The actress noted that director Colin Trevorrow came to her defense with, "There are lots of different kinds of women on this planet."
Bryce Dallas Howard is proud of her body and the action-packed stunts she was able to deliver in Jurassic World: Dominion. But in a new interview, the 41-year-old actress opens up about facing body scrutiny while filming the third and final film in Universal's dinosaur-based trilogy.
Asked about what her role as Claire Dearing means for female representation in action films, Howard tells Metro that she had "been asked not to use my natural body in cinema."
Clarifying, she continues, "On the third movie, it was actually because there were so many women cast, it was something that [director] Colin [Trevorrow] felt very strongly about in terms of protecting me…because the conversation came up again, 'We need to ask Bryce to lose weight.'"
She credits Trevorrow with not only being in her corner during those conversations with unnamed filmmakers, but pushing for wider representation overall.
"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,'" she says, "and I got to do so many stunts that wouldn’t have been possible if I had been dieting."
Howard says she was "thrilled" at the on-screen action she was able to perform.
"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," she says of her character.
"In this movie, there were more women than men. These are numbers and scenarios [that are] at this point uncommon still," she adds.
Howard's interview came amid promotion for the Sept. 26 release of Jurassic World: Dominion The Extended Edition, featuring never-before-seen moments and scenes within the film.
Last month, Howard made headlines when she candidly addressed the pay disparity between herself and franchise co-star Chris Pratt.
Jurassic World hit theaters in 2015, and three years later Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom debuted. The same year that the second film in the franchise was released, a report indicated that Howard was making $8 million for the project, while Pratt, her male co-star, was making $10 million.
"The reports were so interesting because I was paid so much less than the reports even said, so much less," Howard told Insider. "When I started negotiating for Jurassic [World], 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."
Howard went on to praise Pratt for how he reacted when he learned of the situation.
"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, he literally told me: 'You guys don't even have to do anything. I'm gonna do all the negotiating. We're gonna be paid the same, and you don't have to think about this, Bryce,'" Howard recalled. "I love him so much for doing that. 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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