Bryce Dallas Howard has claimed that Lars von Trier insulted her father and threw water in her face while filming the 2005 arthouse drama Manderlay.
Howard, the star of Jurassic World and daughter of the actor and filmmaker Ron Howard, spoke about her experience on the film in a new interview.
In the 2005 drama, a follow-up to von Trier’s experimental 2003 film Dogville, Howard played a woman who chances upon an operational slave plantation in 1930s America.
She opened up to The Times about her confrontational dynamic with von Trier, a Danish filmmaker who has been embroiled in several controversies down the years.
After arriving in Norway for the film shoot, von Trier “started insulting me,” she said.
“[He said], ‘Your father’s a terrible film-maker.’ I went, ‘Lars, what are you trying to see?’ and he said, ‘Your angry face. I don’t know what it looks like.’”
The filmmaker then “threw a glass of water in her face”, prompting Howard to throw one in his.
She recalled: “He goes, ‘Why did you do that?’ and got up and left. That was my introduction to the Lars von Trier experience, but it wasn’t like I went to my room and cried or anything. I was sort of delighted by it.”
Von Trier is known for films such as Antichrist, Dogville, and The Idiots, with many of his works attracting controversy for their violent and sexually explicit content.
In 2017, musician and actor Björk, who starred in von Trier’s 2000 film Dancer in the Dark, accused the filmmaker of sexual harassment.
Von Trier denied the accusation at the time, reiterating the denial in a subsequent interview. “You know, 90 per cent of the journalists I spoke to believe that I harassed Björk, but that’s ridiculous because I denied it, but no one wrote it,” he said.
“Because a good story is to write that I harassed her. And this is not the case. I touched her, it’s true. I did it with all my actresses. Because she was doing a really intense job: screaming, being sick…so obviously I hugged her. But if she thinks a hug is harassment, then I think I will not be able to succeed without touching my actors. I did not touch her in the wrong places, I think.”
This week, Howard also opened up about her life and career in an interview with The Independent.
