Talks About Her 50/50 Role and Producing RESTLESS

In the drama The Help, set in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960′s and adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name, actress Bryce Dallas Howard plays the film’s bitchy antagonist Hilly Holbrook. A villain who believes in her own self-righteousness and who has no idea that she is doing anything wrong, Hilly has the charisma needed for other women to follow her, but is also ice-cold and viciously cruel, if you cross her. Convinced she is justified, even though she is deeply misguided, Hilly’s actions cause Aibileen (Viola Davis) to go to Skeeter (Emma Stone) to share her stories about being a maid for wealthy white families for a secret writing project that the aspiring journalist is working on. While that unlikely friendship puts them all at risk, it also changes their lives in extraordinary ways that none of them ever could have imagined.

At the film’s press day, Bryce Dallas Howard talked about how much she wanted to be a part of such a fantastic project, how daunting it was to live up to the expectations of the fans of the book, making the character into a real woman instead of a two-dimensional villain, the fun and freedom of playing a bitch, and the honor she felt in working with Sissy Spacek, Viola Davis and Allison Janney. She also talked about taking on a dramedy with 50/50, in which she plays Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s girlfriend, and the experience she had producing the Gus Van Sant film Restless, due out in September. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

Question: Was this a project that was an easy decision to sign on for?

the-help-movie-image-viola-davis-bryce-dallas-howard-01BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD: I auditioned for this. I really wanted to be in this. I hadn’t read the book. I heard about it, read the script and drove to the audition. On the way to the audition, I was talking to my mom and she asked me what I was auditioning for, and I told her it was The Help, and she had just read it in her book group and said it was extraordinary. The really eerie thing was that she was like, “What character are you gonna be auditioning for?,” and I said, “Hilly,” and without missing a beat, she said, “Oh, you’ll be perfect!” She experienced me at 15, so I understand what she’s talking about. She’s one of the only people who has seen that side of extreme rudeness. So then, after I auditioned, I thankfully heard pretty soon that I was being invited into the movie. Then, I read the book from there. So, I wanted to do it, and then after being offered it and reading the book, there was just no way that I wouldn’t have wanted to be a part of it. Even if I hadn’t read the book, there would have been no hesitancy. It was such a fantastic screenplay.

Was it daunting to take on this character and live up to the expectations of all the fans of the book?

HOWARD: When I was reading the script, and when reading the book, there’s a responsibility to create these as three-dimensional characters and not have Hilly Holbrook be some kind of Cruella DeVille, two-dimensional villain. I wanted to make her into a real woman because people were like that.

How much fun is it to play a bitch?

The-Help-movie-posterHOWARD: It’s fun to play a bitch. There’s a lot of freedom when you’re playing a character like that. You don’t need to worry about being likeable or appealing, or anything like that. I really, really, really enjoyed playing this character, and there were some tough things about her as well. It’s not like you’re playing some fantasy bad girl. She’s a genuinely evil person. It was like nothing that I had ever had the chance to do before. I’ve played a vampire (in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse), but that’s more of a mythological character.

This was the first real person that I’ve played that’s despicable. She’s a real person and there’s a psychology behind her behavior. It’s not like she’s a sociopath or anything, which I felt was scarier. She had justified her actions and she felt like she was right, but she was a really cruel individual. Of course, she was racist, but she didn’t perceive herself as being that way. Above all, what she was, was ignorant. She actually thought what she was doing was right for her children, for her future, for her way of life. She was protecting something. When that dawned on me, that was really scary. She actually thought she was right, and women like that actually believe that what they’re doing is good.

How do you make that real, in today’s context?

HOWARD: For me, because the hardest thing for me to get behind was understanding how she could possibly think this way, I created actual stories of moments in her life that became the moments that she decided, “Oh, this is the way it needs to be.” For instance, she has a cold sore, at one point, so I just created this circumstance where she kept getting cold sores and she went to a doctor and said, “Why am I getting these cold sores?,” and the doctor handed her a pamphlet and said, “Have you ever used a bathroom that was maybe used by a black person?” And, she read the pamphlet about the importance of separate bathrooms, which is where she learned that from. I created this backstory where she learned that from a doctor. Those pamphlets were handed out and people were told that kind of information. That doesn’t make her an innocent, at all, whatsoever, but for myself, I had to create those moments in her history that amounted to a person that believed that what she was doing was right.

What was it like to work with Sissy Spacek and Viola Davis?

HOWARD: This is such an obvious thing to say, but it’s an honor. It really is. The thing that’s tough for me is to get over the fact that I’m working with them because you spend a significant period of time being in awe of them. I felt the same way about Allison Janney. These are powerhouse women, and have such tremendous talent and such integrity as individuals. I felt really, really lucky to work with them. You don’t want to mess up when you’re in a scene with them, at all.

Matrixx Faces More Legal Issues

FDA sent a sixth warning letter to Matrixx Initiatives Inc. regarding marketing claims made on Zicam.com and on product packaging. This current letter address claims about two of Matrixx Initiatives’s RapidMelts Vitamin C products that position the products as unapproved new drugs.

The other five warning letters are not the only legal problems Matrixx faced in the past, as earlier this month, Charles B. Hensley, the inventor of the zinc-based Zicam cold remedy, was arrested for federal charges of illegally importing and distributing the herbal-based Vira 38 product in the United States and using claims the product could prevent and treat bird flu.

According to the current warning letter, sent to company president and CEO William J. Hemelt, on June 3, 2011, FDA is now looking at claims that the Zicam Cold Remedy RapidMelts with Vitamin C & Echinacea and Zicam Cold Remedy RapidMelts with Vitamin C help consumers “Get over your cold faster," “Reduces duration and severity of a cold," and “[R]educes severity of cold symptoms: sore throat, stuffy nose, sneezing, coughing and congestion"

FDA said the statements are in violation of sections 301(d) and 505(a) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) (21 U.S.C. §§ 331(d) and 355(a)). The RapidMelts Vitamin C products are also misbranded under section 502 of the Act (21 U.S.C. § 352).

FDA also noted packaging materials place product names in close proximity to the words “Cold Remedy." Further, website claims at issue include “Extra boost of Vitamin C in every RapidMelt,"“Extra boost of Vitamin C and Echinacea in every RapidMelt," “Reduces the duration of cold symptoms when taken at the first sign of a cold," and “Now, I always keep Zicam with me and know I’ve dodged another cold or two since. Zicam is a lot easier to take and carry than my individual zinc, Echinacea & vitamin C tablets."

 FDA said these statements about the RapidMelts Vitamin C products are intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease in violation of section 201(g)(1)(B) of the Act (21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(B)). Also, the statements say the products are intended to affect the structure or function of the body of man in violation of section 201(g)(1)(C) of the Act (21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(C)).

Although vitamin C and echinacea could be marketed separately as dietary supplements, in this case they are combined with other drug ingredients. Because drug and dietary ingredients are combined in a single dosage form, FDA said the combination becomes a “drug" under section 201(g) of the act (21 U.S.C. § 321(g)).

 Because FDA considers the products as unapproved drugs, it said Matrixx is subject to the same adverse event reporting requirements for OTC drugs (760(b)(1) of the Act (21 U.S.C. § 379aa(b)(1))), which requires a manufacturer, packer or distributor whose name appears on the label to submit serious adverse event reports (AERs) to FDA. However, FDA inspections found Matrixx did not submit certain serious adverse event reports.

Peak form arrives...

How do you now when you have reached peak form? When you then lose it, of course. Unless, that is, you are one of those riders with sufficient resources to own a power meter and, more importantly, employ someone to make sure you use it correctly, in which case you will presumably reach predicted peaks at times chosen to coincide with major riding goals. And the inevitable troughs to follow.

Me? I don't generally experience much by way of fluctuations in form, let alone what might be termed a peak in it, mainly because I couldn't be bothered with structure in my riding "program" and also because I tend to ride pretty much the same amount and at a largely unvarying pace all year round. My evening "10" times indicate as much, such rare improvements as there are these days only coming along as the weather gets warmer or I try out some spiffing new component.

Somehow, this year has been a bit different. I'm ascribing it to the week I spent with Dave "Shiny Boy" Arthur in Majorca back in March, during which I lost 2kg and regained some real enthusiasm for racing. It is fading a bit - I haven't ridden an open TT for a month and my recent C-category LVRC road race victory may well prove my only ride in a road race this year - but the hard miles I've had to ride during the last eight weeks have been enough to polish something I didn't know was there until last Thursday.

Almost exactly one year ago, Shiny Boy tucked me away in his only time trial outing of the year and, given the fact that he has shown an annual improvement since I started at RCUK while I have, er, slowed down, I sadly concluded at the time that he was now quicker and likely to get more so. His form in Majorca only served to reinforce the feeling.

So, although I'd manage to put him under pressure a few weeks ago on a recce ride of the forthcoming wiggle Magnificat cyclosportive, I was expecting little. The event was one of the Redmon CC's evening 15 mile TTs over the course of the club's famous Grand Prix des Gentlemen; lumpy in parts, fast early on along the A24 dual carriageway and hard through the lanes back from Rusper. Turns out it was one of those evenings when you can't feel the pedals.

Right from the first few pedal strokes I felt fast. Setting off one minute after Germain Burton may or may not have helped; for sure, there's no way I was going to see the lad, who is progressing at a stunning rate. But you generally know when you are going well and I finished hoping for a quick time, which I reckon is what I got. Conceding 1'20" to Germain over 15 miles ain't too shabby, after all. Nor is handing out an unexpectedly heavy beating to young DA...

But, just to prove that the ride really was done at peak form, I woke the next moring with a sore throat and cold. And when I got back on the bike, the pedals felt very heavy indeed.