Bryce Dallas Howard reveals that she was asked to lose weight for the filming of Jurassic World Dominion. Released earlier this summer, Jurassic World Dominion acts as the conclusion to the Jurassic Saga. After first being introduced in Jurassic World, a soft reboot of the beloved Jurassic Park franchise, lead characters Claire (Howard) and Owen (Chris Pratt) share the screen this time around with original franchise stars Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, and Laura Dern. Directed by Colin Trevorrow, Jurassic World Dominion earned mostly negative reviews from critics but performed well at the box office, having now earned over $997 million worldwide.
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After being introduced as the park operations manager in the first Jurassic World, Claire becomes a staunch dinosaur advocate in the subsequent sequels. Jurassic World Dominion sees Claire and Owen, now a couple, raising clone Maisie (Isabella Sermon) in secret. When Maisie and a baby velociraptor are kidnapped, Claire and Owen embark on a globe-trotting adventure to rescue them, with both characters engaging in an array of exciting stunts. Although it's unclear what the future holds for the franchise, Howard previously made clear that whatever comes next after Jurassic World Dominion will feature a new cast, with the most recent film most likely marking the end of her journey as Claire.
Now, in a recent interview with Metro, Howard reveals that she was asked to lose weight for her last turn as Claire in Jurassic World Dominion. The actor explains that Trevorrow, the director, protected her from the requests, expressing strongly that the film features various women with various body types, which is a reflection of the real world. Howard goes on to say that being allowed to keep her natural body enabled her to participate more in shooting the film's exciting stunt sequences, which wouldn't have been possible otherwise. Check out Howard's full comment below:
“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. 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.’
“[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.
“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 addition to her reveal that she was asked to lose weight, Howard has previously gone on record about her salary for Jurassic World Dominion and the discrepancy between what she was paid and the larger sum that Pratt was paid, despite their characters playing equal roles in the story. Howard's recent comment is more proof that female actors face very different standards than their male counterparts, which has unfortunately been the case in Hollywood for decades. Although Howard seems to have generally enjoyed her time on the franchise and has previously expressed sadness at saying farewell to the Jurassic World films, it's clear that the role wasn't always easy.
In her interview, Howard also alludes to the fact that this isn't the first time she's been asked to lose weight for a role. The actor doesn't mention whether similar requests were made for the previous Jurassic World films or if this is something she's also dealt with on other projects, but she's clearly thankful that Trevorrow was in her corner. Although Jurassic World Dominion may have fallen short for many audiences, much of the stunt work was very impressive. Howard is evidently proud that she was able to participate in such cool action sequences with her own natural body instead of trying to achieve unrealistic beauty standards dictated by an executive.