Bryce Dallas Howard has shared how her time on the Jurassic World franchise was less than ideal, with studio executives allegedly requesting that she lose weight for her role.
In an interview interview with Metro, Howard opened up about the sexist demand that she was expected to abide by before she began filming the franchise’s third film, Jurassic World Dominion.
The Black Mirror star alleged that her “natural body” was a topic that production studio executives wouldn’t drop for years until it was finally ended by director Colin Trevorrow, ahead of filming Dominion.
“What being in this third film allowed—how do I say this, how do I say this, how do I say this—[I’ve] been asked to not use my natural body in cinema,” Howard responded, when asked about female representation in action films.
“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 continued, “[Colin] 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.’ I got to do so many stunts that wouldn’t have been possible if I had been dieting. So I’m really thrilled [at] all the action I got to do, and I got to do it with my body, she was at her maximum strength, and I hope it is just yet another indication of what’s possible.”
In the past, the actress and director alluded to the pressures she faced to change her body for her role in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom five years ago.
“I am doing a lot of training for it because I gained 35 pounds for Black Mirror,” she told Page Six in 2017. “So I am just getting ready to be a bit more athletic.”
For context, Howard chose to gain weight for her role in the Netflix series as she played a woman struggling with an eating disorder.
News of Howard being asked to lose weight came only one month after she revealed that she’d been paid $2 million less for her role in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, compared to her male co-star Chris Pratt.
“The reports were so interesting because I was paid so much less than the reports even said, so much less,” Howard told Variety back in August.
“When I started negotiating for Jurassic, it was 2014 and it was a different world, and I was at a great disadvantage. And, unfortunately, you have to sign up for three movies and so your deals are set.”
According to Howard, Pratt had offered to negotiate the salary on her behalf when it came to extra opportunities, including theme park rides and video games.
“What I will say is that Chris and I have discussed it, and whenever there was an opportunity to move the needle on stuff that hadn’t been already negotiated, like a game or a ride,” she said.
“He literally told me, ‘You guys don’t even have to do anything,” Howard recalled, adding, “I’m gonna do all the negotiating. We’re gonna be paid the same and you don’t have to think about this, Bryce.’”
“I love him so much for doing that,” she concluded. “I really do, because I’ve been paid more for those kinds of things than I ever was for the movie.”
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