August 22, 2025 • 13 mins
Ronald William Howard is an American actor, director, and producer with a career spanning six decades. He first found fame as a child actor on The Andy Griffith Show and later as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. Howard transitioned to directing and won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for the 2001 biographical drama A Beautiful Mind. He was nominated for the same awards again for the 2008 political drama Frost/Nixon.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, Brad Gilmour here. Want to give a big
shout out to our title sponsor, Walker Texas Lawyer. If
you are a love would have been injured in an accident,
whether that be a car, truck, motorcycle accident, or some
kind of other issue. Hit up Walker Texas Lawyer at
seven one three five five to two one one one
seven or Walker Texas Lawyer dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Oh Broadcasting live from Houston, Texas and around the world
and are around the world.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
TV host, best selling author and radio personality, Brad Gilmour
brings you a collection of conversations with stars from movies.
Matthew McConaughey, Brad Gilmore, Mark wohlburg By, how are you
the legendary mister Christopher Lloyd Christopher, how are we doing?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I'm doing?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Good day in Jessica Alba and Lizzie Matthis ladies, thank
you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Kevin Coster joins us, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Thank you Television.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Jimmy Fallon joins us this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Jimmy, how you doing, my friend? Good morning. Thank you
so much Brad for having me. I appreciate this.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Bud Kelly Ripper, thank you for having me comedy. Jay
Leno joins us, Jay, how you doing? Hey, Brad?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Chris Tucker is the Bill and Chris Tucker, good morning
to you. Hey you. George Lopez joins us right now, George,
how are you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Sorry?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Good morning music, Lola Manro, thank you, thank you for
having me.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
The legendary front man of A C D C. Brian
Johnson joins us right now, Brian, how you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Good morning?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Brock what look talk?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Give me funny? Megan Trainer.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Chloe Bailey joins us. I appreciate the time, appreciate you
and more and more.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
This is the collection. Now your host of the Boat.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I'm a pleasure to join me right now on the show.
Talking about the brand new film Eaton, which is in
theaters tomorrow. Is the acclaimed director himself to Ron Howard, Ron,
congratulations on the film and your recent Emmy nomination.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, I thank you, thank you for both. One was
just a tremendous surprise and accident. And that's being on
the studio. What a blast I had on that and
what a great series and I love working with everybody
on it. So that's a thrill. And Eden is is
this true? Crime thriller. I've never I've never done that genre.
I you know, I it's it's I've done a lot
(02:27):
of movies based on real events, and a lot of
them are very suspenseful, but you know, they're not They're
not as dangerous, they're not as tough, they're not as edgy,
and they're not as much of a cautionary tale as
this one. But the acting opportunities were so great that
I just and and the ideas behind the movie were
so relatable to modern society and moviegoers. I felt that
(02:50):
it was just a story I couldn't get out of
my head. I've been working on it, off and on
for fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, yeah, I know that you've This has been kind
of a project that you've been eyeing for a long time.
And I got to see the film last night and
I loved it. Phenomenal film, really great. And what I
loved most about it I heard you describe this cast
of characters as the perfect microcosm of society, and I
completely understand that. After seeing the film and the performances
(03:15):
from everybody individually, they kind of take on roles that
I haven't seen them in before, especially Anna d Armis
as the Baroness is so vibrant on screen. I think
it's maybe her best performance.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well, she's an incredibly talented person, and you know they
all are. But she's Cuban, it's not even her first language.
And look, she plays Marilyn Monroe and knocks it out
of the park. And now she's the Baroness. I mean,
come on. She's a very, very creatively brave. But I
loved working with all of them. Vanessa Kirby brought so much,
(03:50):
Jude Law is an amazing talent. Daniel Brule is an
old friend I've worked with on Rush, of course, and
he's done so many great things. And Sidney Sweeney, who
came late to the project, was a real revelation to me.
I was excited to have her join us. I knew
she could do it. She had, you know, a great
approach to the character. But she went so deep and
(04:12):
was so fierce and worked so hard. This woman's work
ethic is uh, you know, is right there with anybody
I've ever I've ever seen on a set.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Well, in her portrayal of Miss Whitmer I believe is
her name, it's so good, especially the final scene where
she's being interrogated. Uh, just a force course.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
A lot of people, that's one of their favorite scenes.
This is this is one of these movies that, you know,
because it is based on reality, it doesn't follow the
normal structure of like you know, like like a mystery
thriller that you would see on television would fold out
in a certain way with the twist and turns. It's
a little more jagged than that because it is based
on real events. But it's a movie that it you know,
(04:58):
it has just a bunch of highlight scenes that where
different actors get to shine in a different way. There
are twists and turns, and again for me, it was
quite different as a storytelling journey. But I you know,
I'm really proud of what the actors did, and you know,
in the way audiences are responding to some of these
(05:19):
some of these scenes, some of these wild turns.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Well, well, man, there was a scene early on with
Jude Law's character where he portrays doctor Ritter, and it's
early on he's explaining how there's no water there and
he's having to funnel it through these creeks. He's taking
a shower and he says failure is inevitable and then
he goes on to say war is inevitable. It goes democracy, fascism,
(05:42):
war is inevitable. He almost had a very morose way
of looking at life when he was still trying to
find this perfect balance and harmony. Interesting dichotomy of that character.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, yeah, I mean, and I think that that paradox
is sort of what he discovers about himself in a way.
Everybody goes on this gauntlet. It's this journey, you know,
when it's a pressure test kind of a movie. And
that look, one of the most searched phrases on the
internet is off the grid. Right now, we're all a
little fascinated. We all just wonder if isn't there There's
(06:13):
got to be a better place, an easier place where
I can be myself and you. But but the thing
is we dragged society with us, and and we we
have to face who we are and the community that
we that that we live, and we can't just I
don't think running away from it serves people very well.
And this is a case study where people try to
(06:36):
do it for you know, a wide a wide variety
of reasons. But I mean, look, Ritter is driven a
lot by ego. The same with the barons. They want
to be stars. Really yeah, in this day and age,
they would be influencers or something. You know, they'd be
doing stunts to try to get people's attention and and
grab eyeballs. Uh and uh but uh it you know
(06:59):
it was it was. It was a different era and
they took an extreme path and with a very intense outcome.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well, obviously you've done stories based on things that have
actually happened before. One of my favorite films of yours
is Frost Nixon. I watched that at least once a
year regularly. Frank Leangel is so good in that movie
as the President. But what are the kind of the
pressures of adapting a real story? Now? I know this
one is more of the stories of the accounts of
the survivors, and there's dueling books out there and a
(07:28):
lot of different narratives. Weaving through that and trying to
be true to the essence of the story but also
taking creative liberties when needed, how do you balance that?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Well, this was a case of us piecing it together,
built around the facts, right, So it's so, yes, there's
an element of historical fiction. But what Noah Pink, the screenwriter,
and I really really tried to do is put the
options on the table. They're pretty limited. They're only a
handful of ways this could have gone down, right, And yeah,
(08:00):
we picked one that we thought was pretty pretty juicy
and exciting and surprising to watch. But it wasn't outrageous.
It was inspired by accusations things people wrote later, you know,
letters that they sent to try to, you know, make
these various accusations and things. So it was really fun
(08:21):
to pull it together. Yet the cast and the crew,
you know, we really did our best to try to
recreate that world and that environment and the spirit of
those characters as we understood them. And that's one of
the reasons why we show a lot of photos and
some movies and things like that that were made at
the time of the real people, just so the audience understands, now,
(08:43):
we didn't this is this is one of those stranger
than fiction stories, but it ain't fiction.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, very stranger than fiction. Especially the miss Whitmer staying
there until the year two thousand and living on that
island is well not fascinate.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
It's just you know, it's you know, it's it's one
of those stories. Yeah, look, it is kind of like
a season of a reality show.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I mean, I know a couple of people who were
on Survivor, and this is kind of like this is
like that show, except people really died. Yeah, so it
you know, it really was this sort of perfect laboratory case,
uh study.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
But you know, who survives, who doesn't? Why, what motivates them?
How do they change along the way? That's that's what
gave these actors, uh, you know, so much interesting material
to work with. And I think it's you know, I
think it was the story and the screenplay that compelled
them to do it. And by the way, we all
(09:43):
did it as a labor of love. This was not
a Hollywood movie with Hollywood paychecks. This was this was
an indies all the way, uh. And we all pulled
together and and and made the dark, twisted little movie
that we that we thought it could be.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Well, and you're right when you say it doesn't follow
the formula of what you think of a traditional mystery
thriller with the suspense. It's not an Agatha Christie's story.
It's not a who done it? It's more of a
why done it? In a lot of ways, and I
love the way the story plays out now, you've also
worked in period pieces before this one said in the
late nineteen twenties. What are the challenges and conveniences of
(10:20):
working in that time period. Obviously you don't have to
worry about the tech world and implementing phones and things
of that nature.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
That's the best thing is what really can be trapped,
you know. I mean there was no electricity, there was
no phone service. You know, they had a phonograph was
hand cranked, and you know, eventually a yachtsman, very wealthy,
you know, the equivalent of a billionaire today. You know,
one of the wealthiest of the wealthy came through with
(10:48):
an expedition and filmed them and you could see this,
you know, even more than what we showed on the
end of our film. There's more that you can find
online and it's all fascinating.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And there's a documentary I believe as well.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yes, and a really good documentary. But I mean those
cameras were hand cranked and they're in nineteen thirty two,
which is sort of the climax of the story, and
you know, it was it was a it was a
raw time. I mean, they put themselves through, you know,
a lot to try to be free to try to
(11:19):
find this other version of themselves. And by the way,
I got a lot of sympathy for all the characters.
Some of them make some pretty diabolical choices and decisions,
but they're also feeling very desperate and starving. When that,
when those kinds of things happen, I understand the excitement
(11:40):
for the dreams that they all held, you know, different dreams,
but their dreams, and you know, and we all need
to dream, we need to believe it's possible, and they
chased it. They chased it, some of them right to
the end.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Well, the film is phenomenal. I really enjoyed watching it.
I enjoyed the conversation. Congratulations again and a pleasure just
speak to you, sir.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I'm glad you like the film. I appreciate it. Nice
talking to you.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I have a going
Hey guys, Brad Gilmour here. Want to give a big
shout out to our title sponsor, Walker Texas Lawyer. If
you are a love would have been injured in an accident,
whether that be a car, truck, motorcycle accident, or some
kind of other issue. Hit up Walker Texas Lawyer at
seven one three five five to two one one one
seven or Walker Texas Lawyer dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Oh Broadcasting live from Houston, Texas and around the world
and are around the world.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
TV host, best selling author and radio personality, Brad Gilmour
brings you a collection of conversations with stars from movies.
Matthew McConaughey, Brad Gilmore, Mark wohlburg By, how are you
the legendary mister Christopher Lloyd Christopher, how are we doing?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I'm doing?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Good day in Jessica Alba and Lizzie Matthis ladies, thank
you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Kevin Coster joins us, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Thank you Television.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Jimmy Fallon joins us this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Jimmy, how you doing, my friend? Good morning. Thank you
so much Brad for having me. I appreciate this.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Bud Kelly Ripper, thank you for having me comedy. Jay
Leno joins us, Jay, how you doing? Hey, Brad?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Chris Tucker is the Bill and Chris Tucker, good morning
to you. Hey you. George Lopez joins us right now, George,
how are you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Sorry?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Good morning music, Lola Manro, thank you, thank you for
having me.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
The legendary front man of A C D C. Brian
Johnson joins us right now, Brian, how you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Good morning?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Brock what look talk?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Give me funny? Megan Trainer.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Chloe Bailey joins us. I appreciate the time, appreciate you
and more and more.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
This is the collection. Now your host of the Boat.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
I'm a pleasure to join me right now on the show.
Talking about the brand new film Eaton, which is in
theaters tomorrow. Is the acclaimed director himself to Ron Howard, Ron,
congratulations on the film and your recent Emmy nomination.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, I thank you, thank you for both. One was
just a tremendous surprise and accident. And that's being on
the studio. What a blast I had on that and
what a great series and I love working with everybody
on it. So that's a thrill. And Eden is is
this true? Crime thriller. I've never I've never done that genre.
I you know, I it's it's I've done a lot
(02:27):
of movies based on real events, and a lot of
them are very suspenseful, but you know, they're not They're
not as dangerous, they're not as tough, they're not as edgy,
and they're not as much of a cautionary tale as
this one. But the acting opportunities were so great that
I just and and the ideas behind the movie were
so relatable to modern society and moviegoers. I felt that
(02:50):
it was just a story I couldn't get out of
my head. I've been working on it, off and on
for fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, yeah, I know that you've This has been kind
of a project that you've been eyeing for a long time.
And I got to see the film last night and
I loved it. Phenomenal film, really great. And what I
loved most about it I heard you describe this cast
of characters as the perfect microcosm of society, and I
completely understand that. After seeing the film and the performances
(03:15):
from everybody individually, they kind of take on roles that
I haven't seen them in before, especially Anna d Armis
as the Baroness is so vibrant on screen. I think
it's maybe her best performance.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well, she's an incredibly talented person, and you know they
all are. But she's Cuban, it's not even her first language.
And look, she plays Marilyn Monroe and knocks it out
of the park. And now she's the Baroness. I mean,
come on. She's a very, very creatively brave. But I
loved working with all of them. Vanessa Kirby brought so much,
(03:50):
Jude Law is an amazing talent. Daniel Brule is an
old friend I've worked with on Rush, of course, and
he's done so many great things. And Sidney Sweeney, who
came late to the project, was a real revelation to me.
I was excited to have her join us. I knew
she could do it. She had, you know, a great
approach to the character. But she went so deep and
(04:12):
was so fierce and worked so hard. This woman's work
ethic is uh, you know, is right there with anybody
I've ever I've ever seen on a set.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Well, in her portrayal of Miss Whitmer I believe is
her name, it's so good, especially the final scene where
she's being interrogated. Uh, just a force course.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
A lot of people, that's one of their favorite scenes.
This is this is one of these movies that, you know,
because it is based on reality, it doesn't follow the
normal structure of like you know, like like a mystery
thriller that you would see on television would fold out
in a certain way with the twist and turns. It's
a little more jagged than that because it is based
on real events. But it's a movie that it you know,
(04:58):
it has just a bunch of highlight scenes that where
different actors get to shine in a different way. There
are twists and turns, and again for me, it was
quite different as a storytelling journey. But I you know,
I'm really proud of what the actors did, and you know,
in the way audiences are responding to some of these
(05:19):
some of these scenes, some of these wild turns.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Well, well, man, there was a scene early on with
Jude Law's character where he portrays doctor Ritter, and it's
early on he's explaining how there's no water there and
he's having to funnel it through these creeks. He's taking
a shower and he says failure is inevitable and then
he goes on to say war is inevitable. It goes democracy, fascism,
(05:42):
war is inevitable. He almost had a very morose way
of looking at life when he was still trying to
find this perfect balance and harmony. Interesting dichotomy of that character.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, yeah, I mean, and I think that that paradox
is sort of what he discovers about himself in a way.
Everybody goes on this gauntlet. It's this journey, you know,
when it's a pressure test kind of a movie. And
that look, one of the most searched phrases on the
internet is off the grid. Right now, we're all a
little fascinated. We all just wonder if isn't there There's
(06:13):
got to be a better place, an easier place where
I can be myself and you. But but the thing
is we dragged society with us, and and we we
have to face who we are and the community that
we that that we live, and we can't just I
don't think running away from it serves people very well.
And this is a case study where people try to
(06:36):
do it for you know, a wide a wide variety
of reasons. But I mean, look, Ritter is driven a
lot by ego. The same with the barons. They want
to be stars. Really yeah, in this day and age,
they would be influencers or something. You know, they'd be
doing stunts to try to get people's attention and and
grab eyeballs. Uh and uh but uh it you know
(06:59):
it was it was. It was a different era and
they took an extreme path and with a very intense outcome.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well, obviously you've done stories based on things that have
actually happened before. One of my favorite films of yours
is Frost Nixon. I watched that at least once a
year regularly. Frank Leangel is so good in that movie
as the President. But what are the kind of the
pressures of adapting a real story? Now? I know this
one is more of the stories of the accounts of
the survivors, and there's dueling books out there and a
(07:28):
lot of different narratives. Weaving through that and trying to
be true to the essence of the story but also
taking creative liberties when needed, how do you balance that?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Well, this was a case of us piecing it together,
built around the facts, right, So it's so, yes, there's
an element of historical fiction. But what Noah Pink, the screenwriter,
and I really really tried to do is put the
options on the table. They're pretty limited. They're only a
handful of ways this could have gone down, right, And yeah,
(08:00):
we picked one that we thought was pretty pretty juicy
and exciting and surprising to watch. But it wasn't outrageous.
It was inspired by accusations things people wrote later, you know,
letters that they sent to try to, you know, make
these various accusations and things. So it was really fun
(08:21):
to pull it together. Yet the cast and the crew,
you know, we really did our best to try to
recreate that world and that environment and the spirit of
those characters as we understood them. And that's one of
the reasons why we show a lot of photos and
some movies and things like that that were made at
the time of the real people, just so the audience understands, now,
(08:43):
we didn't this is this is one of those stranger
than fiction stories, but it ain't fiction.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, very stranger than fiction. Especially the miss Whitmer staying
there until the year two thousand and living on that
island is well not fascinate.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
It's just you know, it's you know, it's it's one
of those stories. Yeah, look, it is kind of like
a season of a reality show.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I mean, I know a couple of people who were
on Survivor, and this is kind of like this is
like that show, except people really died. Yeah, so it
you know, it really was this sort of perfect laboratory case,
uh study.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
But you know, who survives, who doesn't? Why, what motivates them?
How do they change along the way? That's that's what
gave these actors, uh, you know, so much interesting material
to work with. And I think it's you know, I
think it was the story and the screenplay that compelled
them to do it. And by the way, we all
(09:43):
did it as a labor of love. This was not
a Hollywood movie with Hollywood paychecks. This was this was
an indies all the way, uh. And we all pulled
together and and and made the dark, twisted little movie
that we that we thought it could be.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Well, and you're right when you say it doesn't follow
the formula of what you think of a traditional mystery
thriller with the suspense. It's not an Agatha Christie's story.
It's not a who done it? It's more of a
why done it? In a lot of ways, and I
love the way the story plays out now, you've also
worked in period pieces before this one said in the
late nineteen twenties. What are the challenges and conveniences of
(10:20):
working in that time period. Obviously you don't have to
worry about the tech world and implementing phones and things
of that nature.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
That's the best thing is what really can be trapped,
you know. I mean there was no electricity, there was
no phone service. You know, they had a phonograph was
hand cranked, and you know, eventually a yachtsman, very wealthy,
you know, the equivalent of a billionaire today. You know,
one of the wealthiest of the wealthy came through with
(10:48):
an expedition and filmed them and you could see this,
you know, even more than what we showed on the
end of our film. There's more that you can find
online and it's all fascinating.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And there's a documentary I believe as well.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yes, and a really good documentary. But I mean those
cameras were hand cranked and they're in nineteen thirty two,
which is sort of the climax of the story, and
you know, it was it was a it was a
raw time. I mean, they put themselves through, you know,
a lot to try to be free to try to
(11:19):
find this other version of themselves. And by the way,
I got a lot of sympathy for all the characters.
Some of them make some pretty diabolical choices and decisions,
but they're also feeling very desperate and starving. When that,
when those kinds of things happen, I understand the excitement
(11:40):
for the dreams that they all held, you know, different dreams,
but their dreams, and you know, and we all need
to dream, we need to believe it's possible, and they
chased it. They chased it, some of them right to
the end.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Well, the film is phenomenal. I really enjoyed watching it.
I enjoyed the conversation. Congratulations again and a pleasure just
speak to you, sir.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I'm glad you like the film. I appreciate it. Nice
talking to you.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I have a going
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