Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Julian Dennison on staring in the new How To Train Your Dragon movie!

Episode Date: June 22, 2025

We catch up with Kiwi actor Julian Dennison for a fun and revealing conversation about his surprising new nickname, why he thinks his brother might one day become Prime Minister, and what it was like working with the legendary puppeteers behind the pre-CGI dragons. He also shares how he got into DJing while filming his latest movie, and answers the big question—will he finally hang out with Jono and Ben?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The John O'Bannon Megan podcast. Thanks to Dilma. Goodness really does taste great. Dilma making the world a better team. Hello boys. Hey, how's it going? Hey, I'm good. How are you guys?

We're doing well. Congrats on the movie. I saw it, loved it. Although to be honest, man, I, my daughter kept looking over and she's like, are you crying? I'm like, yes, I cried quite a lot. Very emotional, but happy tears. You're an empath and I appreciate that. He was also really hungover too.

He was a little bit hungover. Oh, he went to those special cinemas that you can get drinks at. That was awesome. Your character, you're so good. Fishlegs is the name of your character though. Is that something that's stuck outside of the movie? The nickname? Yeah, actually. I think I'm a favourite uncle now and I think my name is just Uncle Fishley. Yeah, Fishley, it's not a nickname you want to stick, is it? You know, when a boy turns like five, like my nephew, their personality is either like

rocket ships, dragons or dinosaurs. He chose dragons. So I'm in the good books right now. Oh, that must be, you've hit that stage of your career Were you trying to impress the young ones and your father? Yes, exactly. Yep I've done a few kids movies now and I think I forgot how he's always going to be kids Kids are a thing For there's that kid from that dragon movie or that Christmas movie, so I

Had the jackpot with that one. Hey, now you're actually a twin. Christian's your twin brother, isn't he? Yes, he is my twin brother. He's an aspiring politician. Just in case you forgot your family mate, you've got two Hollywood. I would say he has a real job, that's how I... Yeah, he's at Auckland Uni at the moment doing law, so...

Chris Hipkins, Labour MP, said this about him. I said to the other people on the panel when he walked out, I said that guy's going to be Prime Minister one day. Prime Minister, that's what he's picking. Honestly, my brother is that kind of guy. Like if he put his mind to anything, if he was like, oh hey, I want to do this or I want to be Prime Minister, I honestly 100% believe he could be Prime Minister. So who would the family be more proud of?

To be honest, probably him, yeah. You were in a movie with dragons. Can I ask though, how the filming of it, you know, because obviously there's a lot of, you know, the dragons look amazing, but was there puppets for some of the dragons? Is that what happened? Yeah, yeah, so there was a huge team obviously doing all the CGI. I know when it was involved. Normally it's like a tennis ball, like a string or like a pole. Yeah, they just got a whole team of puppeteers to do the dragons and it was very, it was very weird. Like they had these like life-size dragon puppets. So you were there, you could kind of like, I guess like pat them and they would react how the dragons were going to

react. And then they had a cool cut and like the dude would go on like a smokeo so it was like a really interesting relationship that we kind of had. You got the dragon blowing smoke out his nose at smokeo time. Yeah yeah yeah like sitting on top of this giant robot dragon while saying my lines to like a blue screen you know, definitely your brain is kind of working on overdrive. You are acting your arse off. I'm acting my arse off. I'm out here trying to make something. I have seen you on social media too, not just acting Julian, I've seen you doing DJing.

I know. I think I'm at the arc now where my creative juices has kind of overflowed the cup of What I've been doing for the past 12 years. So yeah, it's just a hobby that I picked up I was it was I actually picked it up while shooting this we shot this out like the style of last year So, you know when you're kind of overseas and you're there and you have some time off and you need a hobby I was faced on one of my friends and they were just like hey Maybe you should just get into something else and I saw it online I said hey, why not sir? That's cool. It's been fun. You know, it's something different. You're good You're good at it. So is it a nightmare for the neighbors? It actually is a nightmare for the neighbors, but you know my neighbors have like my neighbors here and where I live

They like to celebrate anything And by a lot of people around so I just go hey I'm gonna play some music on the deck and you can drink to it Provide for the neighborhood, that's awesome. I know. So I'm just kind of community man. No, I don't want to end things on a sour note, you know, because, you know, we're so proud of you in this movie, but I was just looking at my DMs. Now during COVID times, you did a really cool idea. You had a little social media show that you were hosting, helping young people get through lockdown. And we are very honoured to appear on it.

And I was looking at my DMs and I was like, hey, thanks for having us catch up soon. This is what I said. Your reply was, yes, sir, that's us when we get out of lockdown. Now we haven't hung out since lockdown. That's been like five years. I mean, what's going on? Are you two Hollywood for us now or what's going on? Oh my God god We're available Like gonna like gonna have to meet up with your embarrassing uncle Like going to have to meet up with your embarrassing uncles. That's why I actually asked to do this over the phone and not on personal. Oh Julian, congrats mate.

We are so proud of you and all your success. There you go, another banger in the can for you, eh? Yeah, I'm trying, I'm trying, but I appreciate you guys getting me on. Also want to say how it's always cool talking to you guys and I'm not buttering up to you guys. I watched you guys growing up as a kid and through this whole journey I've been able to talk to you guys throughout it so I feel like I'm catching up with very supportive old friends. Very old old. Old old friends.

Appreciate all you guys do. Oh you too man we're so proud of you. So awesome to see you on the big screen in that movie, it was epic. So congrats man. I appreciate it. Thank you guys.