Bryce Dallas Howard on Body Image

Congratulations if you could get through the first episode of Black Mirror Season 3 without throwing down your phone in horror, because it was a truly eye-opening look at the pitfalls of social media. The premiere of Netflix's haunting anthology series stars Bryce Dallas Howard as Lacie, a bubbly young woman obsessed with improving her score in a society that's entirely based on ratings. Think of it as a heightened version of the virtual reality we already live in, only instead of swiping on Tinder, you're swiping on literally everything.

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The episode chronicles Lacie's journey to the wedding of her high-scoring friend Naomi (played by Alice Eve), and the inevitable breakdown she suffers as her rating slips. MarieClaire.com spoke to both Howard and Eve about the episode's unresolved mysteries, how it plays into body shaming (Howard gained 30 pounds just for the role), and their personal relationships with social media.

Marie Claire: What do you think happened after the "fuck you" shouting match at the end of the episode?

Alice Eve: Naomi was obviously really pissed off and would have planned Lacie's murder. There will be getting even. Naomi has to take her gloves off.

Bryce Dallas Howard: For me, that scene was freedom. The eyes were gone, there's no way for Lacie to be hooked into the system. It's like an electronic Sabbath. But what you see from the beginning is that Lacie wants an intimate, safe relationship with someone. For that scene, I was like, "this is a love scene." I think she finds love and finds herself in that moment. I can't see her reintegrating herself back into that society. It's like Plato's cave; you're privy to the illusion, but once you see the real world...you can never un-do that.

BDH: For me, that was a huge part of the subtext of the story, to the point where Lacie's in jail and she's taking off her size four sexy prom dress—I actually gained 30 pounds [for the episode], and I haven't lost all of it yet so I haven't been like "I gained 30 pounds!" Because I don't know if people can tell the difference. But Naomi says "I'll send you a size four," and obviously Lacie doesn't fit into it. At the end, she couldn't even zip the dress fully up. When she's in the cell, I wanted to play the moment like she was almost suffocating. She takes off the dress, and is metaphorically naked for the first time. That's the moment when she engages with her cellmate, and there's love, and she's accepted as she is.