Manderlay is far from a coming-of-age story, but it features Bryce Dallas Howard’s coming-of-age performance. Often noted as director Ron Howard’s daughter and occasionally recognized as the lead in M. Night Shyamalan‘s The Village, Howard takes a stand in Manderlay. And it’s not typically pleasant.
Howard tackles strong political issues as Grace, the film’s heroine. Manderlay is part two in Lars von Trier’s Dogville trilogy. Howard’s role was originally carried by Nicole Kidman. But don’t compare the two actresses. Howard proudly owns Grace as a completely different entity.
What about the role appealed to Howard? She says, “Her naiveté. Her ignorant determination. I didn’t get attached to that personally, but I found it fascinating.”
Though she admits, she was surprised by the character’s outcome on film: “When I saw the movie, it was completely different than what I thought Grace was going to be like. I kept saying—and this is going to sound so weird—I kept saying to my friend, ‘God. I’m so funny in this movie. She’s so quirky and funny.’ Then, I saw it and I’m crying the entire time. I have to say I’m really pleased with what he cut together. I mean, I’m really relieved that he got rid of the version I had created because it would’ve been totally inappropriate.”
The film features a strong anti-slavery message sans a clear solution. Howard defends this choice. She justifies, “This film illuminates these subject matters that audiences have to create a solution for. Lars doesn’t say, ‘This is the problem and this is the solution. Now go out and do it.’ It’s not preachy in any way. The moment you say, ‘I don’t know,’ you have humility and you listen in a different way. If you actively listen, you hear the truth. That’s what I hope people take away from it… a new way of listening to the issue that is racism.”
Given the film’s intensity, Howard recognizes Manderlay may provoke strong reactions. She reveals, “I hope audiences react to it whether or not they say, ‘It’s one of the greatest films I’ve seen,’ or ‘God I hate that film. It made me furious.’ I hope that it makes them furious if they ask themselves why.”
The film’s dialogue is almost as intense as the sex scene Howard tackled. On press day, she doesn’t seem too concerned with it; though, she admits feeling differently during shooting. She divulges, “I knew it was dangerous. There are lots of things that happen in this film that I went, ‘That’s intense.’ It’s also artistically a very fulfilling scene. This is a woman who’s extraordinarily sexually oppressed. It was an emotional scene; it wasn’t a sexual scene. That’s juicy for an actor.”
How’d it feel to disrobe on camera? “I was nervous,” she admits. “I was absolutely nervous, but I knew what I was there for. I had absolutely signed up to do it. I trusted Lars and Lars took care of me.”
Wonder how dad felt about it! Admittedly, Howard would love to work with her director father; though, nothing’s in the works just yet. Howard rationalizes, “I bring it up, but I don’t nag him about it. I want to be respectful. If I ever get an opportunity to work with him, it’s simply a director working with an actress that he wants to work with. I can’t treat it as anything more than that. I wouldn’t go up to a director I admired and harass them so I try to stay off him about it. It is hard though.”
Does she have a dream role in mind? Howard teases, “Something where there’s absolutely no sex scene and I don’t kiss any boys or say any bad words. That’s maybe the sickest thing ever.” Quite a contrast from her role in Manderlay.
Given Howard’s current leading lady status, it’s difficult to believe that not long ago she was a student at NYU double majoring in acting (with Stella Adler Conservatory) and creative writing. She dropped out of the program, but still carries a few lessons learned from her time with the school. She reveals, “Stella Adler’s technique is based on having imagination. We studied older texts. Then, I went to the experimental theatre wing at NYU. That was really helpful. Especially for Manderlay. We studied ‘Brechtian Theater,’ which was the aesthetic of this film. We were always trying to be open to different techniques and circumstances.”
Howard’s no novice anymore, but she occasionally still gets stage freight. Howard admits, “I’ll get sweaty and I’ll start to stutter a little bit. I try to shift it to excitement. I’ll say in my mind, ‘I’m not nervous. I’m actually just excited and it just seems like nerves.’ I’m always playing these weird mind games. I mean, that’s what I do for a living. I trick myself into believing things that aren’t there.”
Howard laughs as she remembers shooting her first major film, The Village. She reminisces, “My first take for The Village, they heard my heart on the monitor. The sound guy was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Now that’s not the case anymore.”
Although originally shocked to learn she was being considered for Manderlay, Howard handled it with the same grace reserved for her nerves. She describes the audition process: “He flew a few people out. The audition was three hours long. He had me do many improvisations. We went through some scenes you saw on the film and we’d take it to these totally absurd places. They all ended up being hilarious and kinda graphic. That’s what actors will do if you don’t stop them. They’ll get raunchy with the material. I went home and found out a few weeks later that I had the part.”
And Howard may play it once again, which is unexpected twist in trilogy. She explains, “He’d said he could do the trilogy with one actress or three different actresses. Since then, he’s expressed that he may want to do the third film with Nicole [Kidman] and I, but he hasn’t committed to that. He hasn’t written the script or anything.”
In the meantime, the budding actress recently wrapped production on Lady in the Water and a film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s’ As You Like It. With Manderlay as the catalyst, it looks like Bryce Dallas Howard is coming into her own as an actress on the rise.
