‘I Always Approached Storytelling Through More Of A Director’s Lens’

“I’m always asking people ‘So, do you have any pet?’ It’s one of the most fun ways to get to know a person, it’s through their pets or by being introduced to their pets, because you’re like ‘I see who you are,’” actor and director Bryce Dallas Howard told me in an interview.

Pets, her new documentary about our relationship to our fur babies, is now streaming on Disney+ and if you are in need of a heartwarming, touching and funny watch, Pets is what you’re looking for.

Some things in life can make you cry instantly and watching a compilation of viral videos of parents surprising their kids with a puppy or a cat is one of them. Howard knows it, and that’s exactly how she decided to open Pets, which is not your regular, scientifically explained documentary. Pets is the incredibly charming result of kids explaining in front of a camera what their pets mean to them, but it’s also stories from all over the world and people sharing their new lives as dog parents or explaining the importance of a raptor’s sanctuary.

When talking about the emotional response we can have regarding our pets or even the way we talk to them, Howard said, “I was always very good about not using the baby voice with my kids, but with my pets, I’m out of control, it’s really obnoxious, it comes from a different place in my body.”

I asked Howard how she had pitched Pets in the first place, and particularly how she explained it to the young kids being interviewed. She said, “Oh gosh I actually have an answer to that and it’s gonna make everybody in the world cringe, but I’ll tell you. So in general, I love watching things with talking heads, with people who are experts. But for me, as a storyteller, I’m really interested in feelings and in revealing human behavior we can relate to, instead of being like ‘Oh that’s an interesting fact.’”

She added: “I’ve been directing short documentaries for 15 years maybe, and I’ve always done this thing like it has to be in full size, and I’m asking them questions about things that may not even be relevant because it’s just sharing their humanity. So when I was first pitching Pets, people were like ‘Oh and we can learn about the history of pets’ and I was like ‘Not this one, it’s a celebration’. But something I said to the kids when I was trying to explain that I was making a documentary, that word doesn’t necessarily trigger anything. So at one point I was like ‘I’m going to interview you, you know, like in reality television!’ And the producers were like ‘No! This is not reality TV!’ But it is giving us all contextualization for the medium.”

As a director, Howard has been incredibly busy these past few years, especially with the making of Dads, her 2019 documentary, but also with her official entry into the Star Wars universe. Her love for Star Wars needs no introduction and shines through her work as the director of some of the best episodes of The Mandalorian, Skeleton Crew or The Book of Boba Fett.

When talking about her editing process (Pets is also incredibly funny thanks to some great editing), I asked her if she had the same approach and the same techniques whether she was editing a documentary or a TV episode.

She said, “It’s very interesting because there are stages where it’s all very similar, narrative, fiction, documentary, and other stages where it’s very different. What I would say is when I’m shooting something whether it’s a commercial, a short film, or an episode of Star Wars, there is a goal, a picture in mind that I have. What I always say is ‘We want to achieve this or something better.’ It can always be something better, but we don’t want something less.”

She added: “So there’s definitely a mission, that’s through pre-production, in production, and then you edit in post- prod, you have to take a moment, relook at all your footage without that main goal in mind, and see what you got. Because you might have gotten something that you didn’t know you needed but it’s like the secret ingredient. So that phase of narrative filmmaking is very much so like making a documentary, because you know that something is happening, you know that there is a story there, but you’re trying to see it, you’re trying to experience it, you’re not projecting it onto a situation.”

She then explained that in order to make a documentary, she needs to know the elements she wants to include. She said, “I wanna have someone adopting a new pet, I wanna see someone who understands what it is to experience pet loss, I wanna be interviewing kids, I want there to be viral videos. So I know what the elements are but I don’t necessarily know what the final result is going to be. So to essentially have this beginner’s mind and think about what is really there, instead of what I wanted. That applies to both documentary and filmmaking narrative to a certain point.”

Growing up and learning from her father, Ron Howard, the actress and director realized that she wanted to surround herself with filmmakers she wanted to learn from. She explained how that really shaped how she views both directing and acting. Howard said, “I always approached storytelling through more of a director’s lens.”

I asked Howard what she had learned about herself as an artist, whether it was in her acting career or by becoming a very talented filmmaker herself.

She said, “Thank you! That’s how I grew up and what I was privy to. I already had that perspective. So when I was acting, I was trying to act almost outside in. And with directing, I’ve learned so much by being an actor and seeing what works for other actors or what works for me, or what doesn’t work for me.”

She added: “What I kind of learned is you want to do no harm when you actually get to direct a scene. You wanna let the actors do their thing. I try to have them do their scenes a few times before I say anything. I want there to be that discovery, space and room for not something I just want to achieve, but for something greater than that. So both have certainly impacted the other.”

Recently, Howard shared her strong desire to direct a Star Wars movie, and gave some hopeful news about the reboot of Flight of the Navigator. When I asked what the triggering factor was that made her want to direct a documentary when she is involved in so many narrative projects, or the other way around, to go back to fiction after a documentary, she said, “That’s such a great question! At any given moment, I have probably 4 or 5 documentaries, that if I was given the budget, I would do them right now. And I have definitely maybe 4 narrative projects, that if I was given the budget, I would do it now.”

She added: “So it’s never really ‘Oh it’s time to do this!’ You’re always sort of hustling, like I’m sure for you as a writer, you’re pitching multiple story ideas, and see which one does your editor respond to. Then you’re like ‘Great, that’s the one I’ll go with right now’. And then something happens in the news, and it’s like ‘Remember that thing you passed on a couple of months ago, it’s relevant right now, we can do it now!’ So you’re sort of always developing a few things, and then you’re waiting for there to be opportunities for others to basically be like ‘Oh yeah, we’ll pay for that’. So that’s kind of how it is.”

Pets is now streaming on Disney+.