Bryce Dallas Howard Breaks Down ‘Pretty Wild’ Elton John Biopic ‘Rocketman’

Jurassic World star Bryce Dallas Howard‘s next big movie has nothing to do with dinosaurs. Instead, the actress will be seen in the “pretty wild” Elton John biopic Rocketman, in which she plays the “Tiny Dancer” singer’s mother, Sheila Eileen.

Rocketman tells the story of John’s (played by Taron Edgerton) rise to pop stardom in the early 1970s and how he met lyricist Bernie Taupin played by Jamie Bell. While the film will hit theaters in the shadow of last year’s box office success Bohemian Rhapsody, Howard told PopCulture.com that the film is definitely not a straightforward biopic like the Queen movie.

“It’s pretty wild. It’s a pretty wild film. I sort of like … It’s definitely not a bio flick,” Howard said, saying it is “sort of in the vein of Moulin Rogue.”

The opportunity to take part in the film was more exciting to Howard because John is still alive, whereas Bohemian Rhapsody centered on the late Freddie Mercury.

“Elton John is still here. So, we were going to get to tell his story, while he’s still here,” Howard said. “…That’s the thing always when you’re telling someone’s story after they’re gone? You’re like, ‘Oh, is this right?’ Well, we’re going to know, because guess what? He’s one of the producers!”

“It was just kind of one of those once in a lifetime opportunities to get to be part of something like that,” Howard continued. “It’s just something that is really, really, kind of unexpected and fun.”

Since Howard is playing John’s mother and she is only 10 years older than Edgerton, most of her scenes are with the child actors who play eight- and 14-year-old versions of the singer. Whenever she did get a scene with Edgerton, she “had quite a bit of prosthetics on, in order to justify that.”

Outside Rocketman and the upcoming third Jurassic World movie, Howard is also busy directing. She recently helmed an episode of The Mandalorian, the first live action Star Wars television series being prepared for the Disney+ streaming service. Howard called the experience of working with writer and producers Jon Favreau and Dave Feloni “incredible.”

Howard is also working on a documentary feature, which should “hopefully” be out soon sometime later this year. Then, she is working on a Netflix feature that “we very well could be shooting in a little bit. So, there’s some fun things cooking,” Howard said.

Howard also recently teamed up with Tide as a spokesperson for the new environmentally friendly detergent, Tide pureclean.

“The thing that is remarkable about this product, is that not only is the entire process from start to finish, in terms of the production of the product, sustainable,” Howard told PopCulture.com. “But the actual product itself, is so effective, because they put into this all of the innovation and technology and all that, that they’ve been applying to their products for the last 70 plus years.”

Rocketman hits theaters on May 31.

Photo credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival