Ron Howard Talks Eden’s True Story, Jude Law’s Full-Frontal Nude Scene

Academy Award winner Ron Howard is back with his latest movie, Eden. Howard spoke with ComingSoon about the true story that inspired the film, Jude Law going nude, and more. Featuring a star-studded cast, the film is now out in theaters from Vertical.

“Eden unravels the shocking true story of a group of disillusioned outsiders (Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, and Sydney Sweeney) who abandon modern society in search of a new beginning. Settling on a remote, uninhabited island, their utopian dream quickly unravels as they discover that the greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other.  What follows is a chilling descent into chaos where tensions spiral, desperation takes hold, and a twisted power struggle leads to betrayal, violence, and the deaths of half the colony,” says the synopsis.

Tyler Treese: I’ve always been so impressed with your range as a filmmaker, and we’re almost 50 years since your debut, Grand Theft Auto, and Eden shows yet another side of you. It’s easy for directors to become stagnant over time, but you’ve continued to evolve. How do you keep this feeling of exploration as a filmmaker alive for so long?

Ron Howard: Well, thank you. I love the medium. I love movies, and I also like what’s happening with global cinema. It’s generating new sensibilities and new aesthetics, and that’s exciting.

One of the beauties of being part of a production company like Imagine Entertainment that I have with Brian [Grazer] is I have a support system. I have a platform to try to push myself and find ways to take some creative chances as long as they’re responsible. In this case, we made the movie as an indie you know, it’s outside the studio system, and I think that’s appropriate for the kind of film that it is.

I’m really glad that it’s getting a release out there in cinemas and that audiences will have a chance to find it if they’re curious.

You’ve got a fantastic cast here, an incredible ensemble, and Jude Law is just fantastic in this film, and we also see a lot of him. Was there any surprise that a star of his stature was willing to go full frontal? It’s a shocking moment for viewers, but it tells so much about the character, so I totally understand why it’s there.

You know, it was there in the script, and he always embraced the idea because he felt like, well, first of all, they’re described in many accounts as nudists, so we couldn’t go that far with the character, but we wanted to demonstrate it at some point.

And so then, as we got closer to it, I said, “Well, have you been naked on stage?” And he said, “Oh, yeah. Many times.” So once an actor has been naked on a theater stage with a live audience, they’re pretty comfortable with it.

By the way, Jude looks pretty good. So [laughs] that might play into his confidence. I don’t know.

Yeah, that definitely makes it easier when you look like Jude Law.

I love a film that sends me down a rabbit hole. I saw the actual videos shot in 1933 of the Ritters. I saw the Baroness starred in a short film on the island. I’ve got so many books and documentaries to explore. You’ve done several real-life stories. What do you like most about being the person who gives others a launching point to really learn more about history?

Ron Howard: Well, look, it satisfies my own curiosity, and it was years and years before I was willing to take on a movie based on real events. The first was Apollo 13. I thought it would be creatively limiting, but for me it’s the opposite. It’s stimulating.

I find it that to be the case with actors, composers, cinematographers, and certainly screenwriters. But in every case, you choose these outlier extreme stories because you can sort of push the boundaries of these scenes and these moments because they really happened. And so no one can say, “Oh, come on, that’s ridiculous.” You actually get to go to those extremes, narratively and filmically, because you are dealing with things that did happen.

Thanks to Ron Howard for taking the time to talk about Eden.