Hillbilly Elegy director Ron Howard says JD Vance has ‘surprised’ him

Hillbilly Elegy director Ron Howard has taken a swipe at JD Vance, stating he is “surprised” by the vice president’s transformation into a controversial politician.

Before Vance was announced as Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2024 US presidential election, he was the subject of a critically maligned 2020 film, which adapted his 2017 memoir about his early life in poverty.

Howard, who worked closely with Vance while making the Netflix film, has now said he is shocked that Vance has become a divisive figure who is just a few steps away from the most powerful position in the world.

“Well, it’s happened, so I know what I’ve observed,” Howard told Vulture when asked if he can “reconcile the person he knew with the person you see now”.

“It remains a bit of a surprise to me. I would not have seen it coming, and I wouldn’t have expected his rhetoric to be as divisive as it sometimes is. By the way, I’m not following him or listening to every word.”

Howard continued: “When I was working with him, all his quotes about the administration were very public. He was trying to run an investment fund. So the run for Senate and the strategy he’s chosen to follow are not what I would’ve expected.”

The Apollo 13 and Da Vinci Code director said he texted Vance after Trump won the election, “which was just sort of ‘Godspeed, try to serve us well.’”

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According to the filmmaker, Vance “was frustrated” by Hillbilly Elegy’s negative reviews.

“He felt that his involvement was in some way tainting or colouring the critical response, and he resented it.”

Howard shared his own view on the film, calling it “a mixed bag and probably quite culturally divided”.

After Vance was announced as Trump’s running mate, he was criticised for comments that saw him refer to women, such as Trump’s presidential rival Kamala Harris, as “childless cat ladies”.

This prompted swift backlash and accusations of sexism, with Vance claiming the remarks were made in “sarcasm”.

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Vance’s memoir shows his life as a self-proclaimed “hillbilly” raised in the Appalachian mountains, living in poverty, despair and dysfunction. His journey to Yale Law School was documented in the 2017 book.

In the book’s introduction, he said: “I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve accomplished nothing great in my life, certainly nothing that could justify a complete stranger spending money to read about. I am not a senator, a governor, or a cabinet secretary.”

In the film adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy, he is played by Gabriel Basso, with Amy Adams playing his mother and Glenn Close as his grandmother.

It was described by The Independent’s critic Clarisse Loughrey as “a sickeningly irresponsible parade of death and despair”.