Ron Howard admits he doubted his mom's ability to star in Apollo 13 until she 'took her false tee...

&34;I said, 'Okay, mom, you got it.'&34; Ron Howard admits he doubted his mom's ability to star in Apollo 13 until she 'took her false teeth out' in audition

"I said, 'Okay, mom, you got it.'"

Ron Howard admits he doubted his mom's ability to star in *Apollo 13 *until she 'took her false teeth out' in audition

"I said, 'Okay, mom, you got it.'"

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August 26, 2025 1:21 p.m. ET

Ron Howard at TIFF 2024; Tom Hanks in 'Apollo 13' (1995). Credit:

Emma McIntyre/WireImage; Universal Pictures /Courtesy Everett

- Ron Howard admitted he didn't think his mother, Jean Speegle Howard, could play a role in *Apollo 13*.

- The actress took her false teeth out during an audition to prove she could play older.

- "I said, 'Okay, mom, you got it,'" the actor-director said in a new interview.

Director Ron Howard was ready for the Tom Hanks-starring space drama *Apollo 13 *to blast off without his mother in tow — until the late actress comically proved she could, contrary to her son's initial belief, play an older woman.

The 71-year-old filmmaker and actor opened up about working with his mother, actress Jean Speegle Howard, for a small role in the Best Picture-nominated 1995 hit, though he noted that he initially didn't believe she could play the part he needed her to.

After reading the *Apollo 13* screenplay, Howard's dad, Rance, called the star and told him, "You know, your mother would make a great Mrs. Lovell," Howard said in a new interview with PEOPLE.

Ron Howard and mother, Jean Speegle Howard.

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Howard recalled telling his father, "She's not really old enough," though he allowed her to audition for the part at their home.

"I said, 'Mom, you don't really look old enough for Mrs. Lovell,'" Howard recounted, noting that the part she wanted to play was the mother of Hanks' real-life astronaut, Jim Lovell.

In response, Howard's mother reportedly told him, "Oh, well, you can add some wrinkles and we'll get the right glasses and I'll mat my hair down."

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Howard indicated that her line reading went well, but he still doubted her ability to age up for the part.

"I don't know, mom, the age thing is bothering me," he said he told her. "She literally turned away and took her false teeth out and said, 'Will this help?' I said, 'Okay, mom, you got it.'"

Speegle Howard portrayed several parts after her turn in *Apollo 13*, which went on to gross $355 million at the box office and won two Oscars.**

Tom Hanks in 'Apollo 13'.

Universal/courtesy Everett

Speegle Howard — the grandmother to her son's daughter, actress Bryce Dallas Howard — had further roles in *Matilda*, *Spoiler*, and *The Night Caller*, among TV roles in *Grace Under Fire* and *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*, before she died in 2000 at age 73.

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Howard's latest film, *Eden*, is now playing in theaters nationwide, and dramatizes the harrowing true story of the Galapagos Affair, where a group of Europeans travelers traveled to a mostly uninhabited island of Floreana in 1929, after which many of the settlers died under dramatic circumstances.

Original Article on Source

Source: "AOL Movies"

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Source: LUX MAG

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