Our first guest was Opie on The Andy Griffith Show and Richie
Cunningham on Happy Days.
Now he's one of the most successful filmmakers
in Hollywood.
His new movie is The Missing, and it's in theaters now.
Please welcome Ron Howard.
[APPLAUSE]
You, at the beginning of the show,
you're doing everything to get ready.
You're getting ready for the holidays
because you were doing the exercise cycle thing, right?
Right.
And then that dancing was pretty aerobic.
It turned out to be more aerobic than I had planned.
Oh, is that right?
Yeah.
I hadn't stretched properly to do the MC Hammer dance.
I find that your-- you should stretch your hamstrings
before attempting that.
I was once called up on stage by Hammer.
[LAUGHTER]
Were you in a concert in--
I was, in Dublin.
I was in Dublin.
And I went to see MC Hammer.
Uh-huh.
And--
I don't picture that, for some reason.
Well, it-- I didn't, either.
The whole thing was pretty surreal.
But I was up there.
Were you like Courteney Cox, and then Bruce Springsteen
puts his hand out?
[LAUGHTER]
And you're just pulled up or something.
I-- he made me--
I got down with Hammer.
Really?
Oh, man.
I wish we had footage of that.
I'm so glad we don't.
Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
Do you remember the song?
No.
I have no idea.
It was all a horrible blur.
Really?
And how-- when was this?
How old were you?
Well, I was actually--
I was doing a movie.
I was in Dublin, making-- directing a movie,
about 10 years ago.
Which movie?
It was Far and Away--
Of course.
--with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, 10 or 11 years ago.
[APPLAUSE]
Looking for something to do in Dublin,
I thought I'd get there and dance with MC Hammer.
And was Tom in the audience with you, as well?
Thank god, no, along with the footage.
It would have been hard to direct him the next day,
I think.
Really?
Yeah.
But you're out partying.
You're directing a film.
And then, at night, instead of going over the next--
you're just out, partying?
Pretty much, 24/7.
Really?
Or you-- were you--
I don't know what I was doing there.
No.
Well, you--
No, I was dragged there.
--clearly drunk.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, that's hilarious.
I-- now, do you-- have you seen Hammer since?
I did see him.
You did?
Well, he was preaching.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
And I went-- no, I didn't.
[LAUGHTER]
No, but I met him.
I saw him again.
Right.
No, he's doing great.
Oh, good.
Well, then, tell him we say hi.
OK.
All right.
Hey, did you have a good Thanksgiving?
I-- we had a great Thanksgiving.
Yeah?
We really did.
My-- it was not at home.
It was unusual.
My son, my 16-year-old son, Reed,
is a really avid junior golfer.
Really?
And they-- I guess, to get the golf courses,
whenever there's a little lull, like Christmas or Thanksgiving,
that's when they have the tournament.
So we all went, me and my whole--
my oldest daughter, Bryce, couldn't go.
But Jocelyn and Paige went, the 18-year-olds.
And Reed played, and he did great.
He came in second.
It was a really--
and a big tournament, big Invitational tournament.
Wow.
Good.
Good for him.
[APPLAUSE]
And what did he shoot?
What's second?
It was a three-day tournament.
He shot from the back, from the--
in the 16-to-19 group.
And he's 16.
He shot 74, 75, and 77.
Wow.
Yeah, good scores.
Per hole or the total?
No that would be the total.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
Yeah, no, he--
Now, is that what he wants to do when he grows up?
Well, it's a little--
that's a pretty tiny bull's eye to hit.
So, right now, he's just thinking
about being a college golfer.
He'd like to be a good college golfer.
But it wouldn't be bad, having a little Tiger
Wood in your family.
It couldn't hurt.
It couldn't hurt, yeah.
My mother loves Tiger Woods.
I'm trying to get him on the show
because she just loves-- but, and so, do you play golf?
I am terrible.
I am.
There's a thing called "military golf," which
is left, right, left, right, which
means you never get anywhere.
[LAUGHS]
And he tolerates me.
And it's amusing.
But it's actually-- all kidding aside,
it's been a great father-son, just, undertaking.
And we had a lot of fun.
My brother, Clint, is a good golfer.
And that's really how Reed got started playing.
Really?
Yeah.
And now-- and so you have the twins.
You have the two girls.
Right.
They're how old?
They're now 18.
OK, both of them.
Yeah, yeah, the two of them.
[LAUGHTER]
And then Reed's 16.
Reed's 16, and Bryce is now 22.
And she's acting.
She did a year of New York theater,
after finishing at NYU, at the Tisch program,
which is a great drama school.
And now she's acting in her first lead role
in a feature film, which is--
M. Night Shyamalan is directing it.
Matter of fact, he directed Toni Collette, right--
Right.
--in The Sixth Sense.
And with a great cast--
William Hurt, and Sigourney Weaver, and Joaquin Phoenix--
Wow.
--Adrien Brody.
Now, is she the one that was in Edtv?
Or-- because one of your daughters was in Edtv.
Yeah, they-- well, I think-- yeah, she got in there.
They were all allowed to be extras and things like that.
Yeah, in the dorm rooms, watching, was that Bryce?
Mm-hmm.
But never allowed to have a real role, until they--
I have another-- Paige is also--
who's going to college now and really interested in acting.
Yeah.
Now, speaking of Edtv, when I read the script, I thought,
this is actually a precursor to exactly what's happening to us.
Right.
And it really is.
Right.
I don't know if-- and if you haven't seen Edtv,
it's such a good movie, not just because I'm in it, but--
[LAUGHTER]
--and because Ron--
--because she's in it.
--directed it.
It really is such a good movie.
Well, when I first thought about making that movie,
I'd ask my friends.
And it's a story of a guy who lets a camera follow him
around.
And you play the producer, who comes up with this crazy idea
that the network is not sure they want to go with or not.
And I went around, and I said, well,
this seems like an interesting situation.
And I see this on the horizon.
And everyone said, well, no one would ever let them--
a camera follow you around like that.
That's ridiculous.
That's a bad idea.
And we went ahead and made the movie.
And look.
That's all you can find now.
Well, there is-- did you hear?
There's a-- it's, like, TedTV or TroyTV.
There's an actual show that's--
ToddTV.
ToddTV?
That's exactly, where--
Are you going to produce that show?
Yeah.
I wish I would have come up with that idea.
I should have taken that and gone with it.
But that's amazing, that that's exactly what--
Well, I had fun.
And you were great.
Well, you were great.
You were great to work with, and a pleasure, and funny, and--
You were great.
I mean, it was just--
I love-- and what's interesting--
and we'll talk about The Missing, which
is your new film.
All of your films, they're such different genres,
such different kinds of films.
And you won two Academy Awards for A Beautiful Mind,
which-- did you realize that he he directed and produced?
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
Now, and it seemed like--
I almost held your hand.
[LAUGHTER]
And it seemed like, I mean, you really have done so many films,
and everybody is just pulling for you
to win that Academy Award.
Were you-- by that time, was it over, when you went on stage?
Were you relaxed?
Or were you still nervous, when you won?
Well, I thought I was cool all night.
And I had a philosophical outlook about the whole thing.
And how great for the film, and the acknowledgment
of the nominations was wonderful.
And then I did get very nervous, right
before my category came up.
And Mel Gibson read my category, and I got the Director's Award.
And then, next, came up Tom Hanks, reading Best
Picture, and Brian Grazer, my partner at Imagine.
And I got the award for that.
And when the whole thing was over,
they whisked us off stage.
And we sat down on benches.
And I was-- obviously, I was elated.
It was incredible.
But we sat there, and they said, OK, we're
going to take you to the press room in just a minute.
Here are Brian and I. We've been partners,
business partners for 20 years.
We're sitting here, holding Oscars and smiling.
And, all of a sudden, I got the most horrible pain
in my stomach and cramp in my back.
I was doubled over.
And I realized I'd been just miserable for four hours,
waiting to get to that category.
And, ugh.
I mean, I never have stomach problems.
I never-- and he says, oh, it's OK.
Here.
I got the Tums.
And he peels off a Tums and hands it to me.
And I realized it was like it was like a middle-aged version
of the Lifesaver commercial--
[LAUGHTER]
--only it was Tums.
That's hilarious.
But there we were.
Well, anyway, he said they were Tums.
[LAUGHTER]
You don't know what they were.
But you felt better right away?
They worked.
All right.
They weren't Tums.
All right.
We'll be right back with more Ron Howard, right after this.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
Hi.
We're back with Ron Howard.
And that is a clip from The Missing,
which is out in theaters now.
And I saw it.
And I loved it.
Thank you.
And I loved the feel of it.
I love westerns, anyway.
There's just some-- it feels really comfortable to--
well, it's not comfortable in some places.
It's--
Well, it's tough.
--scary.
It's suspenseful and adventuresome.
And I love westerns, too.
And I-- but I also love the fact that there's
this great female character at the center of it,
Cate Blanchett.
She's so great in this.
And Tommy Lee is terrific in the movie.
And I love working with actors, more than anything else.
I like-- it's interesting to delve
into a culture, and a world, and a time, which The Missing does.
But most of all, I care if there are
going to be great opportunities for actors.
And I was-- I had fun, directing the scenes in The Missing.
Oh, it was-- it's real, and it's beautiful to look at.
And it was-- where was it shot?
It was all shot in Santa Fe.
And we-- there's a lot of intense scenes,
with weather and lots of action.
Mm-hmm.
Cold, it looked very cold.
We were out there in it, trying to really create
something authentic.
And audiences are just really responding to it well.
I'm getting so much great feedback,
and from friends and things like that, too.
Yeah, that's good.
And what about that little girl, the--
Jenna Boyd is really something.
And Evan Rachel Wood is--
who's 15 years old and was also in the movie
Thirteen, is just tremendous in the movie.
Oh, is that who that was?
Yeah.
Yeah, so right-- it was-- we really
had three strong female characters because they are
rich, rounded characters, too.
And Jenna is great, Jenna Boyd, the 10-year-old.
Yeah, oh, that little girl, how old is she, with the--
She just turned 10.
She's so good--
Very powerful, yeah.
--so great.
Thank you.
Well, it's just so interesting because you start--
I mean, I feel like--
I guess everybody feel--
we grew up watching you.
And I loved The Andy Griffith Show.
I loved watching that show.
Thank you.
And--
Thank you.
OK.
Thank you.
God, you were so cute!
[APPLAUSE]
I mean, you were just so-- do you--
when you see that, do you remember that scene?
I do.
When I watch the show, it's like home movies.
So it's not like seeing a scene and remembering
what that was like.
It's more the environment.
I remember riding my bike around,
what the Mayberry set was, which was this incredible place
out there, and the people.
And what I really remember are just--
it was a great environment.
One of the interesting things was that, creatively, they
allowed me to participate.
All the actors were allowed to speak up
if they had an idea for a line or something like that.
Even Otis?
[LAUGHTER]
Even Otis.
He actually wasn't-- he actually was faking the drunk thing.
Yeah.
He wasn't really drunk?
No, no, no, but--
[LAUGHS] unless we gave him some of Grazer's Tums.
Maybe that'll-- but the--
I remember, one time-- all the actors would contribute.
And as a little tiny kid, I was allowed to speak up,
but they never took any of my ideas.
And I found that a little frustrating.
[LAUGHS] And I went through the whole first season, when
I was six, and they weren't taking any of my ideas.
Aww.
Then I remember that, in the second episode
of the second season, I came walking in, and I said,
excuse me.
I don't think a kid would say this line this way.
And they said, well, how would he say it?
So I tried it.
And the director, Bob Sweeney, said, OK,
why don't you say it that way?
And I just stopped and just was grinning.
I remember this.
And Andy-- we were just rehearsing the scene,
and Andy said, well, what's the matter youngun'" He actually
did call people "youngun'."
And I said, well, that's the first suggestion of mine
that anyone's taken.
And he said, it's the first one that was any damn good.
Now let's rehearse the scene.
[LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE]
Wow.
So I was in--
I really felt I was--
I really felt a part of something.
And it was the greatest education I could ever
have for the life, my--
the adult life that I've chosen, which is telling stories.
Yeah, that seemed like a little lovely town to grow up in--
It was great.
--and have Aunt Bee, and Don Knotts, and-- ah, man.
Prop man made the apple pie.
Oh, really?
I don't want you to have any deeply illusion--
Aunt Bee didn't make the apple pie?
Sorry.
You've ruined it for me.
[LAUGHTER]
Ooh, Andy.
[LAUGHTER]
And you had Floyd the Barber.
You had all these extreme--
ooh!
And, [HEAVY BREATHING] ah, Andy, ah.
You had these weird voices going on.
Those are my impressions.
That's all I do.
All right.
So, now, in The Missing-- you always have your brother
in all the films.
And so Clint Howard, if you don't know,
I'll remind you of what he looks like
in a minute because-- but he's in just about everything
you do.
Almost-- not-- and not every time.
My wife, Cheryl, is really my good luck charm.
She's been in everything--
Really?
--that I've done since making Super 8 movies because we
met in high school.
So, but, she doesn't-- she's a writer.
She doesn't really like to be in them.
But Clint loves it and, of course,
acts in all kinds of films.
He's great.
I love seeing him in there.
And your dad was in there.
My dad was in there, too.
But, so, on Halloween, on the show,
on Halloween, I dressed as Dr. Phil.
Right.
And so here's me, as Dr. Phil.
And the problem was that everyone thought that I
looked more like your brother.
[LAUGHTER]
And I actually think that they're right because--
[LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE]
That is--
Isn't that horrible?
That's frightening, isn't it?
That's a little frightening.
All right.
You bring that to Clint.
I definitely will.
But my mother actually is the one who pointed it out.
She said, you look more like Clint Howard than Dr. Phil.
Well, you'll-- maybe you can sign this for--
I'll sign it for Clint.
[LAUGHS] Yeah, thank you.
All right.
The Missing is in theaters now.
And, Ron, thank you so much for being here.
Oh, it's great seeing you again.
Thank you.
The music of Alison Krauss & Union
Station, when we come back.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
[POP MUSIC]