Typical: You spend $150 million on your effects-heavy summer blockbuster, and all people want to talk about is a character's choice of footwear. When "Jurassic World," the long-gestating sequel to the original "Jurassic Park" trilogy, opened internationally in June, the film's producers probably weren't expecting the media to focus on the shoes worn by its star.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays Claire Dearing, the power-dressing operations manager of a lucrative theme park populated by genetically engineered dinosaurs. When the park's latest attraction escapes and goes on a murderous rampage, Claire has to deal with the situation — dashing through the jungle, outrunning a Tyrannosaurus rex, stuff like that — in heels.

This simple wardrobe decision would end up dominating coverage of the film, as media pundits debated whether it was propagating sexist stereotypes or slyly subverting them. Reflecting on the experience during a promotional trip to Tokyo a month later, Howard sounds surprisingly sanguine.

"All the conversations — even the high-heel conversation — have been completely worthy," she says. "I mean, I know that it may seem superficial, but as it connected to women in film, female characters, and the journey of my character, and kind of what metaphorically it might represent ..." She pauses to catch her breath. "I could talk for hours about that."

From Charlize Theron's sensational performance in "Mad Max: Fury Road" to the "slut-shaming" controversy that besmirched "Avengers: Age of Ultron," this has been a good summer for conversations about Hollywood's depiction of women. Howard speaks eagerly about the research conducted by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which has identified alarming disparities in the allocation of speaking roles to male and female actors in popular films and television series.

"Even with extras, there's a disproportionate balance between the genders," Howard says. She describes how "Jurassic World" director Colin Trevorrow took pains to ensure that there was an equal gender split in the film's laboratory scenes, and deliberately focused shots on female rather than male scientists.

"It does require that kind of attention and mindfulness, I think," she says, "because for so long it's just become a habit, where it's like, 'Oh yeah, you know, 70 to 80 percent of speaking characters are male.' "

There was a fair amount of surprise when Trevorrow — a little-known director with a single feature to his name, the likeable indie hit "Safety Not Guaranteed" — was picked to helm "Jurassic World." But to hear Howard talk about it, the movie was always in safe hands. That had a lot to do with Steven Spielberg, director of the first two "Jurassic Park" movies, who acted as executive producer on the film and helped nurture its rookie director. Howard describes a "wonderful, supportive dynamic" between the two, though insists that Trevorrow remained in creative control.

"I mean, we all know that Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time," she says. "That's obvious — he's like the Meryl Streep of filmmakers. But his talent and his prowess as a producer, and as a mentor, have always been significant. That's something that I've been really aware of — because he was, and still is, a mentor to my dad."

Howard's dad — in case the surname and red hair weren't a giveaway — is none other than Oscar-winning director Ron, who made his name as Richie Cunningham in the TV sitcom "Happy Days" before moving behind the camera. Howard grew up without a television set at home, but was allowed to spend time on the sets of her father's movies; she even had cameos in his films "Parenthood" and "Apollo 13."

Yet when she was starting out as an actor, she refused to capitalize on the family name. For a while, she billed herself simply as Bryce Dallas; as she later joked with an interviewer, she only changed her mind after realizing it made her sound like a porn star.

In her late teens, Howard enrolled in the Tisch School of the Arts in New York, and immersed herself in the city's experimental theater scene with companies such as Theater Mitu. "We were always naked," she recalls. "I mean, it's like: you're 18 years old, you're going to school in New York City — you're gonna take off your clothes."

Her break came when M. Night Shyamalan — who was then regarded as a cinematic wunderkind, following the success of "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" — saw her playing Rosalind in a production of "As You Like It" at the Public Theater in 2003. Inviting the actress to lunch, he offered her the lead role in his next film, "The Village," without even asking her to audition.

What does she think he saw in her? "I don't know, man," she says. "That was crazy. That was really nuts."

Though the film and its 2006 follow-up, "Lady in the Water", both received a critical drubbing, Howard's performances drew widespread plaudits. But despite some memorable roles since then — Grace Mulligan in "Manderlay," Victoria in "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," Hilly Holbrook in "The Help" — she's never quite managed to reach A-list status. Prior to "Jurassic World," the last lead role she'd had was in 2008's little-seen Tennessee Williams drama, "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond."

All of which makes it even more surprising that she was offered "Jurassic World" after a Skype conversation with Trevorrow — no audition required. She says it's the kind of arrangement that happens for Hollywood actors "at a certain level — but I didn't perceive myself as being at that level."

Maybe she will be now. "Jurassic World" broke box-office records in June, beating "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" to earn the highest opening weekend gross of all time. And after years of making do with juicy support roles, it sounds like Howard is finally being considered for the leads.

"On the way over here, I read a script on the plane for a mainstream action film, and the main female character was extraordinary," she says. "I wrote the director, I was like, 'Dude, did you realize you wrote a feminist manifesto?' "

Maybe she can leave the heels at home next time.

"Jurassic World" is now playing in cinemas nationwide.