- Bryce Dallas Howard revealed that her transformation into Sheila Dwight, Elton John’s mother, in “Rocketman” was inspired by her own mom’s (Cheryl Howard) appearance.
- “I was working on the movie and the makeup artist came over one day to do tests on me with the prosthetics and we needed to age me until 70,” Howard, who’s promoting her partnership with Tide purclean, told INSIDER.
- She continued: “We were doing it and we felt that it didn’t quite look right and my mom walked in. This was at the hotel we were staying at, and she came and stood next to me and we were like, ‘Wait a second, we need to make [Bryce] look like her [Cheryl]!'”
- Howard added that she also wore a dark wig and added freckles for the part.
Bryce Dallas Howard says that her transformation into Elton John’s mom, Sheila Dwight, in “Rocketman” was inspired by her own mother’s appearance.
“It was really cool because I play Elton John’s mother from her early 20s until her 70s, so that’s a huge age jump,” Howard, who’s promoting her partnership with Tide purclean, told INSIDER.
“Rocketman,” which hits theaters on Friday, May 31, centers on Elton John (portrayed by Taron Egerton) and takes viewers through his career, from being a child prodigy to becoming an award-winning music icon.
Read more: 37 actors who completely transformed themselves into real-life music legends
In addition to wearing a dark and curly wig to portray Dwight, Howard wore prosthetics for scenes that showed the character in the later years of her life. However, she and the film's makeup artist had a difficult time trying to figure out the most realistic way to age Howard with the prosthetics.
The 38-year-old actress told INSIDER that while filming the movie in the UK, coincidentally, her parents (Ron Howard and Cheryl Howard) and siblings also booked a trip to England at the "same exact time," and that's when inspiration struck.
"I was working on the movie and the makeup artist came over one day to do tests on me with the prosthetics and we needed to age me until 70," Howard told us. "We were doing it and we felt that it didn't quite look right and my mom walked in. This was at the hotel we were staying at, and she came and stood next to me and we were like, 'Wait a second, we need to make [Bryce] look like her [Cheryl]!'"
"She's 65 and she hasn't messed with her face at all or anything, so it's what I'm going to look like when I'm 65," Bryce continued. "So that was something that was really fun. We were putting on a lot more freckles than we thought I needed at first and it made the right difference."