The “mixed bag” movie Ron Howard doesn’t want to talk about: “I know reviews were bad”
If you’ve been in the entertainment business for as long as Ron Howard, it’s understandable if there are some avenues of memory lane that you can’t bring yourself to walk down. He’s got almost 70 years of experience under his belt as an actor and filmmaker, but some nerves remain more raw than others.
Ask him about The Andy Griffith Show, and he’ll become lost in wistful nostalgia, reminiscing on the formative professional experience of his career. Things are slightly more conflicted when it comes to Happy Days, though, with Howard not always enjoying himself as Richie Cunningham.
For one thing, he only agreed to star in the show so that he didn’t get drafted to fight in Vietnam, and he found the role increasingly restrictive, finally reaching his breaking point when his paymasters refused to let him direct movies or made-for-TV films during his downtime, which saw him permanently fall out of acting.
As for his directorial career, The Dilemma was so disheartening and momentarily controversial that he’s refused to helm a comedy since. Everyone faces at least a handful of setbacks when they’ve been around as long as he has, but there’s one feature the two-time Academy Award winner would rather not talk about. Unfortunately for him, he won’t be able to escape it until at least 2028, if not even longer.
In what seemed like a good idea at the time, Howard and his Imagine Entertainment company optioned the rights to Hillbilly Elegy, the memoirs of one JD Vance. When the book was first published in 2016, he was viewed as an American success story; born in the throes of poverty and addiction, he enlisted in the military to help pay for his college education before becoming a corporate lawyer and venture capitalist.
When it was released, the film was instantly greeted as Howard’s worst. Reviews were apathetic at best, and for inexplicable reasons, Glenn Close made it onto the Academy Awards shortlist for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ despite carrying more ham than a festive hamper, although she did also become only the third actor in history to be nominated for an Oscar and a Razzie for the same performance.
These days, Vance is currently the second most-powerful person in America as the vice president to Home Alone 2 and The Little Rascals star Donald Trump’s commander-in-chief. Making a shit film was a legacy unto itself, but now that he’s the guy who helmed the biopic of one of the nation’s most polarising figures, Howard would rather people didn’t ask him about Hillbilly Elegy at all.
“I don’t think about it,” he flatly informed Vulture when asked about the Netflix original’s legacy. “I know it’s a mixed bag and probably quite culturally divided. I also know that reviews were bad and the audience reaction rating was pretty good.” That was all he had to say on the matter, but wherever he goes and whatever he’s promoting, Vance’s name continues to come up.
Obviously, he had no idea he was dealing with a future vice president when he was making it, but burying his head in the sand won’t obscure the fact that Hillbilly Elegy sucks, and its subject hardly continues to endear himself to a global audience.
