It’s the stuff aspiring actors’ dreams are made of: to star in a play as a relative unknown, oblivious to there being a major film director in the audience – who notices your talent and casts you in his latest, blockbuster movie. It might sound like fantasy, but this was very much a reality for Bryce Dallas Howard.
“It was definitely the biggest career moment for me so far,” she tells Harper’s Bazaar in the latest episode of our video series, What You Don’t Know About Me. “I was doing As You Like It at the Public Theatre in New York. M. Night Shyamalan came to see it, waited for me afterwards, and then straight up offered me the lead in his movie, The Village, which was my first part in a film. I was like, ‘Don’t you want me to audition for this?’ and he said, ‘No, I saw what I needed in the play’.”
Howard’s performance in The Village (opposite Hollywood heavyweights like Joaquin Phoenix and Brendan Gleeson) was enough to earn her the starring role in another of Shyamalan’s films, Lady in the Water. After that, she became a well-known talent, appearing in massive franchises including Spider-Man, Jurassic Park, Twilight and Terminator, scoring a clutch of awards in the process. Most recently, she took on the lead in Matthew Vaughn’s latest and much-hyped film, Argylle, which she describes as “a spy action comedy with so many twists and turns – and the greatest cat ever”.
“I’ve been given lots of great advice over the years,” Howard says of her acting career. “People can smell if an actor is busy, so make sure you have more things going on in your life, because it makes you a fuller, more expansive human being.” She certainly fulfils that brief, with one rather unusual interest in particular: the Dewey Decimal System. “From a very young age, I was interested in being a librarian,” she says, smiling. “My mom is actually a novelist, so reading is a big part of our family life. I’m passionate about research. That’s something I really love. To be honest, I kind of still fantasise about it to this day.”
Happily for viewers, Howard pursued her other passion of acting, but she has found fascination in that world, too. “I definitely feel most beautiful when I’m working with professional hair and make-up artists,” she says, enthusiastically. “I really pay attention because they are masters of their craft, and I love to learn.” Are there any specific tips she keeps front of mind? “Dry skin for me is the enemy. And this is boring, but sunblock – I’m 42 years old though, so I can say that now.”
After years of trying to mould herself to Hollywood norms, Howard has reached a place of happy self-acceptance. “The advice I would give to my younger self is very clear,” she says, firmly. “Don’t diet. Do not try to change the shape of your body for aesthetic reasons and, in turn, compromise your health. It’s none of your business how your body ends up.”
Howard in her latest film, Argylle
These days, self-care for Howard comes in the form of her three cats and two dogs, or “fur babies”, which make her light up (“they’re all so weird and wonderful”) as well as “taking care of my sleep hygiene, and making sure that I’m engaging in things that calm the nervous system. I love to watercolour – it’s so nourishing.” The self-described “child of the Nineties” also loves a retro playlist. “I love any Britney Spears song,” she says. “I just can’t help but be thrown back into my high school experience, enjoying … Baby One More Time. Oh, and any Beyoncé song,” she adds, laughing. “I feel like I’m almost not worthy to talk about Beyoncé, though!”
Watch our full video interview with Bryce Dallas Howard, above.
In the hands of Chris Wolston, even the most ordinary object — a chair, lamp or credenza — becomes something more whimsical, playful and quirky.
The artist has built a stellar reputation in the design world for his anthropomorphic rattan chairs (complete with bums and feet). Yet the array of pieces on display in his first solo museum show at Dallas Contemporary reveals there’s much more to his oeuvre.
Displayed across four catwalks, reminiscent of a fashion show or drag ball, are sculpted chairs in terra-cotta adorned with metal insects, a bronze coffee table cast from leaves found in the artist’s garden and chairs inspired by the gestural limbs of supermodels. Handwoven carpets from Morocco on the walls are interspersed with video works highlighting Wolston’s process filmed by his husband, the filmmaker David Sierra. Together, they recall a fantasy world of objects both functional and sculptural.
“I always find that through humor, there’s an interesting entry point for people — it breaks down a barrier,” says artist Chris Wolston. “And I was always drawn to furniture as a medium because it’s accessible, it’s egalitarian.” Dallas Contemporary
Wolston has been walking the tightrope between craft and art with a humorous twist since he made his first terra-cotta chairs in 2014. Drawn to the relationship between materiality and everyday life, he naturally embraced furniture as his medium.
“I started working with the (contemporary design gallery) The Future Perfect, and then we started doing these body chairs for a chair show,” he says. “I always find that through humor, there’s an interesting entry point for people — it breaks down a barrier. And I was always drawn to furniture as a medium because it’s accessible, it’s egalitarian.”
Having initially studied glassmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design, Wolston earned a Fulbright to study pre-Columbian ceramics in Colombia, prompting him to settle his studio in the city of Medellín. He found his entry point into raw ingredients by working with natural terra-cotta clay found in the mountains surrounding the city, and has since cycled through bronze, rattan, anodized aluminum and shearling.
Curated by Glenn Adamson, former director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Profile in Ecstasy highlights a decade-plus of work that led Wolston to discover the throughlines behind his various collections, whether they be nods to fashion and nature, Spanish modernism or subtle surrealism.
“These themes that exist in an artist’s practice emerge when a new collection emerges,” Wolston says. “It’s interesting to see how collections made at different times with totally different materials and thought processes at play resonate with one another.”
Chris Wolston: Profile in Ecstasy is on view at Dallas Contemporary from Nov. 7 through Feb. 1, 2026.
The vehicle belonging to a Dallas woman who has been missing for over a year was found this week, according to police.
The Dallas Police Department said 88-year-old Myrtle Polk’s vehicle was found in the 5600 block of South Lancaster Road, near Five Mile Creek, on Tuesday. Her body was not in the vehicle.
DPD said search teams will deploy in the area to continue the search for Polk.
She was last seen in early June along Indian Creek Trail, driving her Lexus sedan. At the time, a Silver Alert was issued, given her age and medical history, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Polk is a devout member of her church, according to her family. When she didn’t show up for service on June 9, 2024, they said they knew something was wrong.
Also affectionately known as “Mama M” or “Aunt Myrt,” Polk is living with dementia. But her niece Tawana Watson said — as late as the day before — the family did not indicate that anything was wrong.
“She was a very good driver, she knew where she was,” Watson said last June. “I talked to her that Friday [and] she was in her right mind.”
Watson does not believe the matriarch left home on her own.
“She was such a trustworthy person, I believe that Aunt Myrtle met somebody that she trusted, she let them [into her home] and they hurt her,” she continued.
Myrtle Polk is approximately 5-foot-2 and 120 pounds, with white hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the Dallas Police Department at (214) 671-4268.
A four-alarm fire at First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, destroyed its historic, red-brick sanctuary last year, and reconstruction of the edifice won’t be completed until Easter 2028. In the meantime, the destruction has taught the nonprofit institution a lot about its workplace as it has navigated the crisis.
Staff members were “scattered” after the fire, and as of August, permanent power still hadn’t been restored to the church offices, said Ben Lovvorn, First Baptist’s senior executive pastor. So, keeping everyone updated and encouraged during the rebuilding effort has been a priority.
“We’ve been very purposeful about communicating with our staff — and our congregation — so that they know and understand what’s going on, and that they are a part of the process,” he said. “At other organizations, this situation would lead to tremendous turnover, but our entire team has stayed intact. That [in turn] has provided consistency and encouragement to our 16,000 church members.
“Another lesson we’ve learned is making sure you have the right people in place so you’re able to handle a crisis like this,” he continued. “Finding those right people — and getting them in the right seats on the bus — is key to tackling whatever obstacles you’re presented with along the way.”
Fortunately, First Baptist has had those team members in place for a while. That’s because the staff has a biblically based, “shared faith and shared calling” that gives their work purpose, Lovvorn said. “Whether they’re a minister or work in our accounting department or in the facilities department, they’re part of something greater.”
That greater meaning is emphasized regularly, whether through monthly all-staff leadership luncheons — they brought in Babe’s Chicken for the one in August — or at “staff chapel,” where workers step away from the daily grind and pray together. Throughout its more than 155 years in downtown Dallas, “there have been good times and difficult times” for First Baptist, Lovvorn said. “But God has always been faithful in providing for us and seeing us through every season.”
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