Throwback: Trip down memory lane
Actor Bryce Dallas Howard on growing up as director Ron Howard’s daughter
Bryce is known for her part as park boss Claire Dearing in dinosaur adventure Jurassic World, the fourth-highest grossing film of all time. PHOTO: FILE
LOS ANGELES:
She grew up around movie sets watching her father direct Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro and other Hollywood greats, yet Bryce Dallas Howard still has her moments of giddy fandom.
The 35-year-old actor recalls her somewhat undignified first meeting with Robert Redford on the set of her new film, Disney’s remake of its own 1977 classic Pete’s Dragon, directed by David Lowery.
“There was this big empty road and we were supposed to run towards each other and reunite. It’s an emotional thing,” she said. “I knew he was at the other end and I was very far away from set and David yelled ‘Action!’. We were running towards each other and I kind of picked up speed because I was so excited, and totally barrelled into him.”
Bryce said the 79-year-old Redford was still robust enough to take the hit, if somewhat taken aback at an actress coming at him “like a cannonball”.
It is a neat anecdote because it encapsulates rather well Bryce’s self-effacing charm.
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Whether she is talking about growing up in rural Connecticut, taking her children to school or filming some of history’s biggest blockbusters, she could be any mom-of-two in America.
The eldest of four children of Ron Howard, the Happy Days star turned Oscar-winning director, the actor divided her childhood between film studios and having adventures around the family home.
“I would go away into the woods behind my house all the time. One time I got lost, which was really bad. But I eventually got my way home after dark and no one in my family had noticed,” she said.
The wonder of growing up in the great outdoors is a central preoccupation of Pete’s Dragon, the story of an orphaned boy and his best friend Elliot, who happens to be a giant green fire-breathing beast.
Bryce grew up with the original movie playing on a loop, but said another reason for taking the part of forest ranger Grace was the opportunity to spend six months in New Zealand.
'Jurassic Park' was a benchmark for Hollywood: Spielberg
Bryce’s career almost literally fell into her lap when, as a 21-year-old stage perfomer, she was spotted by M. Night Shyamalan, the director of The Sixth Sense, whose standing at the time was as good as it would ever get.
A Golden Globe nomination as Rosalind in Kenneth Branagh’s As You Like It was followed by Spider-Man 3, the beginning of Bryce’s association with big studio blockbusters.
But Bryce is probably best known for her part as park boss Claire Dearing in dinosaur adventure Jurassic World, the fourth-highest grossing film of all time.
Back to the current large predator in Bryce’s life, observers have noted that Pete’s Dragon is coming out just as the Disney juggernaut has hit a bump in the road.
Alice Through The Looking Glass debuted in May to a disappointing US opening weekend of $27 million, a quarter of its predecessor’s box office, and critics have wondered aloud whether the public is beginning to tire of Disney’s production line of live-action remakes.
“I personally am not yet fatigued. There has been so much time between the films. I was ready for there to be a Cinderella, I was ready for there to be a Jungle Book,” she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2016.
She grew up around movie sets watching her father direct Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro and other Hollywood greats, yet Bryce Dallas Howard still has her moments of giddy fandom.
The 35-year-old actor recalls her somewhat undignified first meeting with Robert Redford on the set of her new film, Disney’s remake of its own 1977 classic Pete’s Dragon, directed by David Lowery.
“There was this big empty road and we were supposed to run towards each other and reunite. It’s an emotional thing,” she said. “I knew he was at the other end and I was very far away from set and David yelled ‘Action!’. We were running towards each other and I kind of picked up speed because I was so excited, and totally barrelled into him.”
Bryce said the 79-year-old Redford was still robust enough to take the hit, if somewhat taken aback at an actress coming at him “like a cannonball”.
It is a neat anecdote because it encapsulates rather well Bryce’s self-effacing charm.
‘Jurassic World’ lights up cinemas in Ramazan
Whether she is talking about growing up in rural Connecticut, taking her children to school or filming some of history’s biggest blockbusters, she could be any mom-of-two in America.
The eldest of four children of Ron Howard, the Happy Days star turned Oscar-winning director, the actor divided her childhood between film studios and having adventures around the family home.
“I would go away into the woods behind my house all the time. One time I got lost, which was really bad. But I eventually got my way home after dark and no one in my family had noticed,” she said.
The wonder of growing up in the great outdoors is a central preoccupation of Pete’s Dragon, the story of an orphaned boy and his best friend Elliot, who happens to be a giant green fire-breathing beast.
Bryce grew up with the original movie playing on a loop, but said another reason for taking the part of forest ranger Grace was the opportunity to spend six months in New Zealand.
'Jurassic Park' was a benchmark for Hollywood: Spielberg
Bryce’s career almost literally fell into her lap when, as a 21-year-old stage perfomer, she was spotted by M. Night Shyamalan, the director of The Sixth Sense, whose standing at the time was as good as it would ever get.
A Golden Globe nomination as Rosalind in Kenneth Branagh’s As You Like It was followed by Spider-Man 3, the beginning of Bryce’s association with big studio blockbusters.
But Bryce is probably best known for her part as park boss Claire Dearing in dinosaur adventure Jurassic World, the fourth-highest grossing film of all time.
Back to the current large predator in Bryce’s life, observers have noted that Pete’s Dragon is coming out just as the Disney juggernaut has hit a bump in the road.
Alice Through The Looking Glass debuted in May to a disappointing US opening weekend of $27 million, a quarter of its predecessor’s box office, and critics have wondered aloud whether the public is beginning to tire of Disney’s production line of live-action remakes.
“I personally am not yet fatigued. There has been so much time between the films. I was ready for there to be a Cinderella, I was ready for there to be a Jungle Book,” she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2016.