Bryce Dallas Howard is eager to complete the JURASSIC WORLD trilogy that initially seemed like a distant dream. The success of the 2015 reboot with the Disney World-style park going bananas as genetically revived dinosaurs went berserk meant Howard’s Claire Dearing had to find a new job. If FALLEN KINGDOM’s reviews have hardly matched its mightily praised predecessor, business has been good and for the actress, life is very good as Howard preps for the final installment while tending to family. That means husband, actor Seth Gabel, 11 year old Theodore and Beatrice, six. Howard was interviewed a few days before FALLEN KINGDOM opened; this is a slightly condensed version.
Q: This is a $300 million operation. Did you have any input into what Claire does in the sequel?
BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD: Tons and tons! Absolutely. It was something that was really fun because when we were shooting the first one, Chris [Pratt] and Colin [Trevorrow] and I, we would shoot the s—t. We would imagine, What if this happened? What if it became a trilogy?! But we couldn’t predict that we would get a shot at that. So knowing we were doing a second film — and this is very intentionally designed to be part of a trilogy — the conversations became obviously real. Steven Spielberg [his Amblin Entertainment produces the series alongside Universal Pictures; he helmed 1993’s JURASSIC PARK which kickstarted the franchise] really has had instincts and all along he’s empowered Colin and Joe [Bayona, the FALLEN KINGDOM director] to make these their own. But in terms of the actual storyline [which involves an illegal dinosaur auction] Steven is hugely involved. The real collaboration began when I got the shooting script. There was a nice rehearsal process and there was rewriting during that and it was super-duper collaborative. It’s cool, as an actor you’re part of it but not responsible.
Q: Claire was the defunct Jurassic World’s operation manager. Now that the dinosaurs must be evacuated from the volcanically doomed island, she is asked to return because they need her handprint to reboot the operating systems. What’s she been doing in the years in-between exactly?
BDH: She’s created the dinosaur protection group. What Chris and I talked about, there was some sort of insurance payout that happened when the park went under. He went to build a cabin in the middle of nowhere and Claire used that money to fund this dinosaur protection group. Probably before the volcano became active, she was trying to do the same exact thing: To insure there were protections for these animals. Do we need to go there and provide medical support? That’s probably why I think she met Zea the paleo-veterinarian. I think she was very hyper focused on this mission. When the volcano became active, the stakes went thru the roof.
Q: How is acting in this realistic Hawaiian environment with blue balls artfully situated for your sightline in place of the dinos?
BDH: You know what? It’s interesting because we had either one or the other. We were either in a beautiful natural environment, reacting to something that wasn’t there. Or we were in a contained studio environment reacting to brilliant animatronics which seemed totally realistic. Either way there was always this element of realism. The first JURASSIC WORLD there was only one animatronic, the Apatosaurus which was absolutely incredible. It was really sort of game-changing actually. When we were shooting it, there was concern the Apatosaurus would need to be digitally altered. Then it ended up that they didn’t need to touch it. What we shot was exactly what ultimately what was on camera. So getting more animatronics on this movie were just such fun and felt so real. Again, they didn’t enhance anything digitally. What you see is what we actually experienced. When you’re in Hawaii it’s like easy to go into JURASSIC mode because the setting is so real.
Q: You seem to be picky about what you do and two TV appearances stand-out: BLACK MIRROR and ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. What do you look for before you say Yes?
BDH: What’s interesting is most of these opportunities, they kind of show up when you’re least expecting it. BLACK MIRROR was something I had met [director] Joe Wright ten years prior and he reached out to me when there was a treatment, there wasn’t a script yet, and I said immediately I’d do it. Hmmm, perhaps I did give off the appearance of being very selective (and I certainly am) but it’s not like there are a dozen scripts and I’m like, ‘This one!’ These rarified opportunities come out of nowhere and it’s so obvious that it’s a Yes. These are the projects that excite me as well. The ones where I would be craving to watch this, those are the stories I’d definitely want to always be a part of.
Q: I read that although you’re part of a showbiz dynasty, there was no TV as a child; your parents wanted you to be outdoors and inquisitive and adventurous. What about your own children in this entirely different world? Do you restrict their access?
BDH: Oh my gosh, it’s so intense. It’s something we’re very, very aware of. We try to have boundaries around media. Even for my husband and myself as adults. And man, it’s a struggle. It’s really, really one of the most challenging parts of parenting today, navigating the relationship our children have with technology. I would definitely be considered very strict and so I think I’ve certainly inherited my parents instincts in terms of that. While we did have a TV growing up, we weren’t really allowed to watch much of it at all. The same is the case for my kids.
Q: Have they seen your movies? Have they seen THE HELP?
BDH: NO. They’ve seen PETE’S DRAGON and my son has seen JURASSIC WORLD. Other than that they haven’t seen anything else. I am showing them, when they’re about to take the plunge into social media, BLACK MIRROR which is basically this cautionary tale about social media. Before I let my children join social media when they’re older I’m going to make them sit down and watch it. It’s the perfect thing for me to show as a parent.
Q: You’ve directed shorts. Is directing in your future?
BDH: Yes! I still definitely want to act but I’m actually going to be directing full time. There’s a feature for Netflix that’s happening this year and then I’ve got a couple of other things I’m doing next year. It’s really exciting.
Q: As a director what’s been the biggest surprise?
BDH: I think how fun it is. It’s a huge responsibility, but it is so fun. I guess that’s not a surprise necessarily because I saw my dad experience it again and again. But it’s just so fun, especially when you get to do it again and again. It’s almost what I craved to be in JURASSIC WORLD and then do the second and we’ll do the third movie and work with the same people again and again. When you’re a director — I’ve done like 15 short projects now and most of them I’ve worked with same crew and producers. And it’s incredible to go thru life together. Get married and have kids and see great moments in careers. It’s just fantastic. That familial dynamic that exists when you’re a director and work with the same people again and again is the best thing ever, like a theater company.
NEW DVDs:
A Russian master influenced by Bresson, Kurosawa, Antonioni and Bergman, Andrey Zvyagintsev rates as an Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated, Cesar-winning auteur who despite working in a repressive regime that stifles criticism makes movies that matter. His two most recent films were nominated for the Best Foreign Language Picture Academy Award: 2017’s LOVELESS about a boy who disappears and 2014’s LEVIATHAN. Perhaps his most famous film, the 2003 THE RETURN which was his feature debut, won the Venice Film Festival’s top prize the Gold Lion. In 2007 his second feature THE BANISHMENT scored with critics. Both are now available in Blu-ray and Digital via Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Both films are unrated, both focus on the family. BANISHMENT is actually an adaptation of American author William Saroyan’s novel, THE LAUGHING MATTER. The mesmerizing RETURN revolves around a long absent father who arrives home and takes his two sons on a trip. The younger son, who looks perpetually miserable, resists this stranger’s demands that he be called ‘father,’ resists this miserable ‘vacation.’ It isn’t hard to look at RETURN as a metaphor for Russian dictatorial authority. The bonus has Zyvagintsev explaining his big break, how a man trained as an actor was given the chance to direct ‘in 35mm and Dolby sound!’ He also explains how exactly one year after principal photography was concluded, actor Vladimir Garin who plays the elder brother Andrei drowned on June 25, 2004, just weeks before RETURN was to premiere in Venice. He was 16. So Zvyagintsev made a film about making THE RETURN. That too is included in the bonus material.
It would seem obvious that great artists recognize that they will sometimes fail. In films, that is the opposite of accomplished, commercially successful filmmakers who never stray from the familiar. Alfred Hitchcock is now acknowledged as the most influential and revered of Hollywood’s Golden Era auteurs. For all his brilliance and mastery of cinema as an expression of a particular, personal style, Hitchcock made several what I call nearly unwatchables. These are Hitchcock films that rarely inspire a second look, movies like JAMAICA INN, THE TORN CURTAIN, THE PARADINE CASE and the newly remastered in a 4K restoration 1949 UNDER CAPRICORN (Blu-ray, Kino Lorber Classics, Unrated). Hitchcock had previously worked (very successfully) with Ingrid Bergman in 1946’s NOTORIOUS, perhaps his greatest film, and the Salvador Dali collaboration SPELLBOUND (’45). CAPRICORN co-stars Joseph Cotton who starred in SHADOW OF A DOUBT (’43), which Hitchcock called the favorite among all the films he made,. CAPRICORN is a Gothic costume melodrama with shade of Bergman’s GASLIGHT. Here Hitchcock, using Technicolor and producing for the second time (following ROPE which was a hit), had a resounding flop. In his legendary conversations with Francois Truffaut (which is heard on a bonus track), the portly Englishman said it was only because of Bergman that he got embroiled in making the movie, a psychological study that he said was neither suspenseful or a thriller. Ingrid Bergman was then the world’s biggest box-office star and for CAPRICORN which was a return to England for the English filmmaker, the thrill of arriving with such a splendid star was irresistible – and in hindsight wrong-headed. Set in 1830 Australia CAPRICORN has Bergman as a depressed alcoholic wife with a domineering maid (shades of Hitchcock’s REBECCA!). Cotton is the miserable husband and Michael Wilding, then a matinee idol, is a devoted cousin. CAPRICORN has a painterly look with long tracking shots, courtesy of legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff who won an Oscar for BLACK NARCISSUS, photographed THE RED SHOES, one of the most deliriously baroque color movies ever made, as well as projects as varied as THE AFRICAN QUEEN, THE VIKINGS and Marilyn Monroe’s THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL. In addition to the Hitchcock/Truffaut audio, there’s a bonus audio commentary by film historian Kat Elinger who valiantly tries to make a positive case for the film and, most interesting, Claude Chabrol, the late great French filmmaker of middle-class homicide, talking about the Master of Suspense.
The 1974 THE MAIDS (Blu-ray, Kino Lorber Classics, Unrated) is another invaluable gem preserved by the American Film Theater. Jean Genet’s popular, disturbing 1947 play about murderous maids continues to be re-interpreted and restaged. Isabelle Huppert and Cate Blanchett co-starred in a fairly recent stage revival. Claude Chabrol’s French language update, the 1999 LA CEREMOINIE starred Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire. The American Film Theater production, adapted and directed by Christopher Miles and photographed by the great Doug Slocombe (RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, THE GREAT GATSBY, JULIA, THE LION IN WINTER) stars Glenda Jackson, Broadway’s current Tony-winning Best Actress at 82, and Susannah York (once notorious for the film version of the lesbian stage drama THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE). The bonus: A nearly half-hour interview with Miles.
