just hate inclusivity, hate change — when it comes to that side of things,I just don’t care. If I wouldn’t value your opinion on most things in life, I can’t value your opinion on my hair. If I did, I would go mad.”

Parker is joined by Mason Thames as Hiccup, who takes over the role from Jay Baruchel, who voiced the character in the animated films. Back to reprise his role from animation is Gerard Butler as Stoick. Butler recently spoke out about his initial qualms about the live-action version when he was informed of its existence, simply saying, “That’s going to be terrible.” It took some convincing from director Dean DeBlois, who invited Butler to the set to show him what the team was working on, and he quickly signed on to do the project. Early reviews for How to Train Your Dragon arrived yesterday, and the film has earned a strong 82% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes from 60 reviews, which still makes it the lowest-rated film in the franchise to date.

Source: The Times