With awards season in full swing and the BAFTAs just around the corner, Canadian actor Debs Howard is savoring a series of career-defining moments that have taken her from Vancouver Island to the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. The buzz isn’t just about her own rising profile, though—Howard’s recent project, Die My Love, has drawn international attention thanks to a cast led by Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, a script exploring the raw realities of motherhood, and the creative vision of director Lynne Ramsay and legendary producer Martin Scorsese.
"I've never had these kinds of experiences before. Going to Cannes was not on my bingo card. And what a gift that was, because it's something I'll remember forever," Howard told Yahoo Canada, her excitement still palpable months after her walk down the storied French red carpet. "It was so magical to walk the red carpet and to be in that massive cinema, ... with all the most incredible films that are there because of the artistic merit, rather than just the Hollywood money."
Howard’s journey to Die My Love was anything but conventional. The film itself follows Lawrence’s character Grace as she grapples with postpartum depression and the suffocating isolation that comes with new motherhood—a narrative that resonated deeply with Howard, herself a mother. "There was one part in the script ... after the wedding. [Grace] is walking with her baby, and then she leaves it outside of a camper van, and then walks away. And in the script, runs away and then just stops and kind of breaks down, and then runs back to the baby," Howard recalled. "It brought up so much for me, because ... I know that feeling of sometimes just wanting to escape your life. Being a mom is so rich and fulfilling and amazing, but I would be lying if I said I didn't feel trapped by motherhood sometimes."
Her path to landing the role of Marsha was a whirlwind. It began with a self-tape audition, followed by a Zoom callback with casting directors from Canada and the UK, and finally an in-person callback with Ramsay in Vancouver. The process took an unexpected turn when Howard, originally auditioning for a different part, was asked to return the next day to read for Marsha. "I didn't bring any stuff to stay the night," she remembered. "So I called a friend. I was like, 'Hey, can I sleep on your couch?' ... And I didn't have any clothes, didn't have a toothbrush, I'm sure I bought one, and then used her makeup, and just walked right back in the next day in the exact same dress. Hadn't showered because I had to just go."
That second audition was even more unusual. Ramsay asked the camera operator to take the camera off the tripod and encouraged Howard and the reader to improvise nearly the entire scene—a test, Howard later learned, to see if she could keep up with Lawrence’s improvisational style. "To have a director, especially of her calibre, be so personal was really, really cool and different from what I've experienced. ... She felt like she was coming right into my world and letting me come into her world."
For Howard, the film’s exploration of the complexities of motherhood and mental health struck a personal chord. "There's a moment at the end where, ... after she's come out of the hospital, and she looks back at the house and sees how well everyone's been doing without her there, that hit for me too. ... In your darkest moments, you can feel like, ... Am I pulling everyone down? Would they all be doing better without me?"
Howard’s career, which began with a Tim Hortons commercial and took off with her first TV role in Supernatural, has included appearances in The Good Doctor, iZombie, The Hunting Party, and Broken Diamonds. This year, she’ll appear in Private Eyes West Coast, a series filmed on Vancouver Island and starring Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson. "I definitely had a crush on Jason Priestley growing up, so working with him was great," Howard admitted. "He's so nice, nicest guy ever. And Cindy Sampson was the coolest."
Howard is also working on Mom Com, a project she describes as thematically similar to Die My Love but with a musical twist. "It's actually thematically very similar to Die My Love in the way that it explores the behind-the-scenes of being a mom. And some of it looks at some of the really tough parts, but it actually turns into a musical, which is funny," she said. "I hope that it makes moms feel seen in the way that I think they're often not seen or appreciated."
Despite industry pressure to relocate to the U.S., Howard has chosen to raise her family in British Columbia. "I do think that's the mentality, that you need to be in the States to really push your career ahead. But I'm not sure that it's true, because there is so much stuff shooting up here, and I think there are probably advantages and disadvantages to either one, whether you're in the States or up here," she explained. "And ultimately it came down to my family. ... We knew we wanted to raise our kids in Canada, in B.C., close to my parents, my husband's parents, we wanted them to have kind of a similar upbringing to what we both had."
Meanwhile, in the world of high-profile film development, another project with a Scorsese-Lawrence connection is making headlines. According to The Times of India, Mads Mikkelsen has joined Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming adaptation of Peter Cameron’s novel What Happens at Night. Mikkelsen will play Brother Emmanuel, joining DiCaprio and Lawrence as the film’s leads. The story centers on an American couple who travel to a wintry European city to adopt a child, only to find themselves in a strange hotel where reality seems to unravel. The plot, shrouded in secrecy, delves into themes of loneliness, doubt, and the psychological pressures that can fracture even the strongest relationships.
This marks another collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio, whose longstanding partnership has produced some of the most acclaimed films of recent decades. With Lawrence in a leading role and Mikkelsen’s addition to the cast, What Happens at Night is already generating significant buzz as one of the director’s most anticipated upcoming features. While production details remain tightly under wraps, the film’s high-profile cast and the psychological intrigue of its source material have made it a hot topic in the industry.
For Howard, the experience of working on a Scorsese-produced film and sharing the screen with actors like Lawrence and Pattinson has been nothing short of surreal. "Anytime I get to be in the room with people of that calibre, I try, and I hope I continue to just try to pull everything I can from these people, in terms of their inspiration, their work ethic, their ideas," she said. Her outlook remains grounded, however. "The more you can just kind of throw it to the universe and just have fun, at least in this industry, I found, for me, that's kind of when more of the things happen. ... Do your best and see what happens, and don't get too attached to anything."
As she looks ahead, Howard’s ambitions are simple but heartfelt: to keep growing as an artist, to collaborate with inspiring peers, and—above all—to keep making people laugh. "I love diving into darker characters and deceptive characters, because I think that's really fun to play. ... I constantly want to test my range and push myself to the edge of my comfort zone all the time, but at the same time, I'm just so happy to work. ... I love being on set and I love the collaboration."
With new projects in the pipeline and her roots firmly planted in Canadian soil, Howard’s star is rising fast—proof that sometimes, the biggest leaps in a career can come from taking a chance, trusting your instincts, and holding tight to the place you call home.