Bryce Dallas Howard reveals advice Clint Eastwood gave her father, Ron Howard, about dealing with failure
Actor Bryce Dallas Howard has revealed the poignant advice her father, Ron Howard, received about dealing with failure from legendary director Clint Eastwood.
While she has starred in many box office successes, such as the billion-dollar Jurassic World series, Howard is no stranger to appearing in a movie that fails to hit the expected heights. Notably, last year, she appeared in Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle, which was a huge flop and failed to recoup even half of its $200 million budget in theatres.
However, Howard didn’t take this to heart, explaining in a new interview with The Independent how she copes with such setbacks, “You can always see it coming while you’re making it. I’ve never been shocked when something doesn’t work. But I’m just an actor – you’re there to serve a director’s vision.”
She added, “If a movie doesn’t turn out the way that you envisioned, you can barely feel disappointed because it’s not yours. You’re not the person who’s building the thing.”
In contrast, her father, Ron, struggles immensely when one of his projects fails to connect with audiences, Howard explained, “It blows him away that I don’t do that.”
The actor then used her father’s 1992 movie, Far and Away, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, as an example. Despite the director’s immense reputation, the film was met with a sea of scathing reviews, which brought him down.
Thankfully, Eastwood was on hand to offer advice. Howard recalled what he told her father, “He said, ‘Ronnie – a career is like a season of television. You’ve got 24 episodes, some of the episodes are going to be bad, some are going to be serviceable, maybe a little forgettable, and maybe five of those episodes are going to be really strong and last.”
The younger Howard previously worked with Eastwood on his 2010 movie, Hereafter, and once said of the positive experience, “Clint puts himself out there for people. As a director he is very cool, very relaxed, there’s no yelling ‘action’ or ‘cut’. He just says: ‘You know when you’re ready.’ I told my dad he should do that!”
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