Ron Howard Didn't Want to Cast His Mother in "Apollo 13 "Until Seeing Her Without Her False Teeth Raven BrunnerAugust 16, 2025 at 7:00 AM Jerod Harris/Getty; Universal Pictures Ron Howard; Jean Speegle Howard in 'Apollo 13' Ron Howard had doubts about casting his mom in Apollo 13 The director needed...
- - Ron Howard Didn't Want to Cast His Mother in "Apollo 13 "Until Seeing Her Without Her False Teeth
Raven BrunnerAugust 16, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Jerod Harris/Getty; Universal Pictures
Ron Howard; Jean Speegle Howard in 'Apollo 13' -
Ron Howard had doubts about casting his mom in Apollo 13
The director needed convincing from his dad, Rance Howard, to cast his own mom in the role of Jim Lovell's mother in the 1995 docudrama
Ron felt that Jean was "a little too young for the role," he told Vulture
Ron Howard admits he had doubts about casting his mom in Apollo 13.
The director, 71, told Vulture in an interview published on Aug. 13 that he needed some convincing from his dad, Rance Howard, to cast his own mom, Jean Speegle Howard, in the role of Jim Lovell's mother in the 1995 docudrama about the near-fatal 1970 lunar mission.
Ron recalled getting a call from his dad, "who had never hocked me for work at all," after he received the rewrite of the movie. During the call, his father told him, "Your mother would knock that new Jim Lovell's mother part out of the park."
The director was resistant to the suggestion, noting that his mom had "just gotten back" to acting after a hiatus.
Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Ron Howard and mother Jean Speegle Howard
"I don't know. I mean, that's a pretty important role," Ron remembered telling Rance, who responded, "Oh, she could do it."
When the director argued that Jean was "a little too young for the role," his father rebutted that he "could age her easily."
The filmmaker ultimately decided to give his mom an audition, but opted to do it at the family's house rather than in the office. After they read through the scenes, he recalled his mom's performance being good, but still feeling that she wasn't old enough to play the character.
"I said, 'But Mom, the thing is, you're really too young to be this woman, to be Mrs. Lovell in an old folks' home,'" Ron said, adding that his mom was about 62 years old at the time.
Jean argued, "I could dye my hair, and they can increase my wrinkles," per her son.
After Ron once again expressed his doubts, his mom "turned away and took her false teeth out and said, 'Would this help?!' "
"I said, 'Okay, okay, okay! You got the part,'" the director recalled.
Universal Pictures
Jean Speegle Howard in 'Apollo 13'
Ron told Vulture that he "underestimated" Jean when he was younger. "I put my dad on such a pedestal, and he deserved it, hell of a guy, but I realized that she was the reason the course of the family history changed. She was the one with the clarity and the vision. I totally missed that as a young man," he said of his late mom.
Jean, from a "small town" in Oklahoma, went to the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City when she was 17. However, while studying in the city, she "got hit by a truck" and "then shied away" from acting for a while.
After World War II, she went back to drama school at the University of Oklahoma, where she met Rance. Ron said his dad often told him that his mom "was the best actor" at the entire school.
Still, the filmmaker noted that "the business was not kind to her," and she took a break from acting until after he and his brother, actor Clint Howard, moved away.
"She started acting again, dabbled, and went zero for 100 on auditions," Ron said. "She then went to an audition-scene study class and slowly but surely started getting work."
Jean starred in episodes of Married... with Children, Roseanne and Buffy the Vampire Slayer during her career. The actress appeared in Apollo 13 and The Night Caller alongside Rance.
She died at age 73 on Sept. 2, 2000.
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In the interview, Ron also spoke about his time on The Andy Griffith Show and how his father gave a note to Andy Griffith that changed the dynamic between the show's single father, Andy Taylor, and his character, Opie.
"Dad never said anything about that to me," Ron told the outlet, adding that he only learned about it years later, when the cast reunited for a special.
"Andy told me that my dad had come to him very early on in the show and said, 'You're writing Opie the way most sitcom kids are written. They're wisea---- and smarter than the dad.' "
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