As the daughter of Oscar-winning director Ron Howard of “Beautiful Mind” (2001), it would have been easy for Bryce Dallas Howard to become a successful actress. Her father would no doubt have done all he could to assure his daughter’s success. Determined to make it on her own, however, Howard opted not to use her father’s influence in her rise to stardom; instead choosing to pursue acting on her own terms. For Howard, success – or failure – rested squarely on her own shoulders.
Born on March 2, 1981 to Ron and Cheryl Howard, the actress spent her youth growing up in scenic, but stodgy Connecticut. At 17, she was accepted into the drama program at the esteemed Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. In keeping with her conviction to pursue acting on her own, Howard enrolled as Bryce Dallas, dropping her famed last name to eschew special treatment. Her first play, “House Garden,” by accomplished director Alan Ayckbourn, challenged the young actress. As two plays – one “House,” the other “Garden” – performed simultaneously on adjacent stages, the actors had to move between sets in the telling of two different, yet similarly-themed stories. Though the play received mixed reviews, Howard was noted for her "shining performance."
Subsequent theater work helped Howard hone her already exceptional talents, including roles in Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” and “Tartuffe,” French dramatist Molière’s masterpiece. Howard then made her film debut in the independent drama “Book of Love” (2004), by director Alan Brown. Though never released, “Book of Love” premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Meanwhile, she returned to the stage, playing Rosalind in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” It was during this critically acclaimed performance that Howard’s career took a giant leap, as she was discovered by one of Hollywood’s most prominent directors.
On the advice of producer Scott Rudin, director M. Night Shyamalan of “Sixth Sense” (1999) fame, went to see Howard in “As You Like It” and was immediately taken by her performance. When Kirsten Dunst, who was previously attached to star in “The Village” (2004), dropped out, Shyamalan offered the unknown Howard the part. She starred alongside such Hollywood heavyweights as Joaquin Phoenix, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver in the period thriller about an isolated 19th Century village cut off from the rest of the world. Once again, Howard was lauded for her performance as Ivy Walker, a mesmerizing young blind woman with an unusual wisdom beyond her years. To bolster her Hollywood arrival, Howard was cast in Lars Von Trier’s “Manderlay” (2005), the second in the director’s trilogy “U, S and A.” As with “The Village,” Howard was cast to replace a previously attached star – in this case, she took over for Nicole Kidman, playing Grace, the part Kidman originated in "Dogville" (2004), this time discovering a Southern town living as if slavery had never been abolished.
In a short time, Howard had gone from virtual unknown to hot commodity, and entirely on her own terms. Coming off the buzz from "The Village," Howard reunited with Shyamalan for his child-like fantasy thriller, “Lady in the Water” (2006), playing a water nymph who suddenly appears in the swimming pool of an apartment building run by a superintendent (Paul Giamatti). On the run from the vicious scrunts –demon-like creatures from her secret world out to destroy her – the nymph is helped by the superintendent and the building’s motley tenants in getting back to her strange underwater world. A year later, she was poised for superstardom when she was cast as Gwen Stacy – complete with the comic book character's platinum blonde hair – in the highly anticipated sequel "Spider-Man 3" (2007). Though the character was Spider-Man's first love in the comics and died tragically at the hands of the Green Goblin, her role in the film franchise was kept tightly under wraps until it's highly publicized May release.