In the past five years, Bryce Dallas Howard has amassed eight directing credits — including two projects to be released in 2024 — and three live-action acting roles.
Trending toward the other side of the camera makes sense, given her family pedigree and the fact that many actors, after years in the industry helping others achieve their vision, are driven to tell their own stories.
But as her latest film “Argylle” demonstrates, Howard, known for the “Jurassic World” trilogy, is still a force as a lead actress. As a wildly successful spy novelist suddenly thrust into a real-life espionage thriller, she nimbly carries a movie, directed by Matthew Vaughn, that boasts a cast with Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Dua Lipa, Bryan Cranston, Samuel L. Jackson, Ariana DeBose and John Cena.
“Some things that I think about a lot anyway, but especially now because of my experience with Matthew, is just being real about the standards of entertainment,” Howard said by phone from New York, where she was on a press tour. “Something that I’ve heard my dad talk about in the past is that we need to be aggressively entertaining. In terms of the hook of it, it’s got to be an idea, a set of circumstances, performances, dialogue and humanity that is wildly captivating and propulsive and continuous. That’s hard to do.”
“Argylle” (PG-13) is in theaters Friday, Feb. 2.
Her father, of course, is producer and director Ron Howard, one of the most successful Hollywood filmmakers of the past 40 years. But she says she learns from all of her directors, and Vaughn is someone she has known for nearly two decades, since she auditioned in late 2005 or early 2006 for “Stardust,” his 2007 adaptation of a Neil Gaiman fantasy novel. The role Howard auditioned for eventually went to Claire Danes.
“She blew me away,” Vaughn said in a separate video interview. “It was one of the best auditions that just stuck with me. Back then, I wasn’t in charge. The studio wanted somebody more famous. Claire was brilliant, but I never forgot how Bryce’s audition stayed with me for the right reasons.”
As a producer, Vaughn cast Howard as Elton John’s mother in “Rocketman” (2019) directed by Dexter Fletcher, then tailored Jason Fuchs’ “Argylle” script for her. Vaughn, best known for his “Kingsman” trilogy, spent years planning the film and setting up the financing independently and through Apple Studios.
“He’s fluent in ‘movie’ in every way, shape or form,” Howard said, calling the “Stardust” audition “such a positive experience.”
“I was not sent ‘Rocketman’ through my reps. I was not sent ‘Argylle’ through my reps,” Howard continued. “It was Matthew reaching out directly to me. That’s the way he works, through direct relationships.”
Vaughn says “Argylle” was hugely influenced by another novelist-turned-action-hero movie, 1984’s “Romancing the Stone” — the Kathleen Turner-Michael Douglas action comedy he saw on a date in London when he was 13.
“It was my first successful date,” he recalled. “I went there thinking, ‘Oh, well, it’s going to be really boring.’ The girl wanted to watch it. But I loved it more than her. I was like, ‘Oh, this film’s incredible!’ I sort of feel that with (‘Argylle’), that it’s the ultimate date movie.”
That was before he married supermodel Claudia Schiffer in 2002 (they have three children). Howard, who has been married to actor Seth Gabel since 2006 and has two kids of her own, says she bought into that vision — though she does a lot more fighting alongside Rockwell than Turner did with Douglas.
“One of the main reasons why I love to act is because I’m an actor who loves to be directed,” she said. “I don’t like to control the vision at all, because I know that I’m there to be a collaborator and to be a vessel for a storyteller. … It was definitely an absurd amount of fun to make, and it was a high-wire act from start to finish for Matthew. It’s such a ride. I learned a lot.”
As a filmmaker, Howard definitely likes to control the vision. She is honing her directing chops through the “Star Wars” universe, directing episodes of “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and the upcoming “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.” Also for Disney+, she has completed a feature-length documentary, “Pets.”
But, clearly, she’s not done acting yet. And if she and Vaughn have their way, there will be more “Argylle” movies, as hinted in an end credits sequence.
“Always hustling, always trying,” Howard said. “There are definitely a few things cooking.”
Reach G. Allen Johnson: ajohnson@sfchronicle.com