“Happy Days” star Ron Howard explained why he forbade his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard from acting when she was a child.
Bryce, 43, recently revealed that Howard, 70, didn’t allow her and her siblings to follow in his footsteps when they were younger. In an interview with People magazine, Howard, who rose to fame at the age of six when he starred on “The Andy Griffith Show,” shared his thoughts on potential pitfalls that child stars face in Hollywood.
“It’s possible for child performers to really find a lot that is positive within it, but it’s fraught with landmines,” the “Splash” director said.
Howard’s younger brother Clint Howard, 64, began acting when he was 2 years old. While speaking with People, Howard recalled that his parents, Rance and Jean, who were both actors, were aware that they would have to dedicate a lot of time to supervising their young sons on set.
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“Happy Days” star Ron Howard explained why he didn’t allow his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard to become a child actress. (Daniele Venturelli/WireImage)
He noted that Jean took a long hiatus from acting to focus on her sons’ careers. Jean died from heart and respiratory illness in 2000 at the age of 73. In 2017, Rance passed away due to congestive heart failure at age 89.
Howard shares Bryce, twin daughters Jocelyn and Paige, 39, and son Reed, 36, with his wife Cheryl, 70, whom he married in 1975.
The two-time Academy Award winner told People he also feared his children would face “unfair” comparisons to his own work as a child star if they entered the entertainment industry in their younger years.
He pointed out that “The Andy Griffith Show” was already “mythically significant in TV history” at the time.
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Howard rose to fame at the age of six when he starred in “The Andy Griffith Show.” (Silver Screen Productions)
“On top of everything else, because the characters that I played as a child were so well-known as to almost be iconic… I also thought, ‘Hey, if one of our kids tries to act as a child, boy or girl, they’re going to be unfairly compared,'” Howard said.
Bryce studied drama at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for three years before taking a leave of absence to pursue Broadway acting roles. At the age of 22, she made her career breakthrough when she was cast as the lead in M. Night Shyamalan’s 2004 fantasy thriller “The Village.”
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During an interview with People last month, Bryce admitted that she would have preferred to start her career at a younger age.
“I think if I had the chance to act younger, I would’ve taken it. But I wasn’t allowed to,” she said. “My parents were very firm on that boundary, that they were not going to support anyone who wanted to be a child actor.”
Bryce said she and Howard “love to talk about the movies.” (Christie Goodwin/Redferns/Getty Images)
However, the Golden Globe Award nominee told the outlet that she was grateful for her parents’ decision in hindsight.
“I’m really glad that they did that because when I did start acting, it took a while to make a living. To be able to be like, ‘Oh, OK. I can actually support myself with this,'” she said.
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The “Jurassic World” star shared that she and Howard have a “great relationship,” telling People that the two “love to talk about the movies.”
“But it’s usually admiring people’s work and kind of gushing about things, or sharing crazy stories that turned around, or just fun things,” Bryce explained.
“It’s so wonderful to get to be in an industry with family members, for me at least, because I’m not alone in it,” she added.