Bryce Dallas Howard never tried alcohol. Here's how she played drunk in 'Deep Cover'

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17 hours ago

Bryce Dallas Howard never tried alcohol. Here's how she played drunk in 'Deep Cover'
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NEW YORK − Bryce Dallas Howard never sipped alcohol in her life. But that didn't stop her from acting like an alcoholic who needs an intervention in her new crime comedy "Deep Cover" (streaming now on Amazon Prime Video).
"I put ice cubes in my mouth because it kind of numbs your mouth," Howard, 44, reveals to USA TODAY of her trick to play drunk. "I also really enunciate a lot, so (the ice) helps to get the slurring going."
Howard's other trick? She spins in circles to get dizzy.
"That made me sick," Howard's co-star, Nick Mohammed, 44, interjects. "I'd rather get drunk."
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In "Deep Cover," Howard plays Kat, an improv-comedy teacher who is recruited along with two of her students (Mohammed and Orlando Bloom) to infiltrate a criminal gang in London. The actors note that there wasn't much improv in the movie, with the exception of the aforementioned intervention scene. After seeing her out on the town gallivanting with a few shady characters, Kat's friends intervene, unaware that the teacher is actually on a secret mission at the direction of law enforcement.
There was one part of Howard's character that hit closer to home: teaching. The filmmaker holds a degree from New York University and taught classes there about the entertainment industry. Howard says she recently moved back to the New York area and is in talks with the university about returning to the classroom.
"I could relate to the excitement around seeing other people (learn) and seeing people kind of come alive," Howard says. "But I also had even more empathy for my character because the thing that I teach in, I also do for my living. Whereas with Kat, she was teaching something that she wanted to be doing for her living, but she wasn't really getting a shot at it."
Howard wasn't the only actor to partake in debauchery: Mohammed's character Hugh has to snort cocaine during the trio's initial meeting with the gangster Fly (Paddy Considine) to prove that the trio aren't posers.
As for any real-life parallels, Mohammed says he has never taken drugs. Something bizarre but unrelated to the movie did happen to him four months ago, though: He almost lost a finger. The actor, best known as Nate Shelley from "Ted Lasso," says he sliced it while trying to remove an avocado pit.
Fans of "Ted Lasso" may recall that in Season 3, Mohammed played violin during a scene. The actor learned the instrument when he was a child and performed in his college orchestra. He doesn't break out the violin for "Deep Cover" and says his injury has prevented him from playing. Mohammed explained to his mother, who was a doctor, that he doesn't really have any feeling in the finger.
"My mom said, 'That might come back in a year,' " Mohammed recalls of the conversation. "I was like, 'And if it doesn't?' She's like, 'If it doesn't come back in a year, it's not coming back.'"
At least in this situation, it doesn't seem as if ice is going to help.