Ron Howard Recalls ‘Intense’ Filming Experience on “The Shootist” Due to Feud Between John Wayne and Director Don Siegel

Meredith WilshereSat, July 18, 2026 at 9:58 AM UTC

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John Wayne, Lauren Bacall and Ron Howard in ‘The Shootist’Credit: Screen Archives/Getty -

Ron Howard reflected on working with John Wayne during his final film, The Shootist, at age 22

Howard revealed tension between Wayne and director Don Siegel, which stemmed from a critical newspaper interview

The experience taught Howard to address creative conflicts directly, shaping how he manages his own film sets

Ron Howard had an interesting time making The Shootist, but still learned a lot.

The Oscar-winning director, 72, joined Ben Mankiewicz for a recording of the Talking Pictures podcast, where he reflected on what it was like filming the 1976 Westernalongside John Wayne, which ended up being the icon’s final film.

Howard noted that the Don Siegel-directed movie still “holds up well” nearly 50 years later.

“It’s paced slowly, deliberately, but it builds beautifully. The acting is good,” Howard reflected. “Don Siegel was a very strong director. I really went to school on Don Siegel there. That was just great, and [I] learned so much from him.”

“I also learned a lot in a rather uncomfortable way because Wayne and Siegel were feuding. They did not get along,” he added.

John Wayne and Ron Howard in scene in ‘The Shootist’Credit: Screen Archives/Getty

While the two didn’t see eye to eye, Howard noted that he was “getting along with both of them separately, just fine.” Then-22-year-old Howard connected with Siegel about filmmaking, as he was studying film at USC at the time and came to the set every day eager with questions.

Meanwhile, Howard said that Wayne “liked my professionalism.”

“I also had the guts to sort of say, ‘Hey, do you want to run lines?’ No one really would talk to him in between setups. It was John Wayne. It was Duke,” Howard shared. “He had a couple of people, a guy he would play chess with, who was the still photographer who had worked with him on a lot of films, but it was a very closed little bubble that he was operating in.”

“He was perfectly friendly to me, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’d like to run lines,’” he continued. “We had a lot of scenes together, heavy dialogue, and it was very interesting to see him take a scene and shape it into a John Wayne performance in the most positive ways.”

Throughout the process, however, Howard would get an “earful” about Wayne’s “dissatisfaction with Don Siegel and the way he was shooting it.”

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“Siegel told me at a certain point, he said, ‘Hey, look, after about two weeks, if you’re the director and it’s you or the star, you’re gone. They can’t afford to go back and reshoot. I don’t care how much they love what you’re doing. You’re gone. And I like this script, and I like this movie, and I’m going to write it out,’” Howard shared. “I think John Wayne felt the same way.”

Still, Howard felt like Siegel “didn’t do a great job of bridging the gaps.”

“It was pretty intense, but I remember saying, there’s a better way to deal with even superstars than this,” Howard reflected.

Being on that set helped inform how Howard would shape his own movie sets in the future.

“I felt that the key was that a lot of things were allowed to fester for a long period of time. The strategy that I’ve followed over the years is that when there’s a difference of opinion, go right into it,” he explained. “You don’t have to make it a fight, but you’re there to achieve something together and talk it through. Don’t let it become something that’s petty and emotional when, in fact, it’s a creative concern or a neurotic concern.”

Ron Howard, Lauren Bacall and John Wayne in ‘The Shootist’Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

“If you shine a bright light on a neurotic concern, most people, even the most neurotic of them, say, ‘Oh yeah, I guess I was a little insecure about that,’” he added.

While their creative differences on set added to the tension, Howard noted that the feud between the two was also centered around an interview that Siegel gave to the Carson City newspaper.

“I’m walking to the set with John Wayne, and he’s holding the Carson City newspaper. And he says, ‘Why the f--- did he have to say that?’” Howard recalled. “And I said, ‘What?’ The quote was from Siegel. ‘You know, they say, John Wayne eats directors for breakfast. If he takes a bite out of me, he’s going to get indigestion.’ It upset Duke, and it just got worse.”

Howard ended by explaining that, on one hand, “Siegel made a really good film, and I learned a lot from him,” but “on the other hand, there were some days where he and John Wayne were really at loggerheads.”

Wayne died on June 11, 1979, at age 72. Siegel died nearly 12 years later at age 78.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”