Bryce Dallas Howard has a lot on her plate at the moment. She’s debuting her first feature, the Apple TV plus documentary “Dads,” before heading back to the U.K. to resume filming on “Jurassic World: Dominion,” which shut down in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“As we’re heading toward starting up again, there have been so many conversations and the actors have asked all the uncomfortable questions and we’re getting answers that actually bring us comfort,” Howard says. “And if there isn’t an answer, then they’re figuring it out.”
Howard stars opposite Chris Pratt in the third “Jurassic World” installment, with former leads Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern all set to reprise their roles from the original “Jurassic Park” movies. Variety has confirmed that filming will resume on July 6 at Pinewood Studios in the U.K., with coronavirus testing, extra cleanings and temperature checks among the new safety procedures on set.
“They’ve brought all the actors into it, the unions into it, epidemiologists, healthcare providers, people who’ve really been on the front lines and understand as much as you can about this disease and what it takes so that we can go to work safely,” she continues. “Because you don’t make movies in order to jeopardize your life, and we’re not going to.”
Bryce is also returning as a director for the second season of Disney Plus’ Star Wars series “The Mandalorian,” which completed filming before the pandemic shuttered productions globally.
“It’s so wonderful to be asked back,” Howard exclaims. “It’s been such a freaking blast. And I have to say the amount of progress that everyone has made behind the scenes, in terms of the technology and they they’re able to do from the first season to the second season is kind of mind-blowing.”
One example — Howard says that Baby Yoda (known officially as “The Child”) is even more advanced. “Legacy Effects, who did the animatronics — I’ve worked with them many, many times over the years on ‘Terminator’ and ‘Jurassic’ — and they’re just constantly improving upon that process of essentially puppeteering and that art form,” she explains. “So, with Baby first season to second season, I’m like ‘Is Baby conscious? Like has Baby experienced singularity?’”
As for what the budding director would like to get her hands on next, she says she has a few products that she’s developing, but being able to work this much all comes down to the support she receives at home from her husband and fellow actor Seth Gabel. “I couldn’t have my life without that,” Howard says. “It would’ve been remarkably different if I didn’t have a husband who was really willing to be all in with me and make some difficult choices along the way in order to facilitate that.”
For example, while Howard heads back to the “Jurassic” set, Gabel will be at home with their two children, ages 8 and 13. It’s the stigma against fathers as caregivers that Howard is directly addressing with “Dads,” which features celebrity dads (like Will Smith, Jimmy Kimmel and her own father, Ron Howard) and a group of “hero” dads (Glen “Beleaf” Henry, Thiago Quieroz, Shuichi Sakuma, Robert Selby, Rob and Reece Scheer and her brother Reed) sharing their parenting experiences.
“The cultural global assumption is that fathers are not meant to be caregivers in the same way that mothers are meant to be caregivers, and that’s just like scientifically, biologically not true at all,” Howard explains. “It puts enormous pressure on the women, and it equally completely undermines the father’s natural instincts, where he wants to take care of his child and his family and puts them in places that are just not fair at all.”
“Dads” is now streaming on Apple TV Plus.
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