We had a chance to catch up with Bryce Dallas Howard and talk to her about playing Gwen Stacy in Spiderman 3. She most recently starred in the M. Night Shyamalan film Lady in the Water opposite Paul Giamatti, followed by Kenneth Branagh’s forthcoming adaptation of the Shakespeare classic “As You Like It” for HBO Films, in which she stars as Rosalind opposite Kevin Kline and Alfred Molina. Prior to that, she appeared opposite Willem Dafoe and Danny Glover in the Lars von Trier film Manderlay, the filmmaker’s follow-up to Dogville. Manderlay premiered at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
Howard made her feature film debut starring in the M. Night Shyamalan film The Village opposite Adrien Brody, Joaquin Phoenix, and Sigourney Weaver. After leaving the Tisch School of the Arts program at New York University, Howard immediately began working on the New York stage. Her stage work includes the role of Marianne in the Roundabout’s Broadway production of “Tartuffe;” Rosalind in the Public Theatre’s “As You Like It;” Sally Platt in the Manhattan Theater Club’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s “House/Garden;” and as Emily in the Bay Street Theater Festival production of “Our Town.”. Here is what she had to say:
Q: You looked great as a blonde.
Bryce: Oh, thank you. They worked very hard in the make-up trailer.
Q: Do blondes have more fun?
Bryce: Is blonde more fun? I don’t know. I was only a blonde for six months and the entire time I was working, but I had a great time working.
Q: You had to read the comic books and take the character from the pages. How hard is that with a comic book character?
Bryce: Not difficult because, primarily, this character was created in the late ‘60’s, early ‘70’s so there’s been so much analysis done since and so many, almost like thesis papers written about her, so I wasn’t only reading the comic books. I was also reading what everyone thought about her and their beliefs about her. So, I got to have a lot of information from that; their interpretations of her. What was a little tricky to navigate was, in the comic book, what she’s known as is Peter Parker’s first love and, in this franchise, she’s coming in while Peter Parker in still in a very intense, important relationship with Mary Jane. So, I wanted to make sure that, when I came in, I wasn’t acting like some kind of man-stealing tart [laughs]. I was a woman that really, potentially could have that kind of future relationship with Peter Parker. Who knows what will ultimately happen? But, that was the kind of tone that I wanted to create.
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