Bryce Dallas Howard lives a pretty impressive Hollywood life, sharing the screen with hungry dinosaurs and telling The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda what to do while sitting in a director’s chair. She also loves stunts, although Howard isn’t ready to become the next Tom Cruise just yet.
“I want to be able to do as much as I can without slowing down production, but my rule is that insurance has to cover it,” Howard says, adding one of his frequent, infectious laughs that deliciously spice up an interview.
In the new sci-fi action adventure “Jurassic World Dominion” (now in theaters), Howard’s character, Claire Dearing – who went from theme park manager in heels to dinosaur-saving hero in sentient shoes over the course of three “Jurassic World” films – navigates a rooftop chase, hides underwater from a gigantic beast, and parachutes out of a plane, then attacked by a deadly winged Quetzalcoatlus. For the plane stunt, director Colin Trevorrow asked if she wanted to do it for real, cruise-style, “and thank goodness insurance came to the rescue,” jokes Howard.
Exam:‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Dino Delight Is The Best Since The First ‘Jurassic Park’
In the end, Howard performed her scenes in a chair on a sound stage, but was still stoned enough that co-star Chris Pratt begged her to post the photos taken by a makeup artist on Twitter. “I’m a redhead,” says Howard, “so my bruise colors are very fluorescent and unusual, I guess.”
And in the movie industry, she’s made her mark by taking after her Oscar-winning father Ron Howard, starting out as an actor, then building a promising resume as a director. She helmed the Apple TV+ documentary “Dads” (which featured her late father and grandfather Rance) and won over hard-to-please “Star Wars” fans by directing an episode in each of the two seasons of ” The Mandalorian” from Disney+ (with another set for the upcoming third season), plus a chapter from “The Book of Boba Fett.”
When asked if making his own ‘Star Wars’ movie is a goal, Howard replies like a 41-year-old Jedi sage: “If I’ve learned anything from ‘Star Wars,’ it’s very important to practice not -attachment.” Howard says, adding that his galactic work has been “a dream come true. I pinched myself so many times, you have no idea.
‘Jurassic Park: Dominion’:Bryce Dallas Howard shows off ‘crazy’ bruises from stunts
His father is no stranger to this universe – Howard followed him when he was directing “Solo: A Star Wars Story” – and it was his time on his father’s sets as a child where an interest in the cinema first flourished. “That’s what I loved most about all the kids,” says Howard, the eldest of four children. “My parents knew that the most effective punishment for me was to say, ‘If you answer us or something like that, then you won’t be allowed to go on set. ”
This mindset carried over to her acting career. After small roles in his father’s films “Parenthood”, “Apollo 13” and “A Beautiful Mind”, Howard landed his first starring role playing a blind girl in M. Night Shyamalan’s twisty 2004 thriller “The Town”. For months before filming began, she would drive to her farm and production office in Pennsylvania and spend all day “watching the scripting process, seeing how he developed the creatures, watching the tapes flows,” Howard recalled. “That kind of follow-up vibe, I can’t get rid of. And I would never, ever want that.
‘Father’ :5 Insightful Celebrity Revelations From Bryce Dallas Howard’s Father’s Day Documentary
Since then, Howard has been “incredibly intentional”, working with directors such as Kenneth Branagh (“As You Like It”), Sam Raimi (“Spider-Man 3”) and Clint Eastwood (“Beyond”). “Each job was a master class in directing,” she says. On “Jurassic World Dominion”, she asked Trevorrow to shadow her on days she wasn’t working, but he said no. “He was like, ‘As a filmmaker, I want people to see you as my equal.’ He supports me a lot and encourages me to achieve, probably more than anyone.
Due to his experience, Trevorrow says Howard can recognize “the heartbeat of a movie” and has “a deep, fundamental understanding of the craft”.
“Jurassic World”:How the Stars of ‘Jurassic Park’ and the New Dinosaurs of ‘Dominion’ End the Trilogy in Style
But unlike his father, whose acting career spanned his childhood and early adulthood before moving into acting full-time, Howard wants to stay on both sides of the camera for as long as possible.
“One of the things my dad said he’s missed the most about acting is seeing other directors work,” says Howard, who teaches at New York University on being a multi-hyphen in the entertainment industry. “When you direct, you have your set, but you’re not really exposed to the way other people are doing it. That’s what I crave. That’s one of the main reasons I don’t I would never want to give up acting. Ever.”
Howard next co-stars alongside Henry Cavill, John Cena and Dua Lipa in Matthew Vaughn’s Apple TV+ spy film “Argylle.” And as a director, she has several “possible adventures that could happen,” including a reworking of Disney’s 1986 film “Flight of the Navigator,” currently in development.
Could she one day edit the next “Jurassic” reboot? “I would never let her direct ‘Jurassic Space’,” Trevorrow laughs. “I strongly advise against it. »
Howard, however, admits she might be up for it: “Who knows? I have to practice this non-attachment.
