Ron Howard thought about directing porn to fund filmmaking debut
He went on to direct Oscar-winning ‘Apollo 13’, but Ron Howard has admitted he contemplated making a porn movie to fund his directorial debut as he was so desperate to start filmmaking when he was on ‘Happy Days’.
Ron Howard spent “two-and-a-half to three seconds” thinking about directing porn to fund his filmmaking career.
The 69-year-old former ‘Happy Days’ actor was asked by journalist Graham Bensinger, 36, how much truth there was to the long-standing rumour on his ‘In Depth’ show, and admitted it briefly crossed his mind.
Ron said: “Well, it’s true that it went through my mind. It endured as a serious idea for probably two and a half to three seconds.”
The ‘Apollo 13’ director’s actor brother Clint Howard, 63, also said no one would have wanted to see the idea come to life, referring to how Ron had the chance to make a film called ‘Opie Gets Laid’.
He added: “Yeah, ‘Opie Gets Laid’ would have probably made Ron a million dollars and he could have gone off and made a movie, but I’m glad he steered away from that.
“I don’t think anyone really wanted to see Opie get laid.”
Ron’s daughter, actress Bryce Dallas Howard, 42, also appeared on Graham’s show, adding about the subject: “A lot of times in life, I’ll think about the fact that my dad has a public profile that isn’t embarrassing. It’s massive.
“And if he had done ‘Opie Gets Laid’, I just... I wouldn’t be in this business.”
Ron told Howard Stern in 1999 about thinking about getting into the porn business to fund his directing dreams: “It was right at the time where ‘Behind the Green Door’ and ‘Deep Throat’ were making millions of dollars and it was the first wave of the independent film movement… nobody was taking me seriously as a director, I could just see it.
“And I actually thought one day, maybe I can cash in on this thing. One time, one shot, ‘Opie Gets Laid’.
“Make it, you own it. What does it cost? $1,500? I wanted the money to be independent as a filmmaker.”
Ron, who has an estimated worth of $205 million, left his role as Richie Cunningham on ‘Happy Days’ after the eighth season of the hit ABC sitcom to pursue his directing career.
He said: “The entire time that I was under contract and doing ‘Happy Days’, my dream was to be a filmmaker, and I felt like the clock was ticking a little bit on me because I was 26, 27 and I had been directing for a few years, and I’d lost patience with not being able to devote all my energies to making that transition and giving that its chance.
“A lot of it just came from the fact that I really wanted some guarantees from Paramount Pictures and ABC that they would allow me to direct – not ‘Happy Days’ – we had a great director, Jerry Paris.
“I wanted to direct a feature and I wanted them to facilitate that and they simply would not make any kind of guarantee.”
Ron’s first film as director was ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and he went on to create Oscar-winning ‘Apollo 13’ and more recently the Oscar-nominated ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ starring Glenn Close.
