‘Eden' director Ron Howard talks George Lucas' influence, rediscovering acting and ‘getting the hell out'

San Francisco Chronicle​

11 hours ago

Ron Howard grew up in Hollywood as a child star, but he became an adult on the streets of Petaluma while he was filming George Lucas ' 1973 ensemble piece 'American Graffiti.'
'For me it was literally a coming of age story,' Howard told the Chronicle in a video interview. 'That was the first project where I didn't have to have an on-set welfare worker and I didn't need parental supervision. So it was literally my first time away from home.
'I tried to sneak into some clubs in (San Francisco) and got thrown out within seconds. But it was an amazing adventure. It was definitely a pivotal, transformative moment for me.'
Howard, a child star on 'The Andy Griffith Show' and later a regular on 'Happy Days,' said he was inspired by 'American Graffiti' producer Francis Ford Coppola and writer-director Lucas and would soon turn to directing himself.
Now 71, Howard, an Oscar winner for 'A Beautiful Mind' (2001), is back with his first feature film in three years, 'Eden,' based on the true story of a group of German idealists who moved to Floreana, a deserted island in the Galapagos, to escape the chaos of post-World War I Europe. It opens in theaters Friday, Aug. 22.
The director of films such as 'Cocoon,' ' Apollo 13 ' and ' Solo: A Star Wars Story ' admits the film is a tonal departure for him; it is perhaps his bleakest movie. To tell the story, Howard turned to screenwriter Noah Pink, with whom he collaborated on the Albert Einstein episodes of the National Geographic series 'Genius,' and an all-star cast led by Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: This doesn't seem like a Ron Howard-type movie.
A: I acted with Henry Fonda in a television series that nobody knows about, nor should they, because it was pretty bad, called 'The Smith Family,' when I was 15, 16 years old. He was really the first voice of the industry that encouraged me to be a filmmaker. He was looking at my short films and reading the little scripts that I'd written, and he said, 'If you don't take a big creative risk every year and a half or two, you're not servicing your talent or the audience or the medium that you love.'
Q: So then obviously, when you were filming 'American Graffiti,' you were already thinking of becoming a director?
A: Yeah. My real common ground with George Lucas, who was in those days very withdrawn and quiet but a very nice guy, but we connected because I'd already been accepted to USC film school (Lucas' alma mater) and I was probably one of the few cast members who had seen the 'THX 1138' short.
I had read about Lucas in a collection of interviews by Joseph Gelmis, who was a film critic at the time, called 'Film Director as Superstar' (1970). Francis Coppola was in it, there was a picture of him holding a handheld 16mm camera or an ARRI or something, and he mentioned George at the end of his interview. (Coppola) said, 'Independent filmmaking is gonna be very exciting. And I've been working with this young filmmaker out of USC. His film 'THX 1138' is fantastic.'
So it was the beginning of the idea of a kind of an American independent film culture.
Q: 'Eden' may be set around 1930, but it has appeal to a lot of modern people who might dream of deactivating all social media accounts and moving to a deserted island.
A: 'Off the grid' is one of the most searched terms, so it's always been a big idea. I think one of the reasons that these three groups were German was that not only were they facing this horrible aftermath of World War I and the hopelessness of oppression and the autocracy that was filling the void in ways that were frightening, but also the book 'Robinson Crusoe' was this cultural event at the time.
So that idea of getting the hell out and finding a desert island and making a go of it was a romantic one. Dr. Ritter (Law) and Dora (Kirby) were this Adam and Eve, and they became pop icons in German media and then later the U.S. as well.
Q: How did you hear about the story, and what was the appeal for you?
A: About 15 years ago I was on a vacation with the family in the Galapagos, a place I'd always wanted to go, and had been to Floreana, and I heard about a mystery and a twisted story of people coming into conflict. They had a museum about the Galapagos, and they had a whole room dedicated to this (story) and a lot of images, some of which we use at the end of the movie.
Q: What's the most glaringly obvious mistake these people made?
A: That the whole notion of running away from society and rediscovering yourself only to recognize that you are part of society. Your humanity is part of what you're trying to run away from.
Q: Sydney Sweeney is great in this movie. Any take on the American Eagle jeans commercial controversy?
A: I have no opinion about it. (Laughs and shakes head). I'm doing a documentary right now about the photographer, Richard Avedon, and so we have a segment about the (1980s) Brooke Shields (Calvin Klein) jeans ad.
But I haven't been paying any attention to the controversy. I don't really even understand it.
Q: Do you ever see yourself retiring?
A: No, I don't. That's the beauty of this kind of business. My father (Rance Howard) acted until the day before he was stricken and lapsed into a coma, and he was 89. I look at Clint Eastwood and Scorsese and Ridley Scott and they're doing fine work. So if my health holds, I'm loving the process.
Q: You appeared as yourself in the Apple TV+ series ' The Studio ' earlier this year. Could we see more of you in front of the camera?
A: I could see myself trying to do a little acting again. That was the first time I really had to do any acting in decades where I really learned a lot of lines, even though I played myself. I really enjoyed it.