{"id":592173,"date":"2026-07-18T13:59:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/592173\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T13:59:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:59:48","slug":"ron-howard-reveals-what-it-was-really-like-making-john-waynes-final-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/592173\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Howard Reveals What It Was Really Like Making John Wayne\u2019s Final Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ron Howard<\/strong><\/a> is opening up about his experience working on John Wayne<\/strong><\/a>‘s final film.<\/p>\n

The Academy Award-winning director, 72, recently appeared on Ben Mankiewicz<\/strong>‘s Talking Pictures<\/a> podcast<\/a>, where he detailed the “intense” experience of working with the Western actor<\/a> on The Shootist, the last film the veteran actor made before he died in 1979 at 72.<\/p>\n

Howard, who starred as Gillom Rogers alongside Wayne’s J.B. Books in the Don Siegel<\/strong>-directed film, said he learned “so much” from the Dirty Harry filmmaker, whom he described as a “very strong director,” even as tensions simmered between Siegel and Wayne.<\/p>\n

The rift started early on in filming after Howard said Siegel gave an interview to a local newspaper critiquing Wayne’s on-set behavior, telling the Carson City, Nevada, outlet at the time: “They say John Wayne eats directors for breakfast. If he takes a bite out of me, he’s going to get indigestion. So it upset Duke, and it just kind of got worse.”<\/p>\n

“They did not get along. And I was getting along with both of them separately, just fine,” Howard told Mankiewicz, 59.<\/p>\n

The <\/a>Happy Days<\/a> alum<\/a> said that, despite being just 22 years old at the time, he had worked up the courage to approach Siegel and ask questions about directing. Howard, who was studying at USC’s Cinema School with aspirations of becoming a filmmaker, quickly bonded with the Western’s director and used the opportunity to learn from him.<\/p>\n

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Beitia Archives \/ Digital Press Photos\/Newscom\/The Mega Agency<\/p>\n

“I also learned a lot in a rather uncomfortable way, because Wayne and Siegel were feuding,” he noted.<\/p>\n

Howard built a strong bond with Wayne as well, who he said appreciated his professionalism.<\/p>\n

“And I also had the guts to say, ‘Hey, do you want to run lines?’ No one really would talk to him in between setups,” Howard revealed. “He had a couple of people: a guy he would play chess with, who was the still photographer who had worked with him on a lot of films. But it was a very closed little bubble that he was operating in.”<\/p>\n

He continued, “He was perfectly friendly to me, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’d like to run lines.’ And we had a lot of scenes together, heavy dialogue, and it was very interesting to see him take a scene and shape it into a John Wayne performance in the most positive ways.”<\/p>\n

Given their close working relationship, Howard said it was a common occurrence for Wayne to vent to him about Siegel and his dissatisfaction over the way the longtime director was shooting the film, and Siegel did the same.<\/p>\n

“And I felt like Siegel, who told me at a certain point, he said, ‘Hey, look: After about two weeks, if you’re the director and it’s you or the star, you’re gone. They can’t afford to go back and reshoot. I don’t care how much they love what you’re doing. You’re gone,'” Howard recalled Siegel saying. “‘And I like this script, and I like this movie, and I’m going to ride it out.'”<\/p>\n

“And I think, you know\u2026 John Wayne felt the same way, but I also felt like Siegel didn’t do a great job of bridging the gaps,” the former child star continued. “And it was pretty intense, but I remember saying, ‘There’s a better way to deal with even superstars than this.'”<\/p>\n

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Mega Agency<\/p>\n

Ultimately, his experience on The Shootist proved pivotal for the Apollo 13 director, who said he learned how to navigate on-set tensions as a result.<\/p>\n

“I felt that the key was that a lot of things were allowed to fester for a long period of time. The strategy that I’ve followed over the years is when there’s a difference of opinion, go right into it. You don’t have to make it a fight, but you’re there to achieve something together and talk it through,” he said. “Don’t let it become something that’s petty and emotional when, in fact, it’s a creative concern or a neurotic concern. And if you shine a bright light on a neurotic concern, most people, even the most neurotic of them, say, ‘Oh yeah, I guess I was a little insecure about that.'”<\/p>\n

Even with the tensions between Wayne and Siegel, who he said were “at loggerheads” at times, Howard noted that The Shootist, which marks its 50th anniversary this month, ended up turning out to be “really good.”<\/p>\n

“It holds up well,” Howard said of the 1976 film, adding that it’s “placed slowly, deliberately, but it builds beautifully.”<\/p>\n

This story Ron Howard Reveals What It Was Really Like Making John Wayne’s Final Movie<\/a> first appeared on National Examiner<\/a>. Follow National Examiner<\/strong><\/a> on <\/a>Yahoo<\/strong><\/a> so you don’t miss what’s coming next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ron Howard is opening up about his experience working on John Wayne‘s final film. The Academy Award-winning director,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[250892,18,117,19,17,67084,327,15692,250893],"class_list":["post-592173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ben-mankiewicz","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-wayne","tag-movies","tag-ron-howard","tag-the-shootist"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116941346573749152","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}