Ron Howard’s favourite actor to direct: “That’s one character I won’t have to worry about”
As anybody would expect from someone with a career on both sides of the camera stretching back 70 years, who’s been famous almost the entire time, Ron Howard has worked with a mind-blowing array of industry icons.
From the 1960s to the present day, the actor-turned-filmmaker has rubbed shoulders with an astonishing collection of superstars, icons, and pioneers, with the likes of Roger Corman, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Bette Davis, Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, and Steven Spielberg merely representing the tip of the iceberg.
From his days as the cherubic star of The Andy Griffith Show to his current position as one of Hollywood’s most dependable and versatile directors, Howard has spent decades surrounding himself with the cream of the crop, earning himself a pair of Academy Awards and raking in billions of dollars at the box office along the way.
He’s the only person who can say he shared the screen with ‘The Duke’ and helmed a Star Wars movie, while his evolution from sitcom staple to Oscar-winning director underlines Howard’s unique and remarkably successful trajectory that’s kept him hovering around the top of the pile for so long.
Throughout the years, he’s collaborated with hundreds upon hundreds of actors, ranging from first-time thespians to storied veterans. He’s worked with many of them on multiple occasions, and it’s one of his most frequent creative partners he singled out as the easiest one he’s ever had to direct.
This being the movies, though, there’s the inevitable whiff of nepotism in the air, seeing as he named his brother, Clint, as his career’s most effortlessly easy actor. “He’s a pro, and he contributed,” Howard told People. “Every time I have had a chance to cast him in something meaningful, I never forced him in there.”
That’s debatable, considering his younger sibling has been in 18 of his pictures, which definitely wasn’t down to his acting chops and nothing else. To hammer home the nepotistic side of Howard’s career, his second most frequent filmic collaborator is his father, Rance, who’s been in 16.
After that, it’s a tie between Hanks and Jim Meskimen at five apiece, so it’s hard to take him seriously when he says he isn’t casting Clint so often because they’re related. However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t do the job, with the Apollo 13 and Da Vinci Code figurehead calling him as reliable as they come.
“Every time I cast Clint, I know that’s one character I won’t have to worry about,” he said. Not only that, but he won’t hesitate whenever he thinks a scene could be improved. “He does not hold his tongue around his big brother, which is very welcome by all.”
Howard suggesting that he doesn’t “force” his brother into his films should be taken with a pinch of salt when he’s been in over three times more of them than anyone else except his dad, but it’s not as if he’s been casting him as the lead. Clint only pops up for a scene or two, and he’s one of the modern era’s most recognisable character actors in his own right, even if his filmography would be significantly slighter if Ron hadn’t embarked on his second career.
