A Vancouver Island-based actress, Debs Howard, landed a role in the Martin Scorsese-produced film Die My Love, which comes out in theatres this Friday.
The film was directed by Lynne Ramsay and stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson in the leading roles.
The film follows Grace (Jennifer Lawrence), a writer and young mother slowly slipping into madness.
She becomes locked away in an old house in Montana, and becomes increasingly agitated and erratic, leaving her companion, Jackson (Robert Pattinson), increasingly worried and helpless.
Vancouver Island-based Howard says she got to act opposite Lawrence in one scene in particular that was impactful. She says this was the opportunity of a lifetime, and one that she never thought she would get.
It all started when her agent sent her the part and told her to audition for the project.
“As soon as I saw that the producer was Martin Scorsese, I laughed and said ‘of course I’m not going to get this,’” Howard told Victoria Buzz.
“Because usually, if there’s someone like Scorsese attached, the kind of general thought you have is that this is going to go to a big name in [Los Angeles].”
At the time she auditioned, she didn’t know that Lawrence or Pattinson were attached to the film yet.
“I knew Lynne Ramsay was attached as a director so I thought, ‘this is hilarious, sure why not, I’ll just give it a shot,’” she continued.
“So I did it with little to no thought of it going anywhere and then I got a callback.”
Howard did the callback audition over zoom with the film’s UK and Canadian casting teams who provided her with really constructive notes for the callback.
Following this, she still thought it would ultimately go nowhere, until she was called back for a third in-person audition in Vancouver.
At this audition, she had the opportunity to meet Ramsay, working directly with the film’s director, but was still unsure if it would be worth it to go to the audition because she had family visiting at the time.
Howard ultimately went to Vancouver to audition, and afterwards she was asked by Ramsay to come back the following day to audition for another role.
“I read for this other character, which I hadn’t really prepped, and that was the character I ended up booking and I was really grateful in the end because that scene became a really exciting scene for me whereas the other role was more of an ensemble character,” said Howard.
“It felt like it was more meaty, with a little more substance to it.”
After both auditions went well and Howard felt she had really “vibed well” with Ramsay, she received a call around a week later in July 2024 to tell her she had booked the part for the second in-person audition she had done.
“When I got the call telling me I booked it, I thought I was being punk’d,” she added.
Die My Love was filmed between late summer and early autumn of 2024 in Okotoks, Alberta.
Howard joined the cast in the latter days of shooting the film with her character being most prominently featured in one particular scene acting opposite Lawrence.
According to Howard, Lawrence is exactly like how she is in interviews: very off-the-cuff, funny and cool.
“Her and I got along great, but our characters don’t really, and you can see that in the clip,” she explained.
“I was so nervous going into it… but luckily, she is so cool.”
Howard says that neither Lawrence nor Pattinson had any ego about them and both were just as excited to be on set making the film as anybody.
Between takes and camera setups, Howard says she and Lawrence bondedinstantly about their shared love of The Real Housewives franchises, and would frequently chat about the latest episodes of the Salt Lake City series.
Howard says that her favourite experience about being a part of the film were the opportunities she had to learn from and act with Lawrence and Pattinson, but also getting to go to the premiere at Cannes Film Festival in France.
“Being a part of a world premiere like that… I will be lucky if I ever get that experience again,” she said. “It was like magic.”
Check out Howard’s performance in Die My Love, which releases this Friday, November 7th.
