Ron Howard will not be voting for J.D. Vance in the upcoming election.
The 70-year-old legendary filmmaker has history with Vance, 40, who wrote the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was adapted into a 2020 Netflix film directed by Howard.
But now that Vance is Donald Trump's vice presidential nominee for the November election, Howard has a new opinion of the Ohio senator.
“Well, when we were making the movie we didn't talk about politics very much because I was more interested in her upbringing and her survival story. That's what we focused on mostly,” Howard said in an interview deadline Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“However,” Howard continued, “based on the conversations that I've had during that time, I just want to say that I'm very shocked and disappointed by the rhetoric that I'm reading and hearing. People change, and I think that's the way it is. Well, that's on the record.”
“At the time I knew him when I talked to him, he wasn't involved in politics or claimed to be particularly interested. So that was then. I think the important thing is to recognize what's happening today and vote.”
“It's not really about some movie that was made five or six years ago. That's true, but we need to react to what we're seeing, hearing, feeling, and vote responsibly, whatever it is. We should participate. That's my answer,” Howard said.
In Interview with Variety At TIFF, Howard said he was “surprised and concerned by a lot of the statements” that have come from the Trump-Vance campaign.
The Oscar winner also said, “I will never vote for Donald Trump to be president again, no matter who the vice president is.”
Vance wrote about his life in his popular 2016 book, growing up in a working-class Appalachian family, and how he graduated from Yale Law School.
In Howard's film, Glenn Close plays Vance's grandmother, Amy Adams plays Vance's mother, and Gabriel Basso plays Vance himself. Owen Astalos plays the young Vance.
At the time “Hillbilly Elegy” was published, it received little response. Atlantic deemed it “one of the worst films of the year”, while The A.V. Club It was called “poverty porn” that “reinforces the stereotypes it purports to shed light on.” Post film critic Johnny Oleksinski called it “exploitative” and “a means of showing off for awards-hungry actors.”
Still, it received Oscar nominations — for best supporting actress for the 77-year-old Close, and best makeup and hairstyling.
Close spoke at the premiere of her film “The Deliverance” last month Diversity and Vance reminisced about visiting the “Hillbilly Elegy” set, but then took aim at the senator for changing his stance on the 78-year-old Trump.
“You just hope that the people in our government have some moral compass and don't say one thing and then say something else that's 150 degrees different,” he said.
The actress also took a dig at Vance's “childless cat ladies” comment on social media.
