Bryce Dallas Howard: once forbidden to act professionally, a chip off the old Hollywood block finally takes to the screen. Here she is

For the record: Bryce Dallas Howard--freshly minted film actress and red-haired daughter of director Ron--has enjoyed some success of late that has little, if nothing, to do with her dad's Rolodex. After studying acting at NYU and the Stella Adler Conservatory, Howard was playing Rosalind in As You Like It at New York City's Public Theater when M. Night Shyamalan, director of blockbusters like The Sixth Sense (1999) and Signs (2002), sat in the audience with his eyebrows undoubtedly raised in a "Eureka!" moment. He soon cast Howard in his American gothic thriller The Village, in which she acts opposite fiery young turks Adrien Brady and Joaquin Phoenix and theater-forged heavies Sigourney Weaver and William Hurt. From there Howard was tapped to fill the very large shoes of one Nicole Kidman in Lars van Trier's upcoming film Manderlay, the second installment of his planned "USA" trilogy, in which she reprises Kidman's Dogville character. Fresh from her two-month-long shoot in Sweden, the 23-yearo old actress catches her breath and catches up with Shyamalan.

M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN: How is your return to civilization going?

BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD: It's really weird. I want to stay up all night and sleep all day, but it's good.

MNS: Your dad called me. He saw the trailer for The Village and was so excited.

BDH: Yeah, my mom said that he was jumping around the room and cheering "Yeah!" when he saw it.

MNS: So in this bizarre life that you're leading, you get this giant lead in a summer blockbuster, and right afterwards the lead in a giant independent movie. Is this how you expected your family to react to your success?

BDH: Totally. It's completely typical of my family: my dad having a conniption fit and my mom calming everyone down by saying, "We mustn't overreact to this. It's good as long as she did her best." [both laugh]

MNS: What's funny is that the part of Ivy [which Howard plays in The Village] required somebody who understands a certain kind of purity and who's not contemporary in their mindset, their values, or who they are as a human being. And that is who you are, and I think it's primarily because of your family. It was apparent that you were cut from a different cloth than others of your age, and even not your age.

BDH: Well, the Howard kids are all a little weird.

MNS: You need to be, or else you'd be boring! You need all those oddities--like you eating bowls and bowls of strawberries. [both laugh] So why weren't you a kid actor?

BDH: That was the one thing that would never have been allowed in my family. I was allowed to act in school plays as long as my grades were at a certain level. But professionally? No way! We weren't allowed to touch it before we were 18. And once you're 18 and you're in school, you're focusing on that. Also, I didn't know I wanted to be an actor until I was pretty old.

MNS: How old?

BDH: I don't know, 17 or 18.

MNS: It's interesting--when audition tapes are sent in for young people's roles, people will put in parentheses if the actor is the offspring of a famous person. The tape says "so-and-so's son" or "so-and-so's daughter." And so before I even see the tape, the office is buzzing with "So-and-so's daughter is on this tape."

BDH: It's difficult for second- and third-generation actors. Comparisons are going to be made, and you have to live up to someone so extraordinary. But it's okay as well. Everyone walks into a room with their own advantages and disadvantages, and it just happens to be more apparent when it's written in parentheses on the page.

MNS: It's unfair, though.

BDH: Life is not fair. [laughs] But my parents understand what I'm doing. That in itself is a huge gift. A lot of parents don't understand when their kids say that they want to be an actor, and they discourage it. But my parents didn't do that at all.

MNS: Failure and success of the nature you're experiencing are similar. They both leave you empty at the end of the day, because you've left behind the table of measurements we normally live by. And you're only left with who you are, and that's your parents' doing.

BDH: Yeah, I think they're good parents.

MNS: We should talk about The Village, but I don't know what to ask you since I know everything about The Village. [both laugh] What was your worst day on the film?

BDH: My worst day on The Village? That's an impossible question!

MNS: Wasn't there a bad day? C'mon! You didn't go back to the trailer one day and say, "God, I really stunk up that scene"?

BDH: Well, sure, but that's okay. With acting I go into a scene as prepared as I can possibly be, and then whatever happens happens.

MNS: Come on!

BDH: No, honestly! And if I make some mistakes, I'll try and figure them out so I don't make them again. Of course that process is frustrating because I'm like, "Aw, you idiot!" But it's okay, you know? You have to be okay with your work, otherwise it's not constructive or positive. But back to your question ... my worst day? Well, it did get a little cold. [laughs]