NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Entertainment

Bryce Dallas Howard's own happy days

By Helen Barlow
NZ Herald·
2 Sep, 2011 05:30 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Bryce Dallas Howard wanted to act from a young age, but her parents refused. Photo / Supplied

Bryce Dallas Howard wanted to act from a young age, but her parents refused. Photo / Supplied

The daughter of movie mogul Ron Howard is rising in the Hollywood ranks, thanks largely to her portrayal as a bigoted Southern belle in The Help, writes Helen Barlow.

She's beautiful, talented and knows people in high places. Yet Bryce Dallas Howard has been a fringe dweller in Hollywood, until now.

Her performance as the Southern social queen and racist vixen Hilly Holbrook in The Help, based on Kathryn Stockett's bestseller, should make audiences stand up and take notice, she also plays Joseph Gordon-Levitt's girlfriend, Rachael, in the comedic drama, 50/50.

"Rachael is wretched! I am totally on a mean streak this year," Howard declares. She has also tested her talents behind the scenes, by producing Gus Van Sant's Restless via her father Ron's Imagine Entertainment, one of the most successful companies in Hollywood.

During our interview for 2005's Cinderella Man, her dad had explained proudly how Bryce had been keen to pursue her own more adventurous path, appearing in experimental theatre and movies like M. Night Shyamalan's The Village and his unfathomable Lady in the Water (where she was a water nymph). In Lars von Trier's Mandalay, the second of the director's USA trilogy after Dogville, she replaced Nicole Kidman in the leading role.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"When I was younger, things that maybe didn't resonate with everyone, resonated with me," the 30-year-old actress now says. "It was my form of rebellion of having a very mainstream film-maker as a father. But as I have grown older it is not necessarily that my tastes have become more mainstream, I think I have become more centred in myself."

Even if today the clearly pregnant stunning redhead radiates warmth, she explains how she had suffered a deep postnatal depression following the birth of her son, Theo, now 4.

"It was so unexpected and went on for so long, 18 months. This time around I'm not as worried about things and while I really don't want it to happen again, it's not something I can necessarily control. If it happens, hopefully I'm more prepared and I'll get help earlier."

For five years Howard has been happily married to television actor Seth Gabel, who she met at New York University and married five years later. She enjoys a lot of family support and also has that rather famous godfather, Henry Winkler, the Fonz on her father's monumental series, Happy Days. "Henry is a really active godfather," she says.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Although her upbringing might seem to have been intertwined with her dad's work, it wasn't.

"My parents never encouraged me to watch Happy Days," she notes. "In fact they really didn't let us watch much TV, so by the time I went to college I wasn't like, 'finally I can now watch Happy Days!' My mum actually showed me The Andy Griffith Show and I just bought a box set for my son. I think it is a really great show but so is Happy Days."

The eldest of four children, Bryce Dallas, like all of her siblings, was partially named after the place where she was conceived. She was dynamic in her youth. At age 11 when her parents refused to allow her to act - "they said I didn't exhibit any ability at all and I have to admit I was pretty lame" - she insisted on becoming a production assistant and began working in a production office with her own walkie talkie.

"There was nothing more fun for me than getting to be on set and be a part of that collaboration, even though I was only getting people's lunches, squeezing orange juice and performing very rudimentary tasks."

Ultimately she made her acting debut in her father's 1989 movie Parenthood, and attended New York University and drama school. She also appeared in 2007's Spider-Man 3, 2009's Terminator Salvation and as a vengeful vampire in 2010's The Twilight Saga: Eclipse - even if she is hardly recognisable from those films.

Basically when she tried to go commercial, even in Clint Eastwood's recent Hereafter, she struck out. Now The Help, a modestly budgeted ($25 million) US box office hit, is finally putting her on the map.

"I was talking to my mum on my way to the audition and she was reading The Help in her book club and was loving it. When I told her the character I was auditioning for she immediately said that I'd be perfect. I guess she knows a different side to me than anyone else. Hilly's totally the villain!" she gasps. "It's not often that a part like that comes along."

Set in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, just as the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum, The Help is funny, poignant and a little over-the-top as it focuses on two maids (Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer) and the bored society women they work for. While the Tony-award winning Davis and the plucky Spencer (a former flatmate of director Tate Taylor and whose character is not unlike herself) are already being touted for Oscars, the actresses portraying the wealthy gossip-mongering socialites also create an impression, as wives very much under the control of their husbands. Dressed impeccably like characters from Mad Men, they not only take out their frustrations on their maids but on the white trash newcomer Celia Foote, (Jessica Chastain) a Marilyn Monroe-style bride, whom they ostracise from the group.

Emma Stone's young ambitious writer, the narrator of the piece, manages to get their story out.

"I did a lot of research, watching documentaries and talking to people about their experiences during that Civil Rights period," Howard notes. "It was an experience that changed their lives forever."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The grassroots nature of the American South suits Howard's sensibility. Hardly a Hollywood brat, she was raised in rural Connecticut, far from the paparazzi's gaze.

"That was something that was important. It was for us as kids, but also for my parents. The 80s was a very intense time in the business for my dad. It was very cut-throat. I feel like it is a bit different now. It is more about collaboration than competition. I think for us to be raised on the west coast at that time didn't really work with our family's sensibility.

"We are kind of shy and introverted, like farm people."

Howard has learned a lot about dealing with showbusiness people from her father, she says. "My dad started working when he was 18 months old, he started directing at 23 and is an incredible listener. He's been in the business for over 50 years so is very inspiring."

Still she says that her husband has another opinion. "He says everything you know you learn from your mother because she just runs everything. My parents have been together since they were 16 and I don't know if my dad could function without her."

Interestingly they are both redheads and were keen to contribute to redheads' race against the evolutionary clock.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We are getting bred out. That is why my parents decided to get together. Keep it strong!" she chortles.

LOWDOWN

Who: Bryce Dallas Howard
What: The HelpWhen: Opens September 15

- TimeOut

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Entertainment

Premium
Entertainment

Why this year's Aotearoa Music Awards are a celebration like no other

28 May 09:00 PM
Entertainment

Watch: Lorde treats fans to special pop-up show

28 May 08:42 AM
Premium
Entertainment

As George Lucas’ $1b ‘Starship’ museum nears landing, he takes the controls

28 May 02:52 AM

Sponsored: Cosy up to colour all year

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Entertainment

Premium
Why this year's Aotearoa Music Awards are a celebration like no other

Why this year's Aotearoa Music Awards are a celebration like no other

28 May 09:00 PM

The 2025 Aotearoa Music Awards celebrate 60 years of Kiwi music achievements.

Watch: Lorde treats fans to special pop-up show

Watch: Lorde treats fans to special pop-up show

28 May 08:42 AM
Premium
As George Lucas’ $1b ‘Starship’ museum nears landing, he takes the controls

As George Lucas’ $1b ‘Starship’ museum nears landing, he takes the controls

28 May 02:52 AM
'I haven't got long to live': Miriam Margolyes on health struggles and fears

'I haven't got long to live': Miriam Margolyes on health struggles and fears

27 May 11:00 PM
Sponsored: Into the woods - the new biophilic design
sponsored

Sponsored: Into the woods - the new biophilic design

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP