Ron Howard Explains Why He Forbade Daughter Bryce from Acting as a Child: ‘Going to Be Unfairly Compared’ (Exclusive)

Bryce Dallas Howard’s dad, Ron Howard, always looked out for his daughter.

Bryce, 43, recently told PEOPLE that if she had a choice, she would have started her acting career at a younger age. (She started in Hollywood with M. Night Shyamalan Village 2004.)

“My parents were very firm about that line, that they wouldn’t support anyone who wanted to be a child actor,” Jurassic World said the star.

Ron and Bryce Dallas Howard in the 80s. Bryce Dallas Howard/instagram Bryce Dallas Howard Celebrates Dad Ron Howard’s 70th Birthday With Adorable Throwback Polaroid: ‘I Love You’

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Ron, 70, explains why he and his wife, Cheryl Howard, didn’t want their oldest daughter to be a child star like he was when he played Opie Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show from 1960-1966, starting when he was only six years old.

“It’s possible for child performers to really find a lot of positives in it, but it’s full of landmines,” Ron says of navigating Hollywood in his youth.

He adds that both his father Rance Howard (who died in 2017 at the age of 89) and his mother Jean Howard were actors who knew how much supervision they had to provide their actor sons, Ron and Clint Howard, on set. Jean took a break from the cameras to support her sons’ aspirations, Ron recalls.

The Happy days star says he chose to shield Bryce from the spotlight for another significant reason.

“On top of everything else, because the characters I played as a kid were so famous they were almost iconic…I also thought, ‘Hey, if any of our kids try to play a kid, boy or girl, they’re going to be unfairly compared.'” , he says, noting that The Andy Griffith Show has already become “mythically significant in TV history”.

Bryce Dallas Howard at the 2024 EE BAFTA Film Awards.

Samir Hussein/WireImage

Ron says he and Cheryl didn’t want Bryce to face the inevitable comparisons if she followed a similar career path.

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Looking back, Bryce told PEOPLE she’s thankful her parents encouraged her to find other ways to earn a paycheck.

“I’m really glad they did it because when I started acting, it took a while to make a living. To be able to say, ‘Oh, okay. I can actually support myself with this,'” she explained.

Currently, Bryce said she and her father, Ron, have a great relationship and “love to talk about movies.”

“But it’s usually admiring someone’s work and making stuff up, or sharing crazy stories that have turned, or just fun stuff,” she added.

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Source: HIS Education