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Panel highlights: A Conversation with Ron Howard
The crowd who patiently waited in a packed Stephen F. Austin ballroom for Ron Howard — held up at the awards luncheon (which by all accounts was a riot) — was more than rewarded with an engaging and thoughtful exchange from the actor-turned-director whose work includes some of the best-loved American movies of the past two decades. Not surprising: With his instantly recognizable voice, he came across as charming, sincere and quite funny. Surprising: He apparently takes advice from coaches including Pat Riley and Joe Torre.
Moderator Bill Broyles Jr., who has worked with Howard on movies including “Apollo 13,” essentially opened up the floor to questions. Some of the highlights:
On how Howard picks a script: He recalled reading the “Apollo 13” script standing in a packed train into New York. “When I got to the end, I was fighting off tears while standing near all these commuters.” He knew then that he “wouldn’t let anyone else work on it,” and to him, that’s the moment he knows that a movie needs to belong to him. Calling it almost “jealous greed,” if he can’t stand the idea of someone else working on a project, he knows it’s his.
On what makes a script work: In addition to a strong subject, setting and characters, the film needs to find ways to create suspense, regardless of genre, Howard says, calling all of his movies “suspense movies” to some degree.
On creating that suspense, even when the viewer knows the outcome (such as in “Apollo 13” and “Frost/Nixon.” Even when a film is completely fictional, “nine times out 10, people guess the ending anyway. The key is to invest the audience in the journey,” Howard says. When the viewers relate to the characters, the film becomes more of a “human journey,” and you focus more on “How will they be when they get there?” As an example, Howard said he knew when he saw the play, he wanted to make “Frost/Nixon,” but to flesh it out, he wanted to expand more on the secondary characters, the observers, who viewers would probably be able to relate more with than Richard Nixon or David Frost.
On making the switch from actor to director as a young man: Howard told a hysterical gem about one of his projects in his mid-20s, “Skyward,” a TV movie filmed in Dallas starring the great Bette Davis. Howard called Davis before meeting her to discuss the project, and she kept referring to him as “Mr. Howard.” When he asked her to call him Ron, she said, “I will call you Mr. Howard until I decide whether I like you or not.” On his first day on the set with her, inspired by the photos he saw of Davis working with directors on set in Hollywood’s heyday, he wore a jacket and tie, despite the Texas August heat. Not impressed, she referred to him as “a child” in front of the crew. But soon he gave her direction, which she took despite protest, and she agreed that he made the right call. As they were wrapping for the day, Howard recalls: “She said, ‘OK, Ron, I’ll see you tomorrow,” and she patted me on the ass.”
On using his acting experience as a director: Howard recalled his work on “Cocoon,” which starred four gifted but incredibly different actors: Wilfred Brimley, who loved improvisation; Hume Cronyn, steeped in formal training; Don Ameche, more old-school Hollywood; and Jack Gilford, who rose from vaudeville. Howard said the actors were a little unnerved by Brimley’s ease with improv. So Howard would pull them all aside and say ‘We have to help him out,” he’s not good at remembering scripts, etc. And they all got into it, except for Ameche, who just could not do improv. So a writer on the set would secretly feed Ameche ad-libs so that he would fit in.
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