Nico Parker is turning her head away from the negativity surrounding her casting as Astrid in How to Train Your Dragon. The 20-year-old mixed-race actress has become the latest target of online trolls upset over her role as Hiccup’s (Mason Thames) love interest in the live-action adaptation. In the original, Astrid is blonde with blue eyes - so naturally, the internet had a meltdown when they saw that Parker, who has Zimbabwean heritage through her mother Thandiwe Newton, was cast. Because apparently, some people still can’t handle fictional characters stepping outside the white box.
It's not the first time we've seen casting trigger racism. When Halle Bailey stepped in to play the role of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, people went wild. Parker addressed the phenomenon with The Times, saying, “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 movie] and find something that you love about it, regardless.”
She went on to call out the people coming from a place of hate, making comments on things like her hair. "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," she continued.
In fact, it's something that can help the story, not hinder it. Director Dean DeBlois explained at a press event, "Nico Parker plays Astrid, [and] that feeds into this idea that she has come from a different culture, that she is a descendant of one of those prized dragon-fighting warriors that were collected by Vikings in different places,” he said.
Representation Matters
Parker is one of the young women of color who is allowing little girls to see themselves represented on screen, which is something she didn't have. She explained that when she was younger, “the amount of mixed-race or Black icons, people that I would look to on-screen to be like, ‘Oh, this feels like me,’ felt really minimal in comparison to what it could be for young people now, and I think that’s really special."
With grace, she said that while there's still a "long way to go" for women in general, she's ready to be a part of that change - and welcomes it. "I’d like to think that I could contribute to that change at some point," Parker continued.
How to Train Your Dragon will hit theaters on Friday, June 13.