For Bryce Dallas Howard, having the perfect house to come home to after a busy workday is important. It has to be serene, cozy, and steeped in nature. That’s one of the reasons why she and her husband, actor Seth Gabel, uprooted their two children from Los Angeles and moved to upstate New York, far from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood.
Now the actress, who stars as Elton John’s mother in the upcoming biopic Rocketman (out May 31), calls the East Coast home, and she says the transition has enhanced her eco-conscious lifestyle. “I’ve always tried to be conservative with my electricity and water use,” she tells Architectural Digest. “But now I can install solar panels on my house—I couldn’t at my Santa Monica home because it was too shady—and I have an herb garden.”
It makes sense that in celebration of Earth Month, Howard would partner with Tide to promote Tide Purclean, the first plant-based detergent made using 100 percent wind-generated electricity. “I want to be a conscientious consumer and do things that have the planet’s best interest at heart,” she says. “I always try to find small ways to make a big difference, and using this detergent was an easy way to practice what I preach.”
As part of the partnership, we got the chance to sit down with the filmmaker to learn about her inspiration for living clean, how she found her dream home, and the one thing she’s kept from a movie set.
Architectural Digest: You’re here to celebrate Earth Month; why is living an eco-friendly and health-conscious lifestyle so important to you?
Bryce Dallas Howard: When I had my kids, they had super-sensitive skin and would get rashes. I did the elimination diet to find triggers, and from that point forward I committed to using plant-based products. And when I used to live in Santa Monica, we had a terrible drought and a water quota on every household. I thought I would be way under because we were conscientious about things like that. But when I actually started looking at the numbers and how many gallons of water we used, it was above the quota. I knew I needed to make another change. I always want to do what’s best for my family and the planet.
AD: You mentioned you no longer live in Santa Monica. Where did you move to? Are you still in California?
BDH: We actually moved to upstate New York.
AD: Wow! That’s a big change from Hollywood.
BDH: Yes! We were in upstate New York for my brother’s wedding, and we’d been talking about moving the family from Los Angeles back to New York. And we kept driving past this one stone house that we loved. But it wasn’t for sale. Then, on our last day there, we got an email saying that very house was about to hit the market. When I walked in there, it was like completely immaculate inside too. So we ended up buying it.
AD: That’s so serendipitous.
BDH: Oh, it gets crazier.
AD: How so?
BDH: The woman who lived there and renovated it is an interior designer, and when she saw me on Chelsea Handler’s show at one point, she told her husband that my coloring would look beautiful in the house. Her husband made fun of her for like a year. And then when it ended up being me, it was bananas.
AD: That’s nuts!
BDH: It doesn’t end there.
AD: There’s more?
BDH: So, my first movie was called The Village and William [McChord Hurt] played my father. During filming the whole cast— Adrien Brody, Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver—lived in a bed and breakfast called Sweetwater Farm [in Bucks County, Pennsylvania].
AD: You all lived there together?
BDH: Yes, and we would have dinner together every night. At one point everyone was finished filming except for me. William was the second to last and realized I didn’t want to be left there alone. So he actually moved his kids in and stayed a few more weeks until I was done with production. It was this really beautiful experience. How this connects to my house upstate is that [my house] was based on a house from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. And then, later, we found out that [my house] was actually William Hurt’s home 30 years prior!
AD: It’s like you were destined to be in this house.
BDH: It’s the craziest story. I mean, we really love the place.
AD: I can imagine. Now, you’re staring in Rocketman. I have to ask: Have you been in Elton John’s house?
BDH: Never been to Elton John’s house. I mean, I feel like I’ve been to Elton John’s house because I’ve been to Elton John’s house in the movies. But there’s probably something that will stand out to you because you are interested in architecture.
AD: What’s that?
BDH: It really looks like we shot a lot of the film in Los Angeles, but we didn’t. We shot everything in the United Kingdom. They found a mansion with palm trees and everything. So that’s just something to keep an eye out for.
AD: OK, so you haven’t been to Elton’s House. But have you ever taken anything from set?
BDH: I just recently realized I could ask for things from set. So I kept my boots from Jurassic Park Fallen Kingdom. Because we all know I didn’t have boots in the first film.
