Bryce Dallas Howard Interview

Bryce Dallas Howard, the daughter of famous director Ron Howard, knows all about the Tinseltown pressure of great expectations.

Luckily for Howard, she also grew up with her father’s lessons in how to avoid pleasing others at the expense of satisfying herself.

But even she admits to having anxious moments when she abruptly replaced Montreal actress Rachelle Lefevre in the role of Victoria for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which opened with an impressive five-day worldwide box-office total of more than $261 million US.

As far as the Twilight producers were concerned, Howard was a saviour for rushing to the Vancouver set late last summer, just a few weeks after Lefevre reported that she had a scheduling conflict.

“I was really nervous, and I still am,” said the 29-year-old at a Beverly Hills Hotel. “I don’t think I will ever feel 100 per cent comfortable about it (replacing Lefevre). I don’t know all the details, but it was an unfortunate situation.”

In fact, Howard had been offered the Twilight part of Victoria originally, but had declined. And that’s not because Howard underestimated the film impact of the Twilight series, which has sold millions of books for author Stephenie Meyer (while the movie versions of Twilight and New Moon went on to earn more than $1.1 billion).

“I was a big supporter of the books, and my friends always made fun of me,” Howard said, smiling. As a fan, the actress appreciated that Victoria has a small but pivotal part in Eclipse, the book and the film.