In Conversation: Ron Howard

The child star turned director has worked with everyone from Bette Davis to J. D. Vance. He has stories about all of them.

- By BILGE EBIRI

RON HOWARD BEGAN his Hollywood career in 1959, appearing in Anatole Litvak's Cold War drama The Journey, his first credited role, when he was 4 years old. In the 1960s, he became a TV star as Opie Taylor, the young son of Sheriff Andy Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show. As the old studio system was dying, the New Hollywood era was emerging; Howard found himself in the middle of it with a starring role in George Lucas's 1973 sleeper hit American Graffiti. By that point, Howard had already set his sights on directing and helmed his first feature, 1977's Grand Theft Auto for producer Roger Corman, while acting as Richie Cunningham on TV's Happy Days.¶ Since then, he has made many enduring movies, among them comedies Splash and Parenthood; blockbusters Cocoon, Backdraft, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and The Da Vinci Code; and award-winning hits Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon, and Cinderella Man. His new film, Eden, an intense epic set in the 1930s about a group of people trapped on an inhospitable island in the Galápagos, tells a crazy story full of terror, bloodlust, and sexual abandon. You'll find all the things Howard excels at as a director: an immersive sense of place, a fascination with extreme real-life personalities, and a nose for tales about families struggling under unimaginable pressure. As a director, a producer, and an actor, he probably understands the film business as well as anyone. “I do have commercial instincts and tastes,” he says, “but I've never really been driven by that.”

I'm sure everyone says this to you, but it is funny meeting you because I feel like I grew up with you.

Sometimes parents will want to introduce me to their kids and are kind of perplexed because they can't really put it together.

Because the kids don't necessarily—