Bryce Dallas Howard (born
March 2, 1981) is an American film actress, writer and director. The daughter
of director Ron Howard, she made her acting debut as an extra in her father's
film Parenthood (1989) and went on to have small roles in films and make stage
appearances for the next several years. During this time she also attended New
York University's Tisch School of the Arts, later receiving a BFA and went to
drama schools. After she came to the attention of M. Night Shyamalan, he cast
her in what would be her breakout film, the psychological thriller The Village
(2004) and then in the fantasy thriller Lady in the Water (2006). Her performance
in As You Like It (2006), directed by Kenneth Branagh based on the play of the
same name by William Shakespeare earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination. In
2006, she co-wrote and directed the short film Orchids.
Born March 2, 1981 (age 34), Los Angeles, California,
U.S.
Alma mater Tisch School of the Arts
Occupation Actress, writer, director
Years active 1989–present
Spouse(s) Seth Gabel (m. 2006)
Children 2
Parent(s) Ron Howard (father)
Early life
Conceived in Dallas, Texas –
from which her middle name is derived – Howard was born in Los Angeles,
California, the daughter of writer Cheryl Howard Crew (née Alley) and
actor-director Ron Howard, on March 2, 1981. Her paternal grandparents are
actors Rance and the late Jean Howard. Her uncle is actor Clint Howard and her
godfather is actor Henry Winkler, who co-starred on Happy Days with her father.
She and her younger sisters,
twins Jocelyn Carlyle Howard and Paige Carlyle Howard (born 1985), and their
younger brother, Reed Cross Howard (born 1987), were named after the places
they were conceived. All of the Howard children were raised away from the world
of show business. Their parents did not allow them access to television and
instead encouraged outdoor activities and hobbies. At the age of 7, however,
she was allowed to be an extra in her father's movies. In an appearance on The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno, she mentioned that she and her siblings were
babysat by family friend Tom Cruise on several occasions. She was raised in
Westchester County, New York and on a farm in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Howard attended Stagedoor
Manor, a performing arts camp in upstate New York, with actress Natalie
Portman. After graduating from high school, she studied at New York
University's (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts for three years, during which time
she also attended the Stella Adler Conservatory, The Experimental Wing, and
International Theatre Wing in Amsterdam. During her schooling, she took part in
the concept recording of the Broadway-bound musical A Tale of Two Cities. She
graduated with her BFA in Drama in 2003. Howard is also an alumna of the
Steppenwolf Theatre Company's School at Steppenwolf in Chicago, and of The
Actors Center in New York City. During her time in New York, Howard was also a
member of downtown theater company Theater Mitu, in residence at New York
Theatre Workshop, who are known for their exploration of theatrical forms. When
she had applied to drama schools she dropped her last name to avoid special
treatment because of her father. She later had second thoughts because she felt
her first and middle name combined made her sound like a porn star.
Career
1989–2006
After her film debut,
Parenthood, as an uncredited extra, Howard played an extra in her father's
critically lauded Apollo 13 (1995) and the 2000 holiday live action Universal
Studios film How the Grinch Stole Christmas. While on her father's film sets,
she would often socialize with the crew rather than the actors. For the next
several years, Howard appeared in New York plays. Among these were House and
Garden, a 2002 Alan Ayckbourn production held at the Manhattan Theatre Club, in
which she portrayed a disdainful, flirtatious teen. While performing as
Rosalind in the critically acclaimed 2003 William Shakespeare comedy production
As You Like It, Howard caught the eye of director M. Night Shyamalan. Howard
was not familiar with the play and was cast just one day before it started. She
then starred in the Alan Brown-directed 2004 drama Book of Love, about a young
woman having an affair with a lonely teenage boy, destroying her marriage. It
was generally ignored by critics and movie goers alike.
Her breakthrough role came
in Shyamalan's fantasy thriller The Village (2004). When Kirsten Dunst could
not commit to the schedule, Howard was cast without having to audition two
weeks after Shyamalan first saw her onstage. Its story is about a
"turn-of-the-20th-century" village whose residents live in fear of
the creatures inhabiting the woods beyond it. She plays the female lead, the
chief's blind daughter and love interest to Joaquin Phoenix's part. Her
performance was applauded by critics and Howard was nominated for several
awards, mostly in the category of "Best Breakthrough Performance".
The Village did well commercially, but had a mixed reception. Following that,
Howard was cast by Lars Von Trier to replace Nicole Kidman as Grace Mulligan in
Manderlay, the 2005 sequel to Dogville (2003). Set in a plantation, the
director said that it is "quite clear" his movie can be seen as an
allusion to the Iraq War. Manderlay was a box office bomb, making only $674,000
of its $14.2 million production budget.
Howard reunited with
Shyamalan for Lady in the Water, in which she acts as Story, a type of water
nymph called a narf. Howard wore minimal clothing for the part. The 2006
fantasy film release also stars Paul Giamatti as the co-lead. Shyamalan's
project follows the story of Giamatti's character rescuing what he thinks is a
young woman (Howard) from his pool. Once he discovers that she is actually a
character from a bedtime story who is trying to get back home, he teams up with
his tenants to protect her from creatures that try to keep her in their world.
It underperformed at the box office, falling short of its $75 million budget,
and got largely negative reviews from critics. When asked about what message
she hoped viewers would get from the film, Howard said "I would say it's
very simple - it's that if you have faith, all that is meant to be will
happen." Next, she once again played Rosalind in Kenneth Branagh's 2006
film version of Shakespeare's As You Like It. It played in theatres in Europe
before going directly to cable in the United States, premiering on HBO. Howard
was nominated for a Golden Globe Award at the 2008 ceremony. The project got
soundly negative reviews from the British media, while American reviewers gave
it more favorable notice. Writing in USA Today, Robert Bianco observed:
"As Rosalind, the show's leading lady, Bryce Dallas Howard is a bit
uncontrolled, particularly compared with such more precise co-stars as Alfred
Molina, David Oyelowo and Brian Blessed. But she's incredibly appealing, and
that in itself sells the love story." That year, she wrote and directed a
short film, Orchids, as part of Glamour magazine's "Reel Moments"
series funded by Cartier and FilmAid International.
2007–present
In 2007, Howard starred in
her first blockbuster, Spider-Man 3 as Peter Parker's classmate Gwen Stacy, a
fan favorite. A challenge that came with playing Gwen was reminding fans of the
good-intentioned character who was Peter's first love in the comics, yet came
off as "the other woman" in the movie. Howard dyed her naturally red
hair blonde for the role and performed many of her own stunts, unaware that she
was several months pregnant. Grossing $890 million.Terminator Salvation was her
next project. Cast in June 2008, she replaced Claire Danes as Kate Connor.
Howard was already a fan of the series. It grossed a total of $370 million, but
was not well received critically.
Howard starred as the lead
character in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond in 2009. Based on a 1957 screenplay
by Tennessee Williams, it did not play at many theaters. She played the role of
Victoria, a vampire seeking revenge, in the Twilight series' third installment
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. She landed the part after Rachelle Lefevre was
dropped due to a scheduling conflict and filming started in August 2009. Howard
had already been a huge fan of the books and considered Victoria to be an
"incredible character". Released on June 30, 2010 the film made
nearly $700 million and although reviews were mixed, Critics gave very positive
reviews for Howard in the role.
In December 2009, Howard was
cast in Clint Eastwood's Hereafter (2010), as a burgeoning love interest of
Matt Damon's character. When Howard first read the script to Hereafter, she was
hooked on it, having been attracted to its central character (Damon) – a
reclusive man with the ability to speak to the deceased. "It's personal
for me because a lot of my family members actually have that ability. It's kind
of wild," Howard said.
In early January 2011,
Howard became the first celebrity ambassador for purse designer Kate Spade. Her
first film of 2011 was The Help, a movie adaption of Kathryn Stockett's 2009
best-selling novel of the same name. She received critical acclaim for her
performance in the film, and was nominated for many Best Supporting Actress
Awards, along with winning awards shared with the rest of the cast. Howard then teamed up with her father to help
produce Gus Van Sant's Restless, a dark coming of age movie about a teenage boy
and girl who are engrossed with death. She had a supporting role opposite
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the cancer dramedy 50/50, which was based on a true
story. "It’s viewing that experience through a very truthful lens of
humour", she stated of 50/50's take on its heavy subject matter. Both
films had September releases. Also in 2011, she announced that she would be
directing a film called The Originals. She co-wrote the screenplay with her
brother-in-law Dane Charbonneau and described it as "a Breakfast Club for
my generation". This would mark her feature directorial debut.
Howard has recently finished
directorial duties for the short film When You Find Me, a social film developed
through a collaboration with Canon. The film was developed under the premise of
gathering inspiration through images selected from a photography contest. 96,362
entries were accepted, while only eight final images were selected to be
utilized for the production of the film.
Personal life
Howard became a devoted
vegan when Joaquin Phoenix, a co-star in The Village, showed her a documentary
on animal cruelty called Earthlings. However, in August 2006, Howard announced
that she had switched her diet from vegan to vegetarian in order to help boost
her amino acid levels in preparation for her pregnancy. Due to a rare medical
condition she developed after her pregnancy, she now eats meat.
During her senior year of
high school, Howard learned of and fell in love with existentialism. "I
was like, 'This is it! This is my religion.' I had never felt a connection to
any sort of spirituality before that. It was very basic - you're responsible
for the choices that you make - but it was mind-blowing at the time." Her
hobby is writing and she is good friends with Kirsten Dunst, Natalie Portman,
Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal. Howard has said that she gets
"freaked out" by "the Hollywood scene" and has never had a
sip of alcohol in her entire life. She credits seeing the negative effects of
alcoholism in her family as the reason behind the decision. "When I was in
high school, I would never go to parties because I would be embarrassed to say
no. Consequently, I had almost no social group," Howard recalled.
Marriage and family
On June 17, 2006, Howard
married actor Seth Gabel, with whom she now lives in Hollywood, California. The
two met at New York University and dated for five years. She had only one
previous boyfriend and claims to have pursued Gabel vigorously after first
meeting him. They had planned to start a family together in their 30s. However,
seven days after their wedding, she learned that she was expecting their first
child. Howard gave birth to their child, a son named Theodore Norman
Howard-Gabel, nicknamed Theo, on February 16, 2007. Theo's godfather is actor
Josh Gad. Howard openly discussed having experienced post-partum depression.
Howard had difficulty breast-feeding, which she found to be more painful than
experiencing natural child birth and would often cry in the shower. Rather than
refer to her son by his name, she would call him "it". Feeling
overwhelmed and unable to make decisions, Howard also felt not only
disconnected from her husband and baby, but herself as well. With the help of a
physician and a therapist she recovered from the depression, which lasted for
about 18 months. Howard said of the depression in 2010,
Do I wish I had never
endured post-partum depression? Absolutely. But to deny the experience is to
deny who I am. I still mourn the loss of what could have been, but I also feel
deep gratitude for those who stood by me, for the lesson that we must never be
afraid to ask for help, and for the feeling of summer that still remains.
Howard gave birth to the
couple's second child, daughter Beatrice Jean Howard-Gabel, on January 19,
2012.
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