“I would never survive”: Ron Howard explains why he could have never become an actor
Even though he was already a prolific veteran of screens big and small by the time he first picked up the megaphone, once Ron Howard had turned his hand to directing, he never contemplated a full-time return to acting.
One of the many future filmmaking stars handed their big break by the legendary Roger Corman, the former Happy Days star made his feature-length debut on 1977’s Grand Theft Auto and instantly consigned his on-screen career to the history books.
Howard’s last credited role as a fictional character in a live-action movie came when he reprised the role of Steve Bolander in 1979’s More American Graffiti. His only appearance since the 1980s on television in a similar capacity came in 2016 when he made a one-off outing as Stanley in the sitcom The Odd Couple.
Before that, though, he’d racked up dozens upon dozens of credits after first making his name as a child actor, but once he was bitten by the directing bug, he never had any inclinations of pursuing performative stardom again. Part of his decision to draw a line under that period of his life came from the frank and honest belief that Howard simply wasn’t a forceful enough personality to thrive in that world.
“I listened and learned and knew that I would never survive as an actor. There was also a lot of stuff going on that I did not understand or could not come to terms with,” he explained to The Express. “I was not assertive. I was not a leader. You have to be like some of the big stars, such as Dustin Hoffman, to make it. He could take control while remaining an actor. I was relaxed but never terribly satisfied with my work.”
No offence to Howard, but he was never going to become a Hoffman-esque leading man, and character actors are rarely in the position where they’re afforded any great deal of control over their trajectory. Admitting that he was “always a little uncomfortable watching myself,” the filmmaker also conceded how he didn’t think he was “capable of doing differently from the way I was delivering each particular part”.
Having won a solitary Golden Globe for his acting prowess during his Happy Days stint, Howard’s bold call to abandon acting has been vindicated and then some over a distinguished career behind the camera that’s seen him try his hand at almost every genre Hollywood has to offer. During this journey, he furnished his trophy cabinet with two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, a Grammy, and four Primetime Emmys.
He’s also the 11th highest-grossing director in the history of cinema after his filmography accrued over $4billion in ticket sales, and it’s impossible to imagine him finding that kind of longevity and success had he not focused full-time on directing.
