The movies Bryce Dallas Howard knew were doomed from the start: “You can see it coming”
It’s an interesting premise to ponder whether actors working on a film realise that it’s going to be a huge flop while they’re making it.
If they do fail, does that feed into their performance and make the movie even worse? Do they fire off a line or two so they can go and sit in their trailer and seek refuge, rapidly texting their agent to see how much of the shoot is left, and if it’s too late to back out? Well, according to Bryce Dallas Howard, the realisation dawns on set.
Howard, daughter of blockbuster director Ron, just to get that out of the way, has plenty of critically acclaimed movies under her belt in addition to directing herself for the likes of the Disney+ Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian. But that doesn’t mean she’s immune to the odd stinker, as her 2006 fantasy film The Lady in the Water and the $200million Matthew Vaughn spy-thriller bomb Argylle proved last year.
The actor believes that the signs of a suffering movie are there for all to see during the process, as she told The Independent, “You can always see it coming while you’re making it. I’ve never been shocked when something doesn’t work. But I’m just an actor—you’re there to serve a director’s vision. If a movie doesn’t turn out the way that you envisioned, you can barely feel disappointed because it’s not yours. You’re not the person who’s building the thing.”
Fortunately, Howard’s career has generally been on an upward trajectory ever since she was cast in the M Night Shyamalan thriller, The Village, some 20 years ago. After impressing as a blind girl in that twisty spookfest, she earned a part in a Kenneth Branagh adaptation of As You Like It, which got her a Golden Globe nomination before heading into the world of comic books in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3.
She did plenty more big-budget franchise work in the likes of Terminator: Salvation and one of the Twilight films, but her real breakthrough was thanks to some stellar work in the Jurassic World trilogy, beginning in 2015 and finishing up in 2022 with Jurassic World: Dominion.
She then began her career, rather like her legendary father, behind the camera and has become a big part of Star Wars lore, having directed three episodes of The Mandalorian and one episode of The Book of Boba Fett. But her career hasn’t all been blockbusters and superheroes. She has also been acclaimed for some excellent performances in the likes of the Clint Eastwood-helmed weeper Hereafter in 2010 and 2011’s The Help, which was lauded by audiences and critics.
Howard also gets several bonus points from us for appearing in Charlie Brooker’s awesome Netflix series Black Mirror, for which she went through a physical transformation in ‘Nosedive’. She was absolutely fantastic as a social media-obsessed woman trying to fit in at an upper-class wedding while being subjected to body shaming. It rightly landed her a Screen Actors Guild award nomination.
She also got deeply involved in character work when appearing in Rocketman back in 2019, appearing as Elton John’s mother. She sat for extended periods of time with talented makeup artists to look much older than in real life—and again, her performance was roundly praised.
This year, she’s been seen in the Amazon Prime Video comedy Deep Cover alongside some British acting greats like Paddy Considine, Ian McShane and Orlando Bloom. It went down very well, with reviewers and audiences praising the writing and comedic performances, and Howard putting in a fine shift as a desperate improv comedy teacher who drags her students into a world of dangerous crime.
So, overall, Howard has had many more hits than misses. But then, she knew which ones were which when she made them.
