“We had a lot of nudity”: when Ron Howard threatened to fire a topless extra
Such is the level of innocence, wholesomeness, and general ‘aw shucks’ that he’s projected throughout his entire career, it’s difficult to imagine Ron Howard being surrounded by topless women.
Not that you’d want to, but it’s a scenario for which he seems hilariously ill-equipped. There are few figures in Hollywood who’d seem more out of their depth surrounded by scantily-clad figures than the two-time Academy Award winner, which did nothing to obscure a surprisingly ruthless streak.
What’s weirder than Ron Howard being surrounded by a bevvy of beautiful, barely-dressed extras? Ron Howard walking up to one of those beautiful, barely-dressed extras and telling them that if they didn’t get their shit together, they’d be fired and removed from his set, of course.
At no point has even the slightest inkling of a mean streak been on display, which makes it morbidly funny to try and picture the fresh-faced, cherubic, barely established, and ginger-haired filmmaker doing his best to project seriousness and solemnity when trying desperately to maintain unbroken eye contact.
Unsurprisingly, de-robed frolicking did not become a staple part of Howard’s auteurial arsenal. However, there was plenty of it in his second feature-length undertaking, 1982’s Night Shift. Five years after making his debut under Roger Corman’s purview on Grand Theft Auto, he was back behind the camera for a movie, and the all-American gentleman struggled with one element of the production more than most.
“Night Shift was fascinating for me on a lot of levels,” he recalled. “One was the nudity. We had a lot of nudity in that movie. It was interesting to see that you could become rather blasé about beautiful women with no tops on.” That’s one way of putting it, at least until he was forced into action.
“I’d find myself rushing up to a beautiful girl with not much on at all and giving her important direction without even a glance down,” he added, as if not being a leery perv was something to be commended. “Once, I actually had to go up and threaten to fire a girl with no top on because she wasn’t doing something that I thought she needed to be doing.”
Presumably, he didn’t look down on that occasion, either, not that he should be getting a pat on the back for showing some decency. Based on the reputation he’s had for decades, you still can’t really picture Howard unleashing a tirade upon anyone on his set, never mind someone whose only job was to stand in the background and wear not many clothes.
Since he made it clear that he threatened to fire them and didn’t actually go through with it, it sounds as though a stern word in their ear salvaged their job and kept them gainfully employed, doing whatever it was in Night Shift that required the extra to proceed with the mandatory toplessness.
