Bryce Dallas Howard is opening up about conversations centered on her body that she says took place ahead of the Jurassic World Dominion shoot.
The actress, who plays Claire Dearing opposite Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady in Universal Pictures’ dinosaur-focused franchise, was asked by Metro in an interview published Thursday to discuss what her role and the latest film meant for female representation in Hollywood action movies. Howard responded by saying she has “been asked to not use my natural body in cinema” but that director Colin Trevorrow stepped in to support her.
“On the third movie, it was actually because there were so many women cast, it was something that Colin felt very strongly about in terms of protecting me … because the conversation came up again, ‘We need to ask Bryce to lose weight,’” she said. “He was like, ‘There are lots of different kinds of women on this planet, and there are lots of different kinds of women in our film,’ and I got to do so many stunts that wouldn’t have been possible if I had been dieting.”
Howard did not specify the roles of any individuals who were addressing her weight, but she said that she hopes other productions can learn a lesson from Dominion, which currently stands as the second highest-grossing film of 2022 at the worldwide box office after Top Gun: Maverick.
“So I’m really thrilled [at] all the action I got to do, and I got to do it with my body,” she continued. “She was at her maximum strength, and I hope it is just yet another indication of what’s possible.”
Dominion co-star DeWanda Wise, who plays pilot Kayla Watts and was also quoted in the piece, agreed with Howard about the continued scrutiny of women’s bodies. “It’s always something,” Wise told the outlet. “There was a lot of resistance to Kayla having muscle, to what it means to be a woman, look like a woman. It’s just every side, it’s relentless and impossible.”
A representative for Universal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During an Insider interview last month, Howard discussed a report that she was paid $2 million less than Pratt for the franchise’s second film, 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, with the actress claiming that the salary disparity was even wider.
“When I started negotiating for Jurassic, it was 2014, and it was a different world, and I was at a great disadvantage,” she said at the time. “And, unfortunately, you have to sign up for three movies, and so your deals are set.”