Bryce Dallas Howard has looked stunning while out on the promo tour for Argylle, the latest Matthew Vaughn spy movie she stars in with Claudia Schiffer’s cat. My favorite ensembles have been the Rowen Rose argyle sweater-skirt set and Altuzarra marigold dress matching skirt and top. She’s a bombshell in these looks, no? Which makes it all the more infuriating that Hollywood has cast her as “the big girl,” with “big” meaning “not sample size.” Bryce has always been candid about how she has to source her red carpet looks herself, but she’s reached the point where she’s sick of perennially discussing her size. I don’t blame her. So Bryce has declared that she’s “retired” talking about her body:

“I’ve retired talking about my body,” the Argylle star tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “My focus is on what my body is doing, what my body is capable of.”

The reflective star, who broke out 20 years ago with M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and in 2022 wrapped a decade of Jurassic World films opposite Chris Pratt, recalls years spent gently pushing back when asked to lose weight for roles. Now, she’s begun to invite direct conversations before signing on.

“What I found was best is to just be in communication with folks early in the hiring process,” she says. “What I would say is that, ‘If you want to cast me, awesome. But if you think you want to cast me, but 20 pounds less me or 40 pounds less me, that’s actually another actor. That’s not me, and I’m not going to shame you in this moment about this. We need to have a real conversation here because if you’re hiring me, you’re hiring me.’”

That included her latest film, Argylle (now in theaters). Ahead of filming director Matthew Vaughn’s new spy thriller, “I had that conversation with Matthew. And Matthew, was like, ‘Yeah, I’m hiring you.’” Playing an introverted spy novelist who finds herself fighting for her life when thrust into real espionage, “I was even stronger because of it,” she adds. “I was able to do more because of it.”

Howard has always found it uncomfortable to be the face of these conversations. “Who I am is someone who fluctuates,” she says. “I took some time and it took some work and it took some counsel to really realize that dieting is the enemy, for me at least.”

Today, the mom of two focuses on strength — “training my body to accomplish X, Y or Z for whatever given circumstances I need to bring to life for a movie.”

She’s also steadily expanding her work behind the camera, directing episodes of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and the upcoming Star Wars: Skeleton Crew after years spent studying the process on film sets.

“I love directing, and it’s as important to me as acting,” she says. “It’s been really wonderful to lean more into gaining experience, and I love to work.”

[From People]

Bryce is awfully classy and generous to the small-minded producers and filmmakers she references, way more than they deserve. Remember when she said (speaking of the Jurassic World producers) that she was “asked to not use my natural body in cinema,” carefully phrasing her words in a delicate way I’m sure the producers didn’t show to her? I can understand how she’d want to avoid that experience again, by having these frank conversations at the very beginning. But it’s still so demeaning. “Are you really sure you want to hire me? Remember, I’m Hollywood fat!” And for the record, I would kill for her figure. Le sigh. I’m so glad to hear she’s directing and really enjoying that side of the camera. I hope she continues to do both, and be the 21st century, redheaded Ida Lupino.

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Photos credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages, Jason Howard/BauerGriffin/INSTARimages, Ulices Ramales/Backgrid