The actor Bryce Dallas Howard may be best known to cinema audiences for walloping genetically modified dinosaurs, but she began in experimental theatre, then broke through on Broadway, playing Rosalind in a production of As You Like It. It was this which alerted M Night Shyalaman to her talent – he then cast her, without an audition, as the lead in 2004’s The Village, as a blind woman who lives as part of a curious sect in a remote community.
Ambitious choices continued, with a role in Lars von Trier’s Manderlay, playing the part originated by Nicole Kidman in Dogville, as an ally to slaves in rural Alabama. Then followed a reunion with Shyalaman for Lady in the Water, and a return to her roots, playing Rosalind in Kenneth Branagh’s 2006 Shakespeare adaptation.
