RON HOWARD
It’s hard to say which is more unbelievable—that Ron Howard is 68 years old or that he doesn’t have more Lifetime Achievement Awards. After all, if Howard had just stuck to acting, he’d still be considered an icon thanks to his turns as Opie in The Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham in Happy Days. But what he really wanted to do was direct, and his output over the past 40-plus years— including his most recent, Thirteen Lives, a true-life drama about a soccer team trapped in a flooded Thailand cave—has been flat-out amazing. Howard was honored at the 25th Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Savannah Film Festival this year with the Lifetime Achievement in Directing Award.
How do you attribute your success behind the camera? A lot of it has to do with being in the right place at the right time with the right ideas. But it also helped to connect with [co-producer] Brian Grazer and navigate the system together. We formed our production company, Imagine Entertainment [in 1985], and knew we could get good work done. That was huge. To sustain that relationship is rare and a gift.
What are some of your career highlights? Wnning the Oscar [for A Beautiful Mind in 2002] was a remarkable thrill. The first time that Brian and I saw lines around the block for Splash [in 1984]— that was this life-affirming moment. But oh, man, I will never forget the wrap party for [1977’s] Grand Theft Auto in a dive bar next to the racetrack where we had just completed the Destruction Derby sequence. I remember dancing with my wife and saying, “You know, I love this even more than I thought I would.” And as soon as I saw the movie cut, I realized I had a hell of a lot to learn!
Which of your movies is ripe for a remake? I’m always thinking about doing more with the format of [1989’s] Parenthood. We’ve talked about theater, doing another movie or even applying it to other cultures. Occasionally people talk about doing something with [1985’s] Cocoon and [1991’s] Backdraft.
Why take on a project like your recent Thirteen Lives? I felt the timing was perfect. What these people achieved in this rescue was an object lesson in international cooperation and just ignoring political, ideological and religious differences. It was just the right thing to do.
Where do you go from here? [Brian and I are] always trying to look at storytelling in different ways and find new partners for collaboration. That excites us more than anything.