TORONTO – Even before she read the novel “The Help” or landed a role in the new film adaptation, actress Bryce Dallas Howard was familiar with the issues it explores through tales told by her mother.
Like the bestselling book by Kathryn Stockett, the drama follows budding journalist Skeeter (Emma Stone) as she attempts to interview and write about the black maids who take care of the homes and children of their white bosses in 1960s Jackson, Miss.
Howard, who plays racist socialite Hilly in the film, says her mother grew up predominantly in the Deep South in the early ’60s and told her stories that were “incredibly valuable” as she prepared for the film.
“She was born in the mid-’50s, so her memories of that time, she’s pieced them together, but (they’re) of just the social dynamic of the town that she lived in,” Howard said in a recent interview.
“When she first started reading ‘The Help,’ she had to actually put it down because it was so intense for her because it was bringing back these memories. While ‘The Help’ is in so many ways a celebration of these women’s friendships and what they overcome, it’s also very truthful and very painful and it was intense for my mom to read that.
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“She said to me, when she picked up the book again … ‘I can read Stephen King before I go to bed at night, I can watch horror films. I have to read ‘The Help’ in the middle of the day because it would just kind of bring back all these little nightmares.'”
Howard – whose other film credits include “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” “The Village” and the upcoming comedy “50/50,” which is slated for the Toronto International Film Festival – is the daughter of director Ron Howard and author Cheryl Howard.
She said her mother was a bit like Skeeter in “The Help,” which hits theatres Wednesday.
“She left the south and became a writer and wrote about the south, and while of course it’s a place that’s so dear to her, she has a really hard time going back,” said Howard, 30, who’s pregnant with her second child with her actor-husband, Seth Gabel.
“She doesn’t really go back because there’s a lot of memories.”
“The Help” also stars Viola Davis as Aibileen, the first maid who confides in Skeeter. Octavia Spencer plays Minny, a headstrong maid who is Aibleen’s confidante.
Allison Janney appears as Skeeter’s ailing mother, while Sissy Spacek is mother to Hilly, who pushes for a government bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the help.
“In many regards she’s a product of her time,” Howard said of Hilly.
“I think that while she’s a person who, during any time period, would be cruel, would be oppressive, would be a control freak, would be power hungry, in this particular time, those inherent traits manifest in the prejudice that she has that is very socially accepted at that time.”
Jackson, Miss., native Tate Taylor wrote, directed and produced the film. Stockett, his childhood friend from Jackson, was on set during shooting in Greenwood, Miss.
“She’s one of the most laid-back people that I’ve ever met in my entire life,” Howard said of Stockett, whose novel came out in 2009 and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 103 weeks, six of which were in the No. 1 spot.
“I’m a little Type A and I have this really thick binder whenever I do a movie where I make a million notes and in between takes I’m checking it out. … I remember one day she was lounging on the couch … and I was walking back and forth just not realizing that anyone was noticing me and just going through some different dialect things, and she was just like: ‘Bryce, do you ever have any fun? All I see is you working!’
“I was like, ‘Kitty, it’s your movie, I want to do a good job on your movie!’ And she was like: ‘Well, of course, but I just think you should just let loose.’ She’s cool like that. She doesn’t take herself seriously at all.”
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