Ron Howard directed a movie based on J.D. Vance’s book — but that doesn’t mean he’s going to vote for him in November.
The Apollo 13 filmmaker recently reflected on Vance’s campaign for the vice presidency alongside presidential candidate and convicted felon Donald Trump.
“I have been surprised and concerned by a lot of the rhetoric coming out of that campaign,” Howard said in an interview with Variety.
Howard directed the 2020 film adaptation of Vance’s 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, and although he worked with the vice presidential candidate during production of it, he said political topics rarely came up during their conversations. “We didn’t talk a lot of politics when we were making the movie because I was interested in his upbringing and that survival tale. That’s what we mostly focused on,” Howard recently told Deadline. “However, based on the conversations that we had during that time, I just have to say I’m very surprised and disappointed by much of the rhetoric that I’m reading and hearing. People do change, and I assume that’s the case.”
The director also said Vance didn’t seem that politically motivated during their interactions. “When we spoke around the time that I knew him, he was not involved in politics or claimed to be particularly interested. So that was then,” he told Deadline.
The Splash filmmaker reiterated that Vance’s candidacy does not affect his stance on the Republican nominee for president. “There’s no version of me voting for Donald Trump to be president again, whoever the vice president was,” he told Variety. “Look, we gotta get out and vote, for whomever. But be thoughtful. Listen to what the candidates are saying today — that’s what’s really relevant. It’s who they are today. And make a decision — an informed one.”
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Hillbilly Elegy starred Gabriel Basso and Owen Asztalos as Vance at different ages, while Amy Adams played the future politician’s mother and Glenn Close portrayed his grandmother Mamaw.
Close, who was nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie for her work in the film, made a subtle dig at Vance on social media after he went viral for his 2021 comments suggesting that the United States is run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies, who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.” The actress posted a picture of her and her cat on Instagram with the caption, “Eve would have left a bleeding mouse head in the bed of anyone who criticized any kind of lady with a CAT!”
Celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Aniston have also condemned Vance’s “cat lady” remarks.
Hillbilly Elegy saw a massive uptick in viewership on Netflix after Trump selected Vance as his running mate, with an increase of 1,110 percent on the day of the announcement, and the movie quickly ascended into the streamer’s top 10 most-watched films at the time.