Ron Howard: Clint's addiction, 47+ years of marriage and rejected by George Lucas

so I actually wanted to start by talking about your book which I I read and is amazing oh thank you um I I know Tom Hanks in a way provided the kind of early nudge nudged us people would ask me from the publishing world what you know did I did I ever think I would do an autobiography or Martin and I always said no don't think so but I asked Tom one day and he said well if you ever do it focus on your childhood that's what everybody's most curious about when our dad passed away rants um Clint and I were spending time sort of clearing out the house and preparing for this memorial service that we were gonna you know stage on Dad's behalf and telling a lot of stories and having a lot of laughs and shedding a few tears and and and uh and and I said you know here's what Tom has always said um do a book about the childhood I don't want to do that by myself but I would I wouldn't mind doing it with you and you know what it would be a chance to share a lot of these stories and feelings uh and the uniqueness of our of our family you know mom and dad were um you know they were immigrants I mean they they their examples of um of that kind of American dream of of no no inside track into show business but a tremendous passion and they were they were of a generation just right after the war that had that kind of confidence and enough resources to just by God take a shot at it whether their family wanted them to or not and uh you know and they did and they and they changed the course of of uh of the family I don't I wouldn't have been that kind of pioneer they were the dreamers from Oklahoma that decided they were going to give Show Business a shot and I would have given them no chance I mean my dad was a hick you know and my mom was you know came from a small town and and you know these people just don't make an intro business I wouldn't have bet on them at all but they had the intestinal fortitude uh your mom it seemed like really dedicated her life to making her kids and her husband as big of a success as possible what was it that uh you did that makes you regret uh how you handle things with her well um in retrospect my mom probably had OCD some version of OCD um and and some anxiety disorders um she had some health issues she smoked even though dad was constantly trying to get her to quit smoking which ultimately did but not until she had emphysema um and that bothered you that she didn't quit it bothered me my dad was you know incredible self-discipline and I felt like she wasn't taking care of her health and I I disrespected that I disres I disrespected some of her eccentricities and and uh um and I and I you know in growing up in that household you know I loved her she was amazing but but I'd also tease her as I became a teenager and would be dismissive and and it wasn't until later as I started to have kids myself and as I began to see her deal with even more serious illness and I could see what a warrior she was and I would have these kinds of conversations with my dad where I would begin to recognize how profoundly she had influenced the course of his life and therefore our lives in in her belief in in what I'm a career in this business could be like and her excitement around that I I had misunderstood her I had underestimated her and uh and I think I told her but not enough um you know and then she and then she was gone in doing the audio version of the book I really kind of almost broke down a couple of times talking about her in in in reading the passages that that I'd read that I'd written about her I was going to say I can even now see it like touches you thinking about it well I have so few regrets in my life and you know to to feel that in some way you didn't communicate to your mother everything she meant it it does it hit me it it hits me hard Ron said the he regrets the way he treated her at times what do you think of that I think he's right and I think I'm guilty of that too how so I think we kind of jumped on the pick on Mom bandwagon and and I certainly cherish mom more than I did when she was around you know we didn't do anything nasty but my God she was such a Dynamo and I think I think that she realized we realized that but I wish we would have done it more and what makes you say you cherish her more boy Graham this is going to get kind of hard what she did for Dad she was she was really dad's Rock the last thing she was articulating to us when she passed was about her husband oh that was beautiful um that was amazing so um you know she's in the hospital for the last time she was trying to say something and so we got her a yellow pad and a pencil took her a long time to write this very weak but she was writing and finally I could see that she'd written rants my dad's name good loves to Act and that's what she wrote that's what she wanted to tell me and I told it to Cheryl and she says she wants to make sure you take care of your dad that's what she wants that's what she cares about so cast your father whenever you can of course which I always happily did you wrote about your dad here he was in his first full year of living and working in California expecting to At Last fulfill A Dream Deferred by the Korean War and then some good fortune broke his way but it wasn't in the form of a bonanza of work for him but for his little kid of all people maybe that turned into his superpower in terms of being your acting coach I mean it was basic actor Studio stuff it was stanislawski but distilled and presented in a way that that I at four and five and six years old and Clint even earlier two three four we can understand it and participate in a in a in a process um and it was all about logic it was all about really understanding the scene understanding what the character is thinking I mean it was basic stuff but it's not something that kids are often empowered with um because kids are often prompted to just sort of perform to sort of make a face make a sound act like you're crying we'll paint some tears on so his thing would be he would before I could read he would read it and we would start learning the lines and line by line he would say and see here's the situation now Opie doesn't want to do his homework and of course his dad wants him to do his homework but he Opie's trying to explain why he doesn't have to do his homework or whatever the scene might be so when he says this line oh Paul uh I don't think that's really very important you know that he's just trying to get his dad to to stop pressuring him you know so you just break it down in the most granular way to the point where sometimes there'd be a scene in The Andy Griffith Show where Opie was getting away with something I sort of remember asking him geez would that work for me [Laughter] my dad very quickly said no this is a scene in a TV show and in real life he would not get away with that uh so don't even try it dad's special gift was he wasn't intimidated by anybody or any situation he was with Andy Griffith and Don Knotts and Aaron Rubin and Sheldon Leonard and these very powerful people in Show Business and yet dad was the guy that would raise his hand and say you know excuse me I don't think this is going in the right direction I think that you're writing Opie to be too bratty and I you know listen I I think that might get you guys laughs but I believe if you have a really good honest relationship between Opie and and his father that it will play better and you know my God for for a 30 year old guy from Oklahoma that stand up just when he gets his foot in the door in Show Business he's putting himself in a position to get kicked right right in the the chestnuts you know and and yet he did it in a way to where Andy listened and Sheldon listened and they came back and they said you know you're right rants you're right let's let's try to make it you know more of an honest relationship boy didn't that set up the show well didn't that decision to not make Opie a little jerk work out really really well for The Andy Griffith Show that's Pop I want to take you to if I could a moment where after the Andy Griffith shows wrapped you're 14. it's a wrap party and Andy gets on the mic and says he wants to say something all right take it from there we didn't really have big wrap parties at the end of each season but this was different we were the number one show in television and yet Andy wanted to move on and that's what was going to happen and I was okay with it you know I wasn't like all year tormented by this I was really interested in sports already beginning to think about directing loved going back to regular schools even though there were always some challenges there but when it hit on that last day of shooting and then we went to the wrap party that this was this was it for The Andy Griffith Show um and Andy was up there on the microphone talking I just started sobbing I realized I was leaving something behind that was you know more than a job it was a way of life it was a big part of my life these people were like family um and I was going to miss them terribly and I didn't suddenly didn't know what it was going to be like to not have that show in my future and those people in my future almost 20 years later uh we did a reunion movie of the week and I was asked to come back and be grown up Opie and I was directing by then I'd left Happy Days I was busy but Andy asked if I would do it I sure would I said I would do it and my sense of who they were as kind of wonderful people and how lucky I was to to to know him and to be working with them um was completely unspoiled by my experience with them 20 years later it was just great that I could realize that those childhood memories were accurate how much did you get picked on growing up well I got I got picked on a lot at school um and every time I would come back to public school it would be um kind of a an issue um it you know as a little kid it's just teasing and people staring and asking a lot of questions and and uh laughing at about me and giggling and things like that um that was to the point where I wasn't sure I wanted to go back to public school anymore but by the time I'd adjusted to it then the next year when the next year rolled around yeah I wanted to go back to Stevenson Elementary School in Burbank California and I never questioned whether I wanted to stay in the Burbank system from that point forward but you know it got to the point where you know I was having to basically know that I was going to have a week or so of wrestling matches and fist fights and um and that affected you how well I was willing to face it um but I um I I don't I I don't think I ever really felt safe and comfortable almost anywhere other than a movie or or movie or TV Sound Stage I mean or my home you know and uh uh so I I think that really shaped my personality it's all about peeing your pants oh well in in elementary school you know I I uh I'm so anxious that I didn't really want to go into the boys Laboratory um it wasn't about seeing body parts or anything it was just like I felt vulnerable in there and I was just kind of a little embarrassed and I kept trying to hold it hold it hold it and one day I just couldn't make it and I just literally my bladder just emptied there um you know with like four minutes left in the school day and of course that was a big laugh and I was so embarrassed and emotional coming out of there um you know accidents happen to kids and they get emotional but for me with the sort of this kind of uh Opie taunting and just you know I just didn't want to be the butt of a joke nobody does and um and I had a lot of that well later in in High School uh um the uh I didn't have so much of that what was it about what Paul McCartney said to you that impacted how you viewed speaking about being a child star yeah it was really interesting because I'd interviewed Sir Paul a couple of times and he had seen eight days a week our documentary about the Beatles in their in their touring years and really felt good about it and he said you know I used to feel like I I couldn't afford to spend too much time talking about the Beatles Because it might cast a shadow over what I was trying to do you know with my with my work you know in the present moment and he said I've a couple of years ago I just put that aside and I just recognized that my work today stands for itself for what it's worth but here's this part of my life that was defining means a lot to me it means a lot to other people but it means even more to me and I haven't been really sharing that and um it's it it's it's been really liberating to to be more open and and feel free to talk about it and in retrospect there's no question that that informed my decision to go ahead and write the boys with Clint um and uh my success as a child actor either The Andy Griffith Show or Happy Days uh must not be compared to what they achieved with the Beatles and the lasting um impact that band has had on popular culture but I do understand you know his ongoing ambition I I feel that but there was a lot of wisdom in what he was saying and I kind of even in that moment felt myself just relax a little bit and uh what why do you think it was there was well because here you know here was somebody who who still has this fire in the belly creatively I could see it when I was interviewing him when the interview was over you know he was taking me over and playing me you know tracks he just recorded and you know here he was like he couldn't contain himself I mean he was he was he'd start moving and kind of dancing and singing along with the lyrics and stopping and making changes and talking to the engineer and I could just see how energized he was by the creativity of the moment and so I recognize that ambition that idea to go beyond to keep reaching um to keep to keep trying to come up with something else for audiences uh you know that ex is an expression of yourself so I respected that and for him to then turn around and say you know what else I've learned is that I own my past and it takes nothing away from the present for me to talk about it and and appreciate it I was robbing myself of the appreciation and I I just recognize the wisdom of those words and I um you know and I feel that way about about talking about it and I'm I'm glad I came to that conclusion before writing the boys so I know you love rehearsing um somebody else that loved it quite a lot was John Wayne well yeah the very first time that I met him I arrived in Carson City Nevada I was met by the director Don Siegel um in in the hotel and Siegel says let's take you up and meet Duke and uh you know this is this was his last movie The Shootist um but but you know he was it was epic in every in every way so we're heading toward the elevator through the hotel lobby we walk by this sort of the gift in Sundries shop and there is the magazine stand and right there is is a TV guide and that week Henry Winkler and I happened to be posing in our Happy Days costumes on the cover and he said oh this is great I'm gonna buy this and and and show Duke and I was like well I I don't know are you sure you want to show the Happy Days thing I you know I I don't know he said oh no he'll love it he'll love it so he bought it we got in the elevator we went up opened the door meet John Wayne he's giant he doesn't have his hair piece on those he's a giant bald man and it reaches out his hand good to meet you and it just dwarfs my hand I mean just uh I don't know how tall he was six six seven but his hands were like a seven footer I mean he was just huge and it's like I've shook hands with Shaq O'Neal it's kind of like that yeah and so then Don Siegel says hey look Duke uh look at this and he hands him the hands him the TV Guide John Wayne sort of Squints at it looks at me looks back down at it looks at me he says Ah big shot huh and I thought oh man I'm screwed now but I had a fine meeting and as we started shooting you know I realized we had a lot of dialogue together but I just could see that he was fighting the lines and and I was a little nervous about it too and I said you want to run lines and he said yeah we went to his trailer and started running lines and he loved it so that became our ritual and people were otherwise kind of on edge or terrified of him people were really careful around him and you know it's not that he was throwing fits and kicking over c-stands and you know throwing boxes around or anything but you know they gave him space he was the Duke right and I just realized that other people weren't engaging with him but he was an actor and you know and wanted to make sure he had the scene under control and we developed a a great Rapport you know six months after filming wrapped he was interested in working with you again yeah we crossed paths at AFI dinner honoring Henry Fonda I had done a TV show with Henry Fonda so I was invited and I saw him and he said I found a book I want to make it into a movie and it's you and me or it's nobody and by this time we also kind of knew he was ill and declining and so it was really poignant to first to see that he still had that drive um but also to know that he you know he wanted to work together again which made meant a lot to me you know I worked with John Wayne I worked with Glenn Ford Shirley Jones Henry Fonda briefly with Jimmy Stewart I directed Betty Davis um uh there was something that I was learning early in my career from all of these people very different personalities and that is a respect for the audience and a respect for the medium and the process and a measure of professionalism um and um and kind of quality control that they carry with them to their work and so I was working with people who were you know fully established Superstars had won all the Oscars they were going to win and yet still wanting to work and when they showed up it was it was winning time it was time to be good it was time to try to be great how much did John Wayne's wish that he had directed more stick with you well it certainly um impressed me um and you know and he was such a big star and uh and also at a time when actors just didn't really do that but um you know this really fueled my dream and my ambition you mentioned on the walk this morning your Mentor George Lucas yeah tell about auditioning for him six times and then the one-on-one meeting everybody my age was going in for auditions on on this it was you know I had a crazy title American Graffiti but at this point I hadn't read a script and it was described as a musical I went in for my first meeting and I Met George I did say I hear this is a musical and I I know I haven't read a script yet or anything but I want to let you know I know I did the music man but they must have thought it was cute that I couldn't sing because I'm really not a very good singer and he said nobody sings nobody has to sing it's it's a musical but nobody sings when I finally read the script I still didn't understand why he was calling it a musical and later I realized he had written um every scene with a specific uh 50s rock and roll song in mind and the the sort of the soundtrack of the movie was what made it a musical to him but again that's George with his lateral thinking I mean he's just an outlier and everything about that project was was something brand new to me I learned so much kept going through this audition process finally we were doing improvs we did some scripted things finally I was teamed with Cindy Williams who sadly just passed away and we want won the role but it was our sixth audition over a period of about six months and uh I asked George about it later and he said yeah it took me that long to find the cars too uh so again he was looking at this thing holistically he was creating a world we were a part of it but he didn't want to direct us too much he wanted us to be very naturalistic and I told him then that I'd been accepted to USC film school and that I wanted to be a filmmaker and he said oh great he said make sure you study animation because it's that's pure filmmaking animation is pure filmmaking and he said you know you don't have to worry about the actors and things like that I thought well this is kind of a crazy thing to say to one of your actors in your one meeting before you're going to go off and shoot the movie but you know George wasn't censoring himself uh he was trying to be helpful you said that George never quite figured out how to talk to actors how so George is very result oriented and he has something in his head and he counted on the actors to get it there but he didn't think of himself as a performance Whisperer and yet you look at the performances in American Graffiti and they're very a very Cutting Edge I mean they were they were his so honest and that Honesty was just what that movie uh needed just as the sort of the um faster more intense direction that he gave everybody over and over again in Star Wars that was his main Direction faster and more intense but that was right for Star Wars so he I think more than anything great eye for casting you missed that one right uh Star Wars I couldn't even get a damn audition for Star Wars but you didn't think anything of it when he first brought it up to you right I was saying to George well do you know what you want to do next and he said maybe I kind of I'm just starting to kind of write the story for it and I said well what would it be and he said what would be science fiction you know but it would use all the special effects and the technical breakthroughs that you could see in 2001 Space Odyssey so I'd want to do what Kubrick did but but I wanted to be fast and I wanted to be you know full of action um kind of like Flash Gordon and uh and that's about all he said and sounded really terrible to me really lame that man a vision clearly knew that I didn't fit into his vision because I couldn't even not only did I not to get get to read the script I couldn't even get in for an audition so it's the eighth season of Happy Days uh you have already at this point had as much success as any child actor could possibly have yet you make the pretty extraordinary decision to leave the show right to pursue directing yeah why well um the entire time that I was that I was under contract and doing Happy Days my dream was to be a filmmaker and I felt like that the Clock Was ticking a little bit on me I was 26 27 and I'd been directing for a few years I was just I had you know I lost patience with not being able to devote I mean all my energies to making that transition and giving that it's its chance I was I was married already I really didn't have children yet but starting to think about a family and uh um and and when I Cheryl completely supported me turning down the the what would have been a huge raise um and uh and when I did pass the head of Television said look I I uh I just have to ask you one question you know have you done the math and I said yeah I've done it I've done it but um but uh you know I think I you know I have to make this move a lot of it just came from the fact that um I I really wanted some guarantees from Paramount Pictures and and ABC that they would that they would allow me to direct not happy days we had a great director Jerry Paris I wanted to direct a feature and I wanted them to facilitate that and they simply would not make any kind of guarantee how much truth is there really to Opie gets laid I hope he gets laid well uh it's true that it went through my mind um it it endured out of Syria as a serious idea for probably about two and a half to three seconds you know yeah I hope he gets laid would would have probably made Ron a million dollars and he could have gone off and made a movie but I'm glad he just he steered away from that because I don't think anybody really wanted to see Opie get laid a lot of times in life um I'll think about the fact that my dad has a public profile that isn't embarrassing is massive and if he had done Opie gets laid it's just I just I wouldn't be in this business good joke great for the Letterman show but do you think that the fact that Paramount wouldn't make that guarantee to you looking back's the best thing that could have ever happened I was already in motion if if they had if they had made those commitments I would have done the show and made the movies I might not have fallen in in step with Brian um and uh and I think you know I think that partnership has really you know been a huge defining factor in my in my um in my career as a director what is directing less exhausting to you than acting well um acting creates a lot of insecurity at least it does for me um because I you know I want to be excellent but I but I feel limited you know I've limited tools I always felt that and meaning you just didn't think you were as good of an actor as some of the other greats yeah I don't you know I never felt like I was a could create a character and like will a moment into existence the way other great actors who have seen since can um I thought I was naturalistic I thought I had good comedy timing I thought I was a good soldier but I didn't feel particularly creative acting as soon as I began directing I felt like I'm I'm this is what I'm really suited for I'm a more creative person when I'm working behind the camera than I ever ever was in front of it I know you called yourself an actors director uh Brian those says too there is a point at which you will shut an actor down regardless of their their stature if you were adamant in your Creative Vision you know I'm The Keeper of the story so if if if an act if an actor isn't realizing a pivotal moment a key moment that's a building block toward realizing the potential of the story then I that's where I have to intervene and now you'll do what it's easier now that I with my resume and and credentials and so forth by but um just dig in and say you know we need this moment does that ever still happen with big stars today no I haven't it hasn't happened in ages and ages uh to me um but I'm if what I've what I've really learned to do is to approach those kinds of moments with with a kind of clarity and logic and if you're if you can talk about acting with you know Amy Adams or Kate Blanchett or Tom Hanks or Russell Crowe or Glenn Close these world-class talents and you and they recognize that you understand what it's going to take for them to flourish and you can talk about the script um with it with a with with a a clear with also with a Clarity and a depth and a lot help them align their characters with that moment um it it doesn't it doesn't very often come to an impasse and and when it does you can finally play that card of no I just I just need a take that achieves this and they know that that there have to but the other thing is is that if you demonstrate over and over a leadership style which is which which covets input which is excited by other people's ideas and people recognize that you're thrilled to say yes to an idea that that works early on I was so terrified that I I was the youngest person on the set with with all the responsibility and and I I kind of had to I couldn't afford to ever show any weakness I thought that that meant I had to have all the answers and when I began to to recognize that that I could create back and forth a creative interaction that could up my game and and bring out more of you know the actors or great cinematographers production designers editors composers then you know my work got a lot better you know in film it's a director's medium it's his vision you know the writer can write beautiful words and set up a beautiful sort of the story and and yet it finally is the director who is taking the material the performances the cruise technical expertise and he's molding it into you know a vision Ron realizes the buck finally stops with the director um and Ron has a wonderful way of getting Great Performances out of actors how did you charm Betty Davis she was hard and charm that was an important step for me Anson Williams came up with that idea for that project it was called Skyward it was about a paraplegic girl who dreamed of flying and Betty Davis was going to play this sort of crusty aerobatic pilot who would eventually be her instructor and and give her this opportunity to soar and I had some disagreements with her about the character and and I was having to you know over the phone sort of tell her here's who I was going to cast and here's here's how I thought the character should look and there were it was back and forth it was kind of tense and she kept calling me Mr Howard and I I said well Miss Davis uh you know just feel free to call me Ron please and she said no I will call you Mr Howard until I decide whether I like you or not and hung up the phone so now I've never worked with a superstar at this point I've worked with friends and family and people my age and peers and people who just felt lucky to have the job you know and on the movies that I done up to that point and I was tossing and turning and it was my dad who said you know just don't be afraid to direct her because she's she's a major Talent she's a multiple Oscar winner she knows she needs Direction every good actor knows they need leadership so you know don't get in their way but respect her process but do your job and so on that very first day we were shooting in Texas Plano Texas in August it was like hitting 100 degrees by you know 8 A.M in the morning we were shooting out on this Airfield and uh I knew that William Weiler was her favorite director great director but he always directed in a suit and a tie so I showed up in a suit and attack and I went up to give her her first Direction and she really overreacted in this big Betty Davis way she said oh you startled me I saw this child walking up to me and I wondered you know what what of any consequence could this child possibly have to say to me does the big Betty Davis laugh all of this is loud enough for the crew to hear and so I did I laughed too and gave her the direction anyway and walked off and was popping Tums and just thought oh man this is going to be a long a long one it's gonna be a long road and during the course of the day we were going through the shooting and at a certain point I had to give her a direction she disagreed with it but I said well please just try it she said okay I'll try it it was a staging adjustment or something and she turned and moved on the line that I suggested instead of where she was where her you know where her instincts were telling her to leave and uh and she did it and said you're right works much better let's shoot so we did that anyway we were going along fine during the course of the day now it's about 4 30 or 5 and I said well Miss Davis you're you're finished for today we have another scene to do but uh great first day uh see you tomorrow she said okay Ron see you tomorrow and then she patted me on the ass uh and I thought well I okay we're on the Betty Davis ride uh but I'd won her over didn't mean that there weren't arguments and tense moments ahead but when it was all over she said keep it up you could be another Wilder I haven't turned out to be as great as Weiler uh he's in the ultra Elite uh but it certainly gave me a lot of confidence what about Jim Carrey and the contact lenses on the Grinch I felt like I was it was the Spanish Inquisition and I was The Inquisitor I could tell that the costume and you know especially the contact lenses were just tormenting Jim he was having panic attacks uh to the point where you know literally he'd be breathing into a paper bag in between setups just trying to hang on because he just he felt claustrophobic in the costume but we'd already filmed it he wanted to wear that costume he wanted to create that character I tried to do things just to cheer him up you know like like one day I put on the Grinch suit so that I could suffer along with him and and I could let him know just yeah I could see now how miserable it really was was it that bad uh yeah it was terrible it was itchy it was on you know and I didn't even have to have the contact lenses which made it worse so he appreciated that I was at least willing to suffer with him one day I surprised him he loved Don Knotts Don Knotts played Barney on The Andy Griffith Show and I hadn't seen Don in a long time but I called Don and I said would you come over and hang out on the set one day Jim Carrey idolizes you and he's going through hell on this project and so I snuck Don in and I threw the speaker I said uh hey Jim look over here look at look at me um there's somebody down here wants to see you and he looked and he squinted through those contact lenses and he could see it was Don Knotts and I wish I'd had the camera rolling because he immediately went into his Don Knott's impression Jim's a genius impressionist and he did a perfect Don Knotts in the Grinch costume the whole crew was just laughing he came down spent an hour hanging out with with uh with Don and it really elevated him the thing that really ultimately helped was that Brian actually found somebody from I think he was an Navy SEAL or an xcia operative or something like that who who trained agents how to deal with torture and um this guy worked with Jim to help him develop survival techniques and uh you know and Jim Jim made it through but you know yeah that moment where Jim is saying I'm done I'll give the money back I'll pay with interest I just can't finish the movie of course I wanted to finish the movie but I also you know I also understood the kind of Agony he was going through and you know whatever he had to do he'd have to do Robert De Niro you said he's not a guy who invented he was reflective uh how did that impact your future process well I directed Robert De Niro and Backdraft I wanted to sort of recreate that the whole cowboy mentality and the environment around the Chicago Fire Department which was unique in that in that at that time at that time in a lot of ways very old school Robert De Niro came in to do a role it was only four weeks of shooting he could have phoned this in but instead he really doubled down on his own research as this sort of forensic fire investigator and once we started rolling I realized that he had met three different fire investigators and now he had he had the body language of one of them the speech Cadence and of another and and the sort of the cocky attitude uh of a third and I realized that these Vivid characters that he had created um so memorably weren't were not coming from his imagination they were coming from what he could observe and learn and then sort of meld and you know and share through you know his instrument him as an actor it kind of blew my mind and it taught me in a way how to how to research the next film was Apollo 13 which was all about accuracy and authenticity and slowly but surely I just began to find real joy and creativity Ingenuity through the research through the fact finding and then finding ways to use everything that I learned about drama and comedy for that matter to sort of present these ideas to audiences in ways that could be really you know compelling and entertaining but rich with detail I know you always wanted to work with Jack Nicholson uh ever get that chance I tried very very hard to get Jack Nicholson to play Richard Nixon uh in in Frost Nixon Franklin gel had been brilliant on stage but the studio was interested in in in in going after bigger Stars if we could ultimately Frank langella did the role and did it brilliantly he was nominated for best actor so and in the end I wouldn't change a thing but I I met with Nicholson many times and just said I think he'd be brilliant in this and uh and uh he he said I just don't think I'm that guy I don't think I can do that then he suggested we go after Warren Beatty and we spent Brian Grazer Peter Morgan who wrote wrote and also was one of the producers and and I spent a lot of time talking to Warren Warren came close and then saw Frank's performance in New York and said I can't touch that it's his he should do it I I'm bow out and uh I you know both of those experiences would have been really interesting for me but I wouldn't trade it for for langella and everything he brought to frost Nixon what do you think the relationship with Brian works I mean the relationship with Brian is so paradoxical because they're very very very very very different but there's also an innocence that I feel with my dad that I also feel with Brian there's like a real kind of like I don't know if it's a it's the ability to have a beginner's mind or something like an excitement that both my dad and Brian share that is incredibly youthful and very energizing and has allowed them to create and create and create and create when I sort of found him and we began working together and found we had the kind of professional chemistry and we were friends and we could really get things done together he was very very clearly a solution to a problem in my mind which was that despite the fact that I was getting gaining experience as a director that I was you know on a top television show I had a name in the industry going back to the 1960 with the Andy Griffith Show all the movies American Graffiti and Music Man and other things it was turning that corner and and actually getting feature films made Brian just had a Clarity of purpose and he was also very creative so it wasn't just a business guy he understood the whole process at a very young age he knew how to get things done and somehow The Leverage that I had to offer combined with his energy and focus and experience and we could we could accomplish things night shift did for your guys relationship um it was huge in building a a trust in a relationship with one another first of all it was it was a successful movie so that was good I mean it wasn't a big hit like Splash but it was successful in it and the Machine of the movie worked really well I understand that him following through with directing Splash uh had a big impact on developing trust between the two of you yeah as well why was that because I promised that the studio wouldn't re-cut his movie I had to get the insurance from the chairman of the board and the board itself that they wouldn't re-cut Ron Howard's movie and that then he felt safe to go direct this film otherwise he wouldn't have done it tell about what you guys will do with your wives and the limo on opening night so we're getting a limo and have a bottle or two of a great Bordeaux and we'd be drink the great Bordeaux as we were going through the in and out burger and we'd go from theater to theater on a Friday night and run in and stand in the back and see if how big the audience was was it was a house full were they reacting were they laughing were they involved and that's that became a tradition for us that we did for at least 20 years what did you guys enjoy about it you enjoyed feeling that you turned nothing into something and you know you turned an ether into a fully animated object you know yeah and that people were um it was reaching them emotionally and and that was a big deal for us and we were each getting a lot done separately but we you know when we began to have conversations about you know should we just should we just align and and build a company I think we both just felt that our creative chemistry could just broaden our reach and the capacity of what we could do and and and what we could and what we could earn and and the opportunities that we could offer other people too and that continues to be sort of what supercharges imagine what's something after all these years that each of you do that gets on one another's nerves well I probably do more things that you get on his nerves than he could get on mine like because he's not he's not quirky like that he's he's the guy that you want to hang out with for a year and I'm the guy that you want to hang out with for five days I mean I might be much more exciting for five days but you're you're gonna you'll last a year with Ron Howard easily uh Brian's obviously an emotional guy uh but the singular point he got emotional and our conversation the other day uh was talking about you not getting nominated for best director for Apollo 13. oh really yeah and it was surprising to me that even all these years later it was still very like visibly painful for him wow your thoughts on that well you know it's um we root for each other you know oh that was the most terrible thing in his life I think and could you feel that I felt horrible for him did you yeah I mean I feel horrible just thinking about it right now oh what what about it uh affects you because it's so sad I mean it's he gets the movie itself um got nine Oscar nominations and was very favored to win Apollo 13. and it was just a critics darling and it was very successful and how does that happen without the director it's just and it would just um the Prejudice of that or the reason that happened I don't I won't even I won't identify what it is it's just it was um it didn't make any sense my dad is really identifies as a director and he is definitely producing the movies alongside Brian well he never felt like he had to take that credit like he never felt like he needed a producing credit because you know he really values what Brian does and he didn't want to undermine that and Apollo 13 was such a labor of love and my dad in particular just really pushed himself as as a leader as an artist as a Storyteller uh did things that were dangerous did things that no one thought possible in order to make a movie that has really stood the test of time when the film got nominated my dad was not one of the people nominated so any sort of wonderful sort of like yay we he he technically wasn't part of that we and I think that that was that was a defining moment where he was like I'm not just a director for hire you know I developed these things from the beginning he said he shared that disappointment with his kids because he didn't want his kids to think that everything for him Works easily so that makes me sad though that made me really sad even all these years later yeah why do you think that still sticks with you I don't know it just does got him you know what a history together and and that in and of itself is is emotional and rare so rare and it feels good to have that trust and also to feel safe in in being emotionally vulnerable well with somebody and to know somebody is you know is pulling in your direction it means a lot to me and I think it means a lot to Brian what did it mean to you then to see him finally win that blew my mind I loved it can you describe that moment well no it was it was amazing because we were very very favored to win but we were very favored to win on Apollo 13 so we both were very anxious even though it seemed you know all the all the stars moons and planets were aligning themselves um no it was thrilling to have to have him win and then to have Tom Hanks give us the Oscar it was amazing right the whole thing was kind of perfect how close were you to getting a different director for A Beautiful Mind well there was a different director originally and I'd let uh I changed directors and then it was an opened assignment and there were a lot of directors that wanted to do it including Ron because he was now available but I did want Ron to to change some of his key people that were working below the line I just thought maybe it'd be beneficial to him to just mix it up a little bit and he because he he has a tendency if he likes people he'll work with them movie after movie after movie and I thought I just thought this movie was a harder Edge just different I remember saying some version of like I really want you to change you know I think it was you know just reshuffle the deck a little bit and he said he would and he did what was it about his skill set that made you feel he was your guy for it ultimately his value system and compassion just it just empathy was critical to in this movie because it was about the love between a husband and wife that that shouldn't work because he is schizophrenic and it's just the level of Tolerance on something like that is very low and uh and it's just about the power of love ultimately and he's good at those themes was there ever a moment where you thought we need to part ways you know what we've never assumed we were going to go on forever but we both love the company and have kind of heart and soul committed to it and it continues to to service us what's really changed is the company is now evolving and growing in a way that uh and we recognize the excitement of creating opportunities for other people for our Executives to grow for creatives to come in and and really make imagine you know a place where they not to just do a project but you know to sort of set up shop and we're doing more and more of that in in our sort of saying you know neither of us are tired of doing what we're doing creatively um but as a business let's let's get bigger let's let's create more opportunities for other people and it suits both of us my dad in a way has had two marriages he's had his marriage with Brian Grazer and he's had his marriage with Cheryl Howard and they both have very big personalities he's just very Enchanted by someone who is living their life with authenticity and I think it's the strength of my mom's conviction and personality that has given my dad the courage to be who he is in the world just to keep sticking to a good story well told how resistant were your parents initially to Cheryl when she started coming in the picture well outside it was very early on at 16 you know just they were concerned that I was just Fallen deeply in love and focusing a lot of energy which I really was and so they were putting a lot of restrictions they were fairly strict anyway um and you guys got into it a little bit over there yeah we did we did and uh uh it was I found it really frustrating and and uh they they'd only wanted me to have like I think it was one date a week or two dates a week and I kept negotiating and pressing because I thought that was really unfair and I just wanted to hang out you know over there with Cheryl as much as I could and uh so then I started going to church with Cheryl and they said Well church okay you know that's if you want to go to church we're not going to stop you from going to church then I then I said I was joining I was going to try out for the cross-country team I had no real intention of doing that but I knew that would buy me some training time so I would I would jog this sort of mile and a quarter or whatever it was over to Cheryl's house um and uh hang out with Cheryl for a while then she would drive me back and then I would sort of Sprint four or five blocks so that I would just come in completely exhausted and and sweating like I'd had a hell of a run hell of a run and you were you were pretty early with throwing around the I love views and marriage I was I felt such confidence about our love and our relationship and just and just um Cheryl is a you know it's just as a as a as a person and what it brought out in me but way more so than she did early on I think so she was you know pretty directed and focused on where she kind of wanted to do in her life and she wasn't really thinking about romance much but um nor was I particularly but I think I am a romantic and I I I and I uh but if that's the case you have what might be one of the worst proposal stories in the history oh yeah well I had asked Cheryl to to get married a couple of times seriously and she'd know she wanted to get further along closer to her degree and I was thinking about it and now 20 21 we've been together since we were 16. and uh asked Anson Williams who played potsie on Happy Days you think I ought to get married he said Howard you've been married the whole time anyway it's not like you're taking advantage of the of the of being on a number one television show out there playing the field uh you know what are you waiting for and uh we were literally on the on-ramp getting onto the Ventura freeway uh and uh um and as we were turning around I said well do you want to get married seriously do you what do you think and she said yes no ring no no no prep when I fell in love and found Cheryl I had a sense of of uh um focus confidence excitement about something that had nothing to do with Show Business it was this relationship and what it could mean what do you think their marriage has lasted well they deeply love each other and I think they take the commitment of marriage very serious um faithful to one another in every single way you got to be conscientious and I think communication is the key I think the one thing we've learned is how to problem solve you know uh marriage counseling has helped us from time to time she said the counselor said uh that in the counselors 30 years of doing this that you two were the most sensitive couple to tension yeah and conflict or witness yeah we neither of us want to be in a fight not you know we don't get any charge out of that it doesn't do anything for us it's not romantic it's not fun it's not it's not cleansing my parents are really lucky to have each other because they met very young they've grown up together and they've grown up together in a way that is very in sync like my parents are legitimately soul mates we look at my parents relationship we look at my grandparents relationship and it's a remarkable model for how to live your life with integrity and love the advice Cheryl gave Bryce was to put the marriage before kids uh that means what that was something that I think I brought to our relationship that I had learned from from my dad and mom which was even as though even though Clinton and I had really active careers that we were living their life and they're they they they had each other and they had their dream and this marriage and we were the children that came out of that there's security uh in in sort of knowing where you fit in to to this unit I once asked my mom if she had to choose between her kids and my dad like what she would choose and she did not skip a beat she was like oh I would choose your father and my dad he says this thing where he's always like you guys leave like she's staying you guys leave so I'm gonna I'm gonna choose her side every single time I wanted to mention something uh that Cheryl told me she said sometimes I don't feel he understands his power or worth in a given moment what do you think uh Brian says a similar thing to me sometimes um you know I mean I have a lot of pride in what I've accomplished and and it means a lot to me and um and people's respect means a lot a lot to me I feel I've that I've earned it um but there's something about this business that I I cannot take that status thing all that seriously I don't know if it's because I grew up in a household of work a day actors who didn't have that kind of status or or whether it's I just recognize that it's a way of life there's a lot of Showmanship there's a lot of hype I sort of refuse to invest too much in status or rankings or whatnot my dad has never been one of the cool kids he's a really decent earnest sweet guy and that's how he presents he's also brilliant edgy Brave he's all these things that are usually associated with the cool kids but because he doesn't lead with that he seems like he might be a little simple and because of that he I think he constantly feels like he needs to prove himself with his work he's always pushing the medium forward always and yet because he is such a humble person and he always says we instead of I but he's so inclusive and collaborative he doesn't ever want to take credit for for when it works and yet if it doesn't he will absorb that blame I I think that notion of what have you done for me lately is um is Central to to this business because the Dynamics of making anything good of creatively realizing the potential of a project it it demands excellence in the moment and experience factors into that you know pedigree and brand value can help in the marketing but it doesn't help in the creation of a moment that is going to be memorable I want to rely on my on my experience and trust it and trust my own instincts because at the end of the day a filmmaker has to do that but I I never want that to shift over into a laziness kind of intellectual laziness and um that concerns you that concerns me that that you can have so you can have so much experience behind you that you begin to say well in this situation here's what we do and then the scene's over and we got it and you know I have that kind of I can be glib about that kind of creative problem solving but I don't want to fall into that trap and I also love engaging collaborators so sometimes it's not really insecurity sometimes it's I know what I have to offer what do you have what do you got who you you know please speak up yeah and let's elevate my game Let's Elevate our game because I always have I always have my instinct to fall back on I'm thrilled thrilled so excited when a better idea comes along and I and I think people uh enjoy working with me for that reason I think Ron has a healthy perspective on things you know I listen I think we're on you know a little bit of Doubt goes a long way I think Ron's got a really beautiful blend of confidence and and observed frigging where where he is and where his place in the world I I personally wish Ron would have a little better sense of of self Victory you know Ron is a Hall of Famer what makes him the Hall of Famer do you Ron has a tremendous consistency you know Iran also has not let up he loves to tell stories he loves to explore things and deliver that exploration to the public um you got to remember he was Opie and when he was 13 or 14 years old and and he was still Opie and he wanted to do something else and he got this idea he got this dream to make movies to be a director to be a John Ford to be a Frank Capra the vibe out there was are you kidding Opie doesn't become a director you know and Ron fought that Ron fought that inside and out Ron said the quality about himself that he most deplores is the emotional Reliance for other people's approval how do you see that come out in him uh well he's a pleaser you know he's making movies for big audiences and so he wants to please the bigger part of the bell curve you know I mean in order to do that he he tests the movie every week he'd build the engine and take the engine apart in order to make sure that he's getting every optimizing every bit of what the intention of the movie is I spend a little too much time actually sort of giving about what people think and in what ways look what the critics have to say about a movie or a TV show you know it affects the future and the viability of that on a kind of commercial level but to get lost in that it's just uh it just dissipates your energy and that's uh an old sort of mentor of mine who is this a great this great assistant director he said one of the great traps in life is dissipation of energy uh and it can be all kind it can come in a lot of directions it it you know it could be a uh you know misuse of stimulants it can be uh good addictions of various kinds um even overwork it could be all kinds of things but the real power is when you focus your energy and um and and and you apply your your purest energy to what it is you're trying to do whatever that might be and uh so I I I do kind of kick myself when I allow those insecurities that in a way fuel my drive continue to fuel my ambitions you know if it begins to cloud my thinking too much then it's it's in the way and it's not it's not fuel anymore it's creating a barrier Clint spoke openly about how you know he went through a tough time uh back in the day with drugs and alcohol well um boy that was a difficult heartbreaking time and thing to to to witness it was terrifying and I wasn't sure Clinton was going to make it out and I really yeah I don't think Mom and Dad thought were sure he was going to make it out when the point for you that you were most concerned was what there you know there was a point where he was you know he was um he was delusional uh and and and having kind of episodes um that that were drug related um but brushes with the lawn and flirting with kind of homelessness and you know and it just he was it was uh not it was unsustainable and uh um he'd been through rehab a couple of times unsuccessfully and it was looked like it was just getting worse but at a certain point Clint found the will himself um and um to live and uh and Dad really helped him turn that corner once Clint decided I think Dad did his very best parenting uh when you know Clint was 30 years old and in a lot of trouble and that's he found ways to sort of give him just enough money to live on and just enough space to feel autonomous but with a lot of supervision because he's taken away the key to the house yeah he couldn't couldn't come to their house you know I mean it was tough love it was tough love why did you say you impart blame yourself you know I had been really strictly controlled as a kid my parents must have been worried about kidnapping and other things they were really helicopter parents with me to and I chafed under that resented it Clint came along such an extrovert and so popular so smart funny great actor but also good a really good athlete and and just you know socially I could see that he had a lot of the qualities that I sort of wish I had and uh and um and a lot of the friendships and social interaction and things that I kind of yearn for uh but you know didn't have didn't even know how to have and uh so I pushed mom and dad to give him more freedom and more flexibility and even when Clint was starting to smoke pot and things like that I you know I was I wasn't using um any drugs but I knew I had really good friends who were and were highly functional and socially responsible about about it and and I just I said you know this is not it's not a nightmare this is this these are Changing Times relax so in their earliest stages when they might have been able to do something um I think I was a voice kind of telling him to back off as parents and so those are regrets that I that I have Ron said he in part blames himself for what you went through well that's a nice thought but I I kind of call on that I mean listen I don't know what I don't know what's a big brother gonna do what's a guy I mean I love Ron and and you know I kind of knew I knew what he was thinking Ron and I went to a Super Bowl Super Bowl 14. I guess it was it was this there was the Steelers and the Rams at the Rose Bowl and he gave me the speech about you know because he had been around a lot of young actors that you know get loaded and high or whatever you know and he goes you know it's one thing when you use drugs but it's another thing when drugs start using you and the one problem with Ron is this his talks were a little cliche but you know if he if he would have played it different I may have fully rejected it you know I mean Ron and I were always really close Ron is a Hall of Fame movie director he's a better big brother he still is a better Big Brother one of the last really challenging acting roles that I took on was a movie called Act of love it was a based on a true story a younger brother had uh euthanized his older brother as requested um after a horrible accident where the brother was going to be you know paralyzed forever and younger brother shot him um and there was a trial and there was a moment on you know on the witness stand where uh I'm supposed to talk about how much I love my brother and and of course in my mind reliving this horrible incident and I just sort of stayed in the zone because what I was thinking about was you know uh how much pain I was feeling about my brother and uh the question in my mind was whether Clint would survive and what it would be like to lose him uh and how much I loved him and I was just able to personalize it and and in that in that take it was really emotional and it was and those were those were real um you know real tears you know you mentioned a moment ago kidnapping um and that brings me to uh Ransom um inspired in part by the real life events involving you um explaining well the story wasn't inspired by my um our experiences um it was a remake of something that had been an hour an hour television drama and then been made into a movie starring Glenn Ford and had a great hook where um you know the the father whose son has been kidnapped you know basically says you know we're not I'm not going to pay you Ransom I'm you know I'm I'm putting out a bounty on you basically and and uh um and you know it it was every version of that story that was a powerful moment Mel Gibson played it brilliantly in our movie version but Bryce says she thinks in part your way of dealing with with what you guys went through yes doing that movie when I read that script Brian had had found it brought it to me uh I had been looking for a project about kidnapping because we'd been through this horrible experience where our home had been targeted and it was unclear as as to what the objectives the criminal objectives were but it was not it was not good but the police had gotten wind of it and we had stakeouts at our home and it was very traumatic but thank God no crimes were committed and but I just the pressure of anticipating that possibility um I found fascinating and in in my own again ongoing quest to understand all sides of every issue that people experience and go through I kept wondering what was going through those kidnappers heads what were they thinking why and of course I had no answers but but the question was there well this script Ransom um sort of answered some of those questions or at least positive a possibility so I projected all that emotion and anxiety and kind of empathy that I had for that crisis that situation and and poured it into that story and it's the only time I've really wanted to do a crime story because you know I don't want to celebrate crime and I don't necessarily find it cool or intriguing but this was emotional and raw and personal for me and um and it was so I was able to project you know that that anxiety and that my sense of that experience and what and what it might have been like you know had had something um you know actually happened growing up we had some security issues that were it was super scary and we had to leave our house and there were you know incidents that uh were just totally totally terrifying the the scariest part of all of that for you was what I think the scariest part for me was that I because I was the oldest child I was aware something was going on and it was like why can't I call my friends and you know they don't want to explain to me because like freaking phones are tapped trying to find where we are yeah how did you find out your phones had been tapped you know it was research that just came through the through the police department ultimately the FBI became involved and and uh then you know there were Vehicles observed in our area that you know that that very well you know fit the description of some of the people that they thought might be involved and we just picked up the family and and and left my mom had a couple of medical things that happened at that time where she had to go to the hospital for panic attacks and the weirdest memory was um during the LA riots because it was all happening around that time and a bunch of folks showed up at our house and who were I later found out like either part of like the FBI or like you know some protective measure and like I saw like their firearms I saw the you know hushed conversations and I remember the stress that my that my parents were under and and and then my dad kind of worked through it in effect with um with Ransom I understand some of those scenes in that film because of what he had gone through were uh extra hard for him did you guys have really conversations I remember of course talking about it in in the script stage we'd talk about it then that he was able to relate to it really well and the sort of the premise of the movie You Know It the movie is basically even though it's played by Mel Gibson he's playing relatively average guy he doesn't have super powers at all you know he's a just a dad executive husband you know and um but when he got pushed into a corner he took the most aggressive position and that's probably what Ron would do so it was a lot of it was like the way for run you know it was probably very therapeutic for him because that is how he plays The Game of Life what do you mean he is extremely collaborative until his until he feels pushed in a corner if he feels sure that his artistic vision is being threatened he won't allow that to happen what does he do he'll then he'll assert all of his energy and power to to feed that was there a moment during that process where you could breathe a sigh of relief where you just knew this is over we're good the reality is once you've felt that vulnerability I think you're Forever on your guard you go on and and you figure out ways to to live with it but you can't forget about it the kids front um why was your biggest fear going into that wondering if you could measure up to your dead oh well my you know I think my father was a kind of a genius level parent you know Dad really had a knack for it but he also had time to commit and uh and I have always had a burning ambition a career that meant a lot to me that's incredibly demanding Cheryl's always been supportive of that and I knew that was going to be this very different Factor so as a parent you know I I really wanted to feel that I could I could live up to uh you know the the the kind of parenting that I that I received my career does demand a certain modicum of of selfishness I mean you have to be ready to move your family around you have to be ready to say you know let's work we have to work with this this is my life why was it so important to Cheryl to move the family out of LA we could just see that um that la could be pretty constricting emotionally um reductive you know we were hearing stories about kindergarten kids being taunted by other kindergarten kids saying my dad's hotter than your dad Apparently one day someone when I was at preschool they gave me a script to bring home to my dad I think assuming that maybe then my dad would read it and somehow turn around and be like yes this is the movie I'm I'm doing um didn't quite have that effect I think my parents realized that being raised in Los Angeles so much of the culture of of this city is centered around the entertainment industry and they sort of didn't want to raise us an environment that that felt that singular Cheryl did not want the kids subjected to that on a regular basis and um and I she really began to feel passionate about that particularly as as I also started building a company but it was a big leap and it meant a lot of travel time for me the year we launched imagine was the year I actually moved out of La I was very surprised because I just assumed you'd live in LA because he'd spent his whole life in La for the most part and that's where Hollywood is right so um I mean were you concerned maybe I think I was just missed him actually what was that adjustment process like I I couldn't imagine him not being you know in the same location where I could just walk into his office or he could walk into mine we just hang out or walk around the lot we always had a thing about walking around the lot talking through our fantasies you know Brian was always trying to get me to move back was he oh he would he'd say uh oh we had a horrible earthquake and he said you know property prices are really going to crash now that we've had this earthquake this might be the time for you to buy Ron and what do you think come on back was that devastating to you no no it was actually I felt like in Los Angeles like my memories are very they're very limited they're like of the living room the park you know it wasn't because my parents were protective they weren't bringing me to premieres or anything like that and when we moved out to the East Coast it just I was in nature and I grew up on a farm which was like not really a farm it was just some land with a lot of pets and then there were chores like give me a little color if you don't mind yeah yeah that Dynamic so my my mom in particular was very very focused on creating a childhood that wasn't a reflection of the of the privilege that I was being raised in that's something that she thought was very important for kids was to to do a lot of physical labor not for their own means physical labor in service and what was that physical labor for you I mean specifically I'm sure my mom told you about this mucking out the goat Barn did you talk about that she only mentioned it in like Patrick Barn I spent I spent a large part of my weekends raking you know feces animal animal feces with hay and making sure that it was taken out of their pen yeah Cheryl was was you know very focused on trying to somehow imbue the kids with an understanding of of real value Cheryl was raised without a lot of means my parents you know came from a farm in a small town were very frugal and uh so you know we weren't living a big lavish lifestyle ourselves but we did have a great home and some people working for us but that didn't mean that the kids didn't have to make their own bed the impact you think that had on you guys though was what my mom was really strict and she was strict for good reason like my parents weren't gonna give us their money like they don't believe in that and so they knew that when we were 18 we were going to need we were going to need to take care of ourselves of all Iran's kids are a great example of of their Union but Bryce is a wonderful example I had an opportunity to be directed by Bryce in a lifetime movie a few years ago and I was on the set watching Bryce direct and the way that she she dealt with the actors so mirrored what I had witnessed with Ron for all these years it was phenomenal I went home that night and I called Ron and I said Ron you got to be really proud because your your daughter is a wonderful director and she's very not just courteous but she brings the crew together and she gets everybody going in the right direction I definitely showed interest in storytelling and writing and directing and acting at a very young age I Got No Greater Joy out of anything than being on set and so my mom really wisely realized that the most effective punishment was to ground me from set and she only had to do it once my dad was doing far and away and I lost it and I was like you were ruining my life like this is the worst thing that's ever happened to me you can't take that away from me I got to experience so many things that were just I mean kind of mind-blowing and really defined me as a person I mean falling asleep on my dad's lap at dinner with George Lucas and carosawa I always got to go in and and sit in with my dad during dailies I don't think he realized that I was kind of like a computer sort of taking everything in and how much that would mean to me and how much that would kind of add up over time he would tell me the stories of his movies or movies that he was developing or thinking of of doing when he would drive me to school to see how it would land and I mean that's really cool like that's very cool right that's a fun childhood raising them that way you think worked out how I'm really proud of my of them and and sort of who they are the way they live they're very principled they're creative they're engaged they're they're um they're good problem solvers so I'm really proud of them thank you very much was there anything I did not ask oh my gosh no no I'm sorry

Channel: Graham Bensinger

Views: 2,059,003

Keywords: Graham Bensinger, In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Sports Interview, Feature Interview, Sports Journalism, ron howard, happy days, andy griffith show, hollywood, director

Id: sZIn54vlxSI

Length: 90min 54sec (5454 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 23 2023