Pete’s Dragon star Bryce Dallas Howard on body image, depression and fire-breathing co-stars

BRYCE Dallas Howard opens up about her mental health battles and hits back at reports she was told to lose weight for her role in Pete’s Dragon.

FOR a second-generation Hollywood actor who remembers Tom Cruise as one of her babysitters, Bryce Dallas Howard is surprisingly unscripted.

And we mean that in the nicest possible way.

Conducting this interview from the garage office of her home in Los Angeles, the 35-year-old actor suggests that her own neighbourhood bears an uncanny resemblance to the idyllic ‘70s world of her latest film, Pete’s Dragon, about an orphaned boy who survives six years in remote forest thanks to the friendship of a giant, fire-breathing beast.

Howard is the “perfect mother figure” to orphaned boy Pete in her new movie, Pete’s Dragon. Picture: Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press

“It’s the most amazing thing. On our block, there is like 24 kids. The ones across the road are the same age and gender as mine (Theodore, 9, and Beatrice, 4). It’s like the Wonder Years.”

Howard plays National Park ranger Grace Meacham in Pete’s Dragon, a live-action remake of the 1977 Disney classic which plumps for CGI-enhanced naturalism with a soft, nostalgic glow.

Sensible, outdoorsy, nurturing, she’s the perfect mother figure for a boy like Pete (Oakes Fegley).

The actor says she was nonplussed by recent media reports that she was told to lose weight for the role.

“I felt so bad when I saw that. I was like no, no they are the good guys,” she says.

“If the character is an athlete, you want the character to look like an athlete.

“If the character is someone who is struggling to lose weight, you want the character to look like someone who is struggling to lose weight.

“I am really very mindful of how my character should look and I am always working to achieve that.”

Howard perceived Meacham as a sturdy woman, strong and grounded.

“So that was her look. Then I did an episode of Black Mirror for which I gained weight.

“Now, I am getting ready for (the) Jurassic (sequel) with fitness and all that.

“But nowhere in there has there been a conversation about my weight at all. Like never.”

Howard’s inappropriate footwear, on the other hand, has been an extraordinarily hot topic of conversation.

Jurassic World, the fourth highest-grossing film ever, spawned a series of memes poking fun at her character’s high heels.

The actor is confident she’ll be equipped with a pair of flats for untitled sequel in which she is rumoured to have a larger role after director Colin Trevorrow, who takes a producer’s credit on the follow-up, coined the hashtag #NoHeels2018

Bryce Dallas Howard is Grace in Disney's Pete’s Dragon, the adventure of an orphaned boy and his best friend Elliot, who just so happens to be a dragon. Picture: Supplied

Running jokes aside, Howard is quite at home in the natural environment.

Her parents, director Ron Howard and writer Cheryl Howard, moved to a farm in Greenwich, Connecticut, when their four children were young to raise them away from the world of show business.

TV was restricted to encourage outdoor activities.

“There are definitely pop culture references that I have missed,” Howard laughs.

The actor and her husband, Seth Gabel, whom she married in 2006, take a similar tack with their own children.

“Although it’s really hard in today’s world — I mean I find it difficult to limit my own screen time!

Howard perceived Meacham, her character in Pete’s Dragon, as a sturdy woman, strong and grounded. Picture: Getty Images

“It’s a one day at a time sort of thing. Little like eating vegetables, there are essential benefits for us as a family when we limit screen time in our home universally, so we really try.”

Spending time in nature is a grounding experience for Howard, who says she is looking forward to an upcoming holiday with her extended family in Connecticut — Ron and Cheryl sold the original family home but bought another property in the same area.

“To be alone in your thoughts but then surrounded by life. It’s incredible. So peaceful.”

Howard and her family spent six months in New Zealand while filming Pete’s Dragon, spending time in a number of locations.

Most of the 750 people who inhabit the South Island town of Tapanui moved out, temporarily, to accommodate the big-budget production which also stars Robert Redford, Wes Bentley and Karl Urban.

“It felt like we were really inhabiting the area and becoming residents because we weren’t staying in hotels, we were staying in people’s homes, with all their knick-knacks,’’ enthuses Howard.

Bryce Dallas says she was nonplussed by recent media reports that she was told to lose weight for her role in Pete’s Dragon. Picture: Supplied

“Our place was a farm. It was magical.

“Driving from there we would get into these magnificent forest settings where you could actually believe there might be a dragon that dwells there.”

Howard, who suffered from post-partum depression after the birth of her son, is mindful of the need to maintain a good work/life balance.

“I don’t even know if I want to go into this, but I have had a couple of depressive periods since,” she says.

“One is always on a journey with one’s mental health. I am in a really great place (right now) and I feel very grateful for that.

While Howard doesn’t regret going public with her illness, there were times when she felt as though she might have spoken out a little prematurely.

“When I first brought up post-partum depression, I had been diagnosed, I was working through it, but it was not done, so it was really hard getting questions about what was it like.

“I was still in the thick of it and still wrestling with it and also trying to articulate it and represent it.

“When I finally got to write my thoughts down that was very therapeutic. I thought to myself, if I have something to say ever, I am probably going to try to write it down first.”

A scene from Pete’s Dragon. Picture: Supplied

Understandably, the feelings of Howard’s son, Theo, were of particular concern.

“I didn’t know if I wanted my son growing up knowing that I had experienced it even though it’s chemical and not related to him as a person at all.”

In the end, she decided that an open, honest discussion could actually deepen their relationship.

A similar impetus informs the current conversation.

“I’ve thought to myself don’t bring it up, because I don’t know if you want to talk about this again.”

In continuing to speak out, however, Howard hopes to do her bit in challenging the pervasive sense of shame that stubbornly clings to mental illness.

Pete’s Dragon opens in Australia on September 15.