Twenty-two years after being handed a business card from a talent agent, Duane Howard, 52, took his triumphant walk down the red carpet at the TCL Chinese Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Dec. 16 for the premiere of the movie The Revenant.
The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, is a biographical western film directed by two-time Oscar award winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The movie is set in 1823 Montana and South Dakota, and was inspired by the experiences of frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass.
Howard plays the lead Indigenous role of Elk Dog, a warrior searching for his kidnapped daughter. DiCaprio plays a trapper seeking vengeance on a fellow trapper (Tom Hardy) who did him wrong.
Duane Howard is a member of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations, born in Esperanza in 1963 to Barney and Irene Howard. The family moved to Port Alberni in about 1967 and Duane remained there until 1978, leaving for Vancouver with his sister Lillian after their parents’ divorce.
Early on Howard struggled with addictions. Giving up alcohol nearly 30 years ago, he went on to earn a counselling degree that would allow him to work with at-risk youth in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Back in those days, Howard said there was always filming activity downtown.
Sometime in the early 1990s, Howard was at a gathering when he was approached by a talent agent who gave him her card. She said, I like your look and I wonder if you’d be interested in being a client of mine,” Howard remembered.
At that point Howard had a good paying job as a youth worker in the DTES, but needed a change. He called the agent and began working as an extra in some local productions and he began to learn the ropes. “I got to like it,” he added.
But it began to interfere with his desk job and he was given an ultimatum. Keep the steady, higher paying youth counselling job, or roll the dice and go to the lower paying acting gigs.
“I couldn’t afford to live off of acting so I gave it up,” said Howard.
But he always kept a foot in the acting door, returning to playing extras a few years later and eventually moving up to stuntman.
“Acting is a passion of mine, so I never gave up,” he said.
He quit his counselling job 16 years ago to focus on his acting career.
“I had no agent, but I knew local casting agents and I let them know I was available,” said Howard. Soon after he began finding work as an extra and doing stunts.
“I’ve rappelled off of a 100-foot wall, I’ve been shot off of a horse, I’ve been in fights and thrown down stairs and through doors,” he chuckled. While stunt work can be dangerous, Howard says he’s never been injured though he’s had a few close calls.
Then, about two years ago, Howard was finding it more and more difficult to find work.
“I had no job, I lost my place and I wound up living in my car,” he recalled. At that time he had been working at a school teaching art, but there were cutbacks and he was let go.
In late 2014 Howard received a call from an actor friend who asked him if he saw on Facebook the casting call for a Leonardo DiCaprio film. “They’re looking for native actors and stunt people,” said the friend. But Howard said he wasn’t interested, that he was taking a break from acting.
But then two other friends approached him and he figured, ‘Well, it’s come to him three times; maybe he should look into it. “I have a three-strike rule,” said Howard, “good or bad. If it comes to me three times, I need to do something.”
So, in early July 2014, Howard called his agent in Los Angeles and asked her to submit his name to The Revenant casting. They didn’t hear back from casting for the entire month of July and were about to give up hope and move on.
“In mid-August I got a call from a stunt coordinator from another production asking if I was available to work for the next five weeks and I said, ‘sure’.”
Two days after accepting the stunt job, Howard was called in to audition for The Revenant.
“My agent said it was a huge opportunity and told me I had to go for it,” said Howard.
Not long after, Howard was auditioning in front of the casting director who was so impressed with Howard’s work that they flew him to Calgary so that he could audition in front of director Alejandro Inarritu. “They wanted to know about my hardships,” said Howard, adding he found that odd because he’d never been asked that before.
In an article by the LA Times, Inarritu, describing his impression of Duane Howard, is quoted as saying, “What I got immediately with him is, through his eyes, I can see the interior life he has; he has a very deep emotional baggage inside that you can easily perceive.”
Shortly after, the director congratulated Howard, telling him he had the role. Howard said his reaction was humble and calm.
“I smiled and I thanked him, acting humble, but inside I felt like a little boy wanting to jump up and down for joy,” he shared.
Shooting began in mid-August in Calgary, Alta.
“It was brutal,” said Howard. The cast and crew worked 12 to 14 hour days in temperatures as low as minus-25C. With the help of a dialogue coach, Howard had to learn the Arikara language for his lines, which was subject to frequent change.
“That was challenging, learning a different language and sometimes having only a few hours to learn newly changed lines,” said Howard. He and the director butted heads over the issue, but Howard said he was admired for standing his ground.
“They think we all speak the same language,” said Howard, adding he had to explain that Indigenous people all over the Americas have different languages with different dialects within.
Even after filming was complete Howard was called in to do ADR work (Audio Digital Recording) after more script changes. He wasn’t finished with the movie until early November.
Then, on Dec. 16, Howard and his partner attended the premiere of The Reverent. As he sat in the hotel room, he reflected on his journey to Hollywood.
“Years ago I didn’t get a lot of support. I was told I’d never make it, and I told that person that someday I would walk the red carpet,” said Howard. He said he got emotional and turned to his partner and said, “I did it!”
Of the red carpet experience, Howard said as soon as he stepped out of the limousine he was blinded by flash. His publicist forewarned him that the reporters know who he is. “And they were yelling at me from all directions, saying, ‘Mr. Howard, look this way. Duane, turn around’. After interviews with well-known entertainment outlets, Howard said he sat back and promised himself, I am going to walk this red carpet again!
Howard says Elk Dog is the biggest role he’s ever played.
“A lot of people think it’s my breakout role,” he said.
Ever the youth counsellor, Howard has this advice for young people.
“Do your homework!” he said. “Remember that sacrifices need to be made in order to reach your dreams and there will be disappointments along the way. Endure them and never give up.”
The Revenant is already receiving great reviews with many mentions of Oscar worthiness. It is already being nominated for several awards. It opens in theatres Jan. 8.
Howard and his family are planning to go to the theatre together on Jan. 8 in Vancouver. He says he is grateful to his son, daughters and two grandchildren for their understanding. Shooting a movie takes you away from home for weeks and it gets lonely, said Howard.
He also thanks his family on Vancouver Island.
“I don’t get to see them much but I am there in spirit,” he said.
Howard is being honoured in Yellowknife for another project he’s worked on. He is writing a proposal for some prevention work he hopes to do around issues like addictions awareness and suicide prevention.
“My next goal is to do public speaking engagements to help our people, at least once a month,” said Howard. And, as if that isn’t enough work, he has another audition lined up.
