- I'm Ron Howard.
I'm the director of "Hillbilly Elegy",
- I've been doing real good.
I just had a down month.
- I got an interview tomorrow, mom, otherwise I'd...
- No. Oh you know me, I always land on my feet.
- "Hillbilly Elegy" is a family drama.
It's based on real events.
It's a memoir by J.D. Vance.
It's the journey of a young, interesting, intelligent guy
who loves his family
and his family loves him
but the particulars of the family create some baggage.
- I told you that I would do better.
- You always say that,
you're lying. - And I always try.
- It takes a long time to make a film,
I want to be fascinated by that journey.
In a project like "Hillbilly Elegy", it was relate-ability.
I love family stories
but I've never had one that was a true story
that dealt with characters from rural America
and that's my family's background.
I grew up in California
but my mom and dad are from the Midwest.
I felt like I just connected with these,
these characters, this family dynamic and journey.
The ways in which they were funny,
the dramas that they had to work through
and of course the always relatable journey
of a young guy discovering himself,
understanding the strengths that he's inherited
but also overcoming some of the baggage.
- [Mawmaw] You gotta think about these kids.
- What do you think I've been thinking about
since I was 18 years old, huh?
Never had a life where I wasn't thinking about the kids.
- There were lots of little connections that I felt
between the characters that I was reading about
and my own history, my parents' history
and my sense of understanding the way they'd make decisions
and behave.
All of these connections felt like
a very rich creative opportunity for me,
an opportunity to delve into characters
who I could relate to in an interesting, contemporary way.
- [Mawmaw] Everyone in this world is one of three kinds.
Good Terminator, a bad Terminator and neutral.
- [J.D.] You're a good terminator.
- Well, I wasn't always.
I had to learn.
You could to.
- By the time I was in my early teens
I'd also just fallen love with the medium of movies.
I just loved what they could mean.
I loved what they could communicate.
I loved the way they transported me
and I'd say more than anything,
I want to find stories that I think can transport audiences.
- You've always got a reason.
It's always someone else's fault.
Some point you're gonna have to take responsibility
or someone else- - Or what?
- is gonna have to step in.
- Who, huh? Who?
You?
- It's important to get to that authenticity.
We had to be honest about the people,
understand really how they lived, where they lived,
what they bought, what they thought
what they watched, what they listened to.
So everyone did a deep dive into the research.
I love that process.
Mostly, it was important to me that
if you come from the region, it rings true.
It's honest, it's fair, it resonates
and I began to see, more than ever,
just how universal this story was going to be.
I think rediscovering the potency and the power of love.
They might not always be helping each other.
They might not always be coming through for one another
But there is undeniable
loyal, deep, profound love.
I think we need to be looking at our own families,
our own relationships
and understanding where love factors into all of that.
I really hope audiences in the US
and around the world will connect,
will understand, you know, what it is
to grasp everything that makes you who you are,
good and bad
and that's the journey
- Family's the only thing that means a god damn.
You'll learn that.
(dramatic music)