America Ferrera, from ugly to Viking bombshell

NEW YORK — America Ferrera got her break as a curvy teenager in "Real Women Have Curves" and broke into stardom as the lovely "Ugly Betty."

A few months before the hit ABC series gets to its finale, the actress says she found some of herself in the blond Viking bombshell she voices in "How to Train Your Dragon," the new DreamWorks Animation movie opening Friday.

Based on Cressida Cowell's children's book, the 3-D movie follows the adventures of Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), the scrawny, misfit son of Viking chief and master dragon-slayer Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler).

With no heart for killing these creatures, Hiccup discovers his skills as a dragon whisperer and becomes a local hero among the villagers and a rival for fierce classmate Astrid (America Ferrera), also his love interest.

"She's a fantastic actress and she has a very beautiful and powerful voice, and Astrid, the character that she plays, I think is a great role model," DreamWorks' CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said. "We wanted to have somebody who could really deliver the strength and the power of a great Viking warrior woman and she did it beautifully."

Aboard a cute Viking ship set up in the heart of Times Square on a chilly, cloudy morning, the 25-year-old Ferrera talked to The Associated Press about this new adventure and the end of the "Ugly" era.

Excerpts from the interview:

AP: It was refreshing to see you as someone so different from the actress we have seen before. How was it to play the bombshell in this movie?

FERRERA: It was really fun, you know. They had created the character Astrid before they cast me so I was just glad that they were very open minded to casting someone who didn't look like the character. ... It was nice to play something that wasn't really a version of me at all.

AP: This is not your first animated film. Can you tell us a bit about this particular experience?

FERRERA: It takes a while to get used to being in a studio and just having you and a microphone and no other actors to work off of. ... But once I did, it was freeing to just be able to play around.

AP: As different as you and Atrid are, do you find anything of her in you?