The Happy Days star doesn’t expect his daughter to kick him out of nepotism. “If I’m not right for something, absolutely right, it doesn’t happen,” he said.
Before winning an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind and directing classic films like Apollo 13 and Cocoon, Ron Howard was one of America’s most popular screen actors. He began his career as a child star on The Andy Griffith Show and became a household name in the 1970s for his roles in Happy Days and American Graffiti.
But in the years since, he’s mostly spent his time working behind the camera (apart from his memorable stint as a narrator on Arrested Development). And in a new interview with Variety, Howard revealed he would only return to acting if his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard directed him.
“Probably Bryce,” Howard said. “It would probably be Bryce staging something and saying, ‘Dad, you really have to come and do this,’ or ‘You have to.’ Both would probably get me in the makeup chair and in front of the camera.”
However, Howard has no hopes that his daughter will cast him any time soon. After seeing her demonstrate her directing skills on shows like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, Howard knows she’s not the kind of filmmaker you cast because of nepotism.
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“She’s very perceptive and meticulous,” he said. “So if I’m not right for something, absolutely right, it doesn’t happen.”
Howard doesn’t seem to be concerned about that, however, as he has a successful directing career to keep himself busy. He recently appeared on IndieWire’s Consider This FYC Brunch to discuss the meticulous planning that went into recreating the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue in his latest film, Thirteen Lives.
“My whole interest in it was to understand, on a personal, granular level, what it was like to be there,” Howard said. “It was about using a lot of those POV shots and continuing to connect you. So different scenes would be connected to different characters and it would be a different kind of test and challenge. And of course the cave was moving and the water had to be a character. Both visually and from a sound design point of view, it was important to keep varying that.”
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