Ron Howard confirms he nearly did porn to launch directing career

Ron Howard finally confirmed the longtime rumor that he once considered directing porn movies to jumpstart his filmmaking career.

When asked recently by journalist Graham Bensinger whether there was any truth to the 69-year-old “Happy Days” alum crossing over to the adult film industry, Ron laughed but admitted, “Well, it’s true that it went through my mind.

“It endured as a serious idea for probably two and a half to three seconds,” the former child star declared.

Specifically, in the 1970s, Howard entertained directing a cheekily-titled skin flick, “Opie Gets Laid” — not to be confused with a same-titled 2005 rom-com — in which the main character’s first name would mirror the one from Ron’s more innocent days on the 1960s sitcom “The Andy Griffith Show.”

“Yeah, ‘Opie Gets Laid’ would have probably made Ron a million dollars and he could have gone off and made a movie, but I’m glad he steered away from that because I don’t think anyone really wanted to see Opie get laid,” his brother, actor Clint Howard, 63, separately told Bensinger, covering his eyes.

Ron’s daughter, “Jurassic World” star Bryce Dallas Howard, 42, also admitted that she’s relieved her father decided against partaking in porn.

“A lot of times in life, I’ll think about the fact that my dad has a public profile that isn’t embarrassing. It’s massive, and if he had done ‘Opie Gets Laid,’ I just … I wouldn’t be in this business,” she said with a laugh.

On a more serious note, Ron explained that he gave up his role as Richie Cunningham on “Happy Days” after an eight-season run because he felt that he was a “more creative person when I’m working behind the camera than I ever was in front of it.”

“The entire time that I was under contract and doing ‘Happy Days,’ my dream was to be a filmmaker, and I felt like the clock was ticking a little bit on me,” he recalled.

Ron added that he’d “lost patience” around age 26 or 27 with not being able to solely devote his time to directing.

Even though he had worked behind the scenes for a few years, he wanted major studios to back his directorial debut, which he claimed they would not do.

Had Paramount “made those commitments, I would have done the show and made the movies,” he said.

“A lot of it just came from the fact that I really wanted some guarantees from Paramount Pictures and ABC that they would allow me to direct. Not ‘Happy Days,’ we had a great director: Jerry Paris,” Ron clarified.

“I wanted to direct a feature and I wanted them to facilitate that and they simply would not make any kind of guarantee,” he added.

However, Ron eventually found great success directing major movies.

He won two Oscars — Best Picture and Best Director — for 2001’s “A Beautiful Mind” and was nominated for two more with 2009’s “Frost/Nixon,” which he made alongside producer and “24” showrunner Brian Grazer.

Ron also worked with him on projects including “Apollo 13,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “The Da Vinci Code” and “Thirteen Lives” and cited their relationship as key to his behind-the-camera success.

“I might not have fallen in step with Brian, and I think that partnership has been a huge defining factor in my career as a director,” Howard said.