Very nice to meet. It's nice to have you on the show.
Thank you, thank you so much.
It's so incredible and a little bizarre
to be here, honestly.
Why is that?
Okay, so...
Not that it's not really exciting
for anyone to be here.
Yeah, yeah it's very exciting.
So there was this boy in junior high
that I had this kind of like epic love for,
and he was very tall and chiseled
and he never spoke to me once
and I used to have this fantasy,
that I would marry him and our kids would look like you.
Oh really?
Because he was dark,
That's a nice thing.
You know with the red hair from me
and the chiseled handsome, sexy, good looks I figured.
(Conan laughing)
(audience applauding)
That's very nice for you to say.
No one's ever told me
that they dreamed of their child looking like me,
including my wife.
(Bryce laughing)
(audience laughing)
Your kids look like her and she was like, yay.
That's very nice of you to say, thank you.
Sure, yeah.
Now you're, backing up just a second
and talk about your father, the director Ron Howard,
and so I'm curious,
I'm in show business and I have two small children
and sometimes I've thought,
I don't know if I would encourage them
to go into show business, necessarily.
I mean, I've had a lot of good luck,
but I don't know if I'd worry for them.
I'm curious, did your dad encourage you to become an actor?
No, not at all.
No, and for reasons that you might not assume.
It was mostly because when I was a kid and I would do plays,
I was just, I was like the most atrocious kid in the play.
Really?
Yeah, cause kids in plays aren't usually that good anyway,
but as those kids go, you were among the worst.
I was the worst, yeah.
Really? Yeah, I kind of like,
I wouldn't be able to memorize the lines,
and so I would just like stand there and just be like
watermelon, watermelon, watermelon.
(Conan laughing)
And then I would always get really distracted.
Like I remember a few performances
where my parents were like sitting out there
and I would just be like, hi mom and dad!
And I kind of like leave the stage
and go and like interact with them and then come back.
And this was during high school.
(both laughing)
College actually, MIU.
Yeah, that's not good, that's not good.
Yeah.
So, was your dad trying to get you interested
in other things then when you were a kid?.
Yeah, yeah.
Actually like somewhat illegal things.
What?
Let's talk about that and speak clearly into the microphone.
Not like you would think.
They were concerned honestly
and they wanted to make sure that I was confident,
that I could make a living. And so when I was 14 years old,
they convinced some manager of a local restaurant,
that I would be like a great waitress.
Which is totally illegal,
like 14 years old, like serving cocktails and stuff.
Right, right.
And so I did that.
Right.
I worked at a factory for a little while,
an allergy control product center.
You were a cabbie for a while.
It's so funny cause I know parents encourage,
you know, kids to get, you know, oh, get a summer job,
work at a summer camp or work in an office.
But it sounds like they were saying things like,
coal mining would be good for you.
I know, yeah it's true.
It's for quite a while.
And then there was a little while,
that my dad was like, I mean,
I wouldn't call it flirtatious, but he was definitely,
he became extremely friendly with a lot of women
at Banana Republic, cause he wanted me to get a job there.
And he was like, she can put an outfit together,
like nobody's business, which is just a flat out lie.
Right, right.
Like I was like the frumpiest kid
and I was just kind of staring at me like mnh.
I like that he was trying to,
if only there was some way to crack that Banana Republic.
(audience laughing)
It's so impossible to get a job there.
How? How?
Fill out a form I think.
Again I was very young.
Very young.
Arby's if we could get you a job at Arby's, but how?
Now you must've grown up,
I'm imagining with celebrities, you know,
your dad's working with a lot of famous celebrities
all the time or did you grow up with celebrities
kind of around the house and in your life
when you were a child?
A bit, I mean, not so much around the house,
but definitely we were on the set all the time.
Right.
Yeah, there's some weird things that happened.
Like one time Tom Cruise, I mean I'm just gonna name drop,
alright, cause you asked.
Right, sure that's okay.
Okay.
I like that, then I'll tell you the time
that Tom cruise is over my house.
Right, right.
So Tom Cruise was babysitting my little brother
and this was...
That's so weird just to hear like, you know,
Tom cruise was babysitting my brother,
you know that, how that happens, you know?
Well, no, no, no.
He's actually, he's a really cool guy,
and my brother, I guess, was misbehaving or something.
And Tom was just like, what do I need to do?
You know, I'll give you anything
so you just like calm down and relax.
And my brother looked him right in the eyes and he was like,
I want half a glass of orange juice,
mixed with half a glass of milk.
And he's like, really, that's what you want?
He's like, yes.
And so he gave it to him and he drank it
and my brother was just like vomiting
just like all over his like face and body.
Onto Tom Cruise?
Wow! And Tom was like laughing.
Started jumping up and down.
And this is crazy.
(both laughing)
And I'm curious, like that's such a funny
disciplinary technique too, like if you don't behave,
I'll give you anything you want.
No, I think he was just trynna comfort him.
He was a little kid.
Now, did you grow up,
I mean, you have just gorgeous red hair.
Did you grow up always as you were always a red head, right?
I was always a red head, yeah you too right?
Did you like it?
Because I grew up and my hair it's like over the years,
it like changes a bit.
When I was a kid, my hair was just pumpkin orange
and I had this perfectly round face, lots of freckles,
pumpkin orange hair and I hated it.
I mean, yeah, I just absolutely hated it.
Did you like being a redhead?
It was okay.
I mean, at first, like when I was by myself,
people would be like, oh, that's really cute
and very unique and special.
And then my sisters and my brother and my parents,
my aunts, my uncles, and my grandparents
and my cousins would show up and they're all red heads,
all of them.
And they're like, this is a little like sick.
Like what happened in this family?
We just, we all look really inbred and yeah, we do.
Like it's weird.
And we like take family outings to the dermatologist office.
Yeah.
Get those freckles checked, yeah.
That's what we do in my family too.
And when 40 red haired people pile into a car,
it looks like clowns piling into one.
It's true, we're going to the circus.