Trenton Resident Neva Howell Adds Heart To Latest Superman Film As Ma Kent

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

If Trenton residents head to the movie theaters this weekend, they might recognize a familiar face on the silver screen. Neva Howell plays Martha “Ma” Kent in “Superman,” the latest film about everyone’s favorite Kryptonian, which comes out July 11.

When she’s not traveling for auditions or filming, Howell lives in Trenton and stays busy with online resale. She enjoys parts of this job, but it mainly helps pay the bills so that she can pursue acting.

“I think I was born acting,” she said. Howell recalled acting out songs in front of her family as a child, “making MTV music videos, basically, before MTV. I was always thinking in terms of storytelling.”

Her family moved around quite a bit while Howell was growing up, so she attended several schools including North Sand Mountain before graduating in Dade County (Northwest Georgia High School). Howell took part in the fine arts offerings at each school, including glee and drama clubs. “Those were my favorite parts of the school day. That’s what I lived for.”

While attending Northeast Alabama Community College in Rainsville, Ala., she performed in every play put on in her time as a student, and she met Ann Everitt, the head of the college’s drama department. Everitt convinced Howell to audition for the National Shakespeare Conservatory (an acting school in New York City that closed in 1998). Howell was accepted to the conservatory for the summer program and then moved to Los Angeles, Calif., where she lived with her uncle in her early 20s.

“That was my first foray into Hollywood,” she said. “Absolutely nothing happened because I had no money, no experience, no car, and no agent. It was an exercise in futility, but it taught me what I was up against.”

She returned home, but a decade later, she decided to try Hollywood again—this time with a little bit of money in the bank. She found an agent and landed her first regional commercial, which paid well. Then, she was cast in a national commercial for Little Caesars Pizza, but two days before filming, the writers cut her role from the commercial. “That taught me to not count on it—not even if it’s already been filmed—until it’s aired.”

Once again, she returned to the southeast (to Tennessee) where she found a local agent. In the early 1990s, she began landing some roles in TV shows that were filmed in the southeast, like a supporting role in “The Conviction of Kitty Dodds.”

After about another decade, she decided to give Hollywood one more try. This time, she left because of the traffic. She remembers calling her mother from Melrose Boulevard. “I told her, ‘It’s taken me an hour and a half to go 18 miles. I’m coming home.’”

Thankfully, this was about the time that Georgia’s film industry took off in Atlanta. (Much of “Superman” was filmed in Macon.) Howell completed eight projects in 2016, affirming her decision to move back to the southeast.

During the first few Ma Kent auditions, all Howell knew about the role was that the director of the unknown movie was looking for a Kansas farmer’s wife. She was given a “dummy script” to keep the role a secret.

Before the second audition, James Gunn (the director) sent her a tape featuring the Kansas dialect he was looking for. “A lot of it was similar to Alabama, but some of it was very different,” Howell said. She reached out to an actress friend in Nashville, Angela Fox, who is from Kansas. Between tips from Fox and memorizing and recreating the tape from Gunn, Howell proved that she could speak the dialect authentically.

After this, Howell finally knew that the role was Ma Kent in a new Superman movie. She accepted the first offer sent her way, but this didn’t mean she had the role yet.

Next came screen tests at Trilith Studies in Atlanta: Ma Kent playing with a young Clark Kent and a chemistry test with the potential Pas. The second chemistry test Howell did was with Pruitt Taylor Vince. Because he’s known for often playing villainous roles, Howell thought Vince was an unusual choice, “but from the first word out of his mouth, I thought, ‘This has to be Pa.’”

At the end of the full day of screen tests, Gunn called Howell over and told her, “We don’t want you to have to wait any longer. We want you to be our Ma.” Howell said, “He really took a chance with me because I’m not like any of the Mas we’ve seen recently.”

Of her fellow “Superman” actors, Howell thinks this role will be life-changing for David Corenswet (Superman) as well as Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane) and Nicholas Hoult (Lex Luthor). Gunn has said that this movie is largely about the dynamic of these three characters, but Howell also loves how Ma and Pa support the heart of the story. “Ma and Pa, to me, are the heart of it, regardless of how big or small their roles are. They are the heart of who Superman is. They gave him his moral compass.”

While Ma Kent is easily her favorite (and most notable) role so far, Howell also enjoyed her roles in “Ghost of the Ozarks,” “Greedy People,” and “A Painted House.” In addition to these films, she’s been on several popular TV series, “The Originals” and “The Resident.”

As for dream roles, Howell doesn’t have one—she has dream directors and co-actors instead. “Even a role that might not be that special to begin with, in the hands of the right director and co-actors, can become special.” She enjoyed working with Tim Blake Nelson and would like to work with him again, and she would love to be in a film directed by Ron Howard.

She also enjoyed being directed by Gunn. “He’s so different from anybody that I’ve ever worked with. He has an insane confidence that allows him to just play, and he’s able to do that with the weight of this project on his shoulders.”

This is the first DC Studios movie since Gunn took over the DC Universe, but Howell said you would never have known that Gunn was under pressure. “Because he’s so relaxed and chill and just having fun, us actors are able to relax and have fun.”

Ma Kent is exactly the type of character Howell looks for. She likes playing good, down to earth people in films that make a positive impact, but, she said, “if my playing a dark, mean, or even evil character will help illuminate light, then that’s fine with me.”

Becoming an A-lister living in New York or Los Angeles was never really Howell’s goal, but she still imagines interviews about her roles. “In my mind, I’ve seen myself talking to Oprah. I’ve had these imaginary conversations about whatever film I’m in.”

Making money while being able to do what she loves would be a blessing to Howell, but it’s not top priority. “I’ve been a starving actress since I started, but if money was all it was about, they could never pay me enough. For me, it’s the reward of playing a role that I think will have an impact and playing it well to where I’m happy with it. I’m happy with Ma; I just hope the fans are too.”