‘Happy Days’ star Ron Howard forbade daughter Bryce Dallas from being a child actor

Ron Howard has explored the many avenues of show business, diversifying his portfolio over the course of six decades in the limelight. Beginning his career as a child star on "The Andy Griffith Show," Howard is now producing and directing.

His daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, a distinguished actress and director in her own right, has had a similar trajectory. In a recent interview, however, she disclosed a significant difference in their stories. 

"I think if I had the chance to act younger, I would've taken it. But I wasn't allowed to," she told People magazine. Bryce had a significantly later start than her father, nabbing her first feature role in 2004 when she was in her 20s.

"My parents were very firm on that boundary, that they were not going to support anyone who wanted to be a child actor."

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The "Happy Days" actor and his wife Cheryl have four children together, including Bryce. "I'm really glad that they did that because when I did start acting, it took a while to make a living. To be able to be like, 'Oh, OK. I can actually support myself with this,'" she told the outlet. 

Although an acting career wouldn't pan out for several more years, Bryce remembers her parents being supportive of alternate career paths. "I started working as a waitress on the weekends at a deli, and it was fantastic," she remembered. "Because I was 14, I needed to get a waiver from my parents to be on a payroll, and honestly, I was like, 'This is great.'"

"I just wanted to be working in the world, and then I worked in an allergy control product center on an assembly line at a factory, and then as a babysitter, a nanny, a dog walker and all of that," she shared. 

In 2002, things shifted for Bryce, who was then a student at the New York University Tisch School of Arts. Booking roles on Broadway, she left school and was ultimately cast by M. Night Shyamalan in her sophomore feature, "The Village."

Since then, she has starred in such movies as "The Help" and the "Jurassic World" franchise. Of working in Hollywood, she told People, "It's so wonderful to get to be in an industry with family members, for me at least, because I'm not alone in it."