Ron Howard, 70, reveals WHY he wouldn't let daughter Bryce Dallas Howard, 43, act as a child

Ron Howard knows a thing or two about the workings of Hollywood as he evolved from a child star to an acclaimed director.

And it turns out Ron's experiences — which date back to the 1960s when he starred as Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show at age six — helped him and his wife decide not to encourage their own kids to enter the acting world as juveniles.

Because of this hard stance, the couple's eldest child, Bryce Dallas Howard, now 43, didn't get her start on screen until the age of 22 when she played Rosalind in Shakespeare's As You Like It (2003).

That role caught the attention of director M. Night Shyamalan, who later cast her as the blind girl in the period thriller film The Village (2004).

'My parents were very firm on that boundary, that they were not going to support anyone who wanted to be a child actor,' the Jurassic World star revealed to People.

Her famous father, who also became a huge star in his twenties playing Richie Cunningham in the hit ABC sitcom Happy Days (1974-1980), maintains that he wanted to protect his children from the dangers or early stardom.

Ron Howard, 70, recently revealed why he and his wife Cheryl forbid their four kids, including Bryce Dallas Howard, 43, from acting as a child star; Bryce and Ron pictured

'It's possible for child performers to really find a lot that is positive within it, but it's fraught with landmines,' Ron, 70, said when explaining how to navigate the long and winding road of Hollywood at a young age.

The filmmaker, who's best known for helming Night Shift (1982), Splash (1984), Cocoon (1985), Willow (1988) and Parenthood (1989) during the early part of his career as a director and producer, was also motivated to keep his kids out of the spotlight to avoid the inevitable comparisons.

'On top of everything else, because the characters that I played as a child were so well-known as to almost be iconic... I also thought, 'Hey, if one of our kids tries to act as a child, boy or girl, they're going to be unfairly compared,'' he said, in a reference to his two hugely successful roles on The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days.

The Duncan, Oklahoma native went on to share about the time and attention that's needed for parents to be able to properly look after an aspiring child star.

He noted that his late father, Rance Howard, and his late mother, Jean Howard, were both actors who knew how much supervision they had to provide their actor sons, Ron and his brother Clint Howard, on sets.

In fact, his mother ended up taking time off from her own acting career in order to support her son's own Hollywood aspirations. 

In hindsight, Bryce is now grateful that her parents encouraged her to explore other interests as a child, which she thinks helped her gain confidence to be able to earn a paycheck in other avenues of life.

'I'm really glad that they did that because when I did start acting, it took a while to make a living,' she explained, before adding, 'To be able to be like, 'Oh, okay. I can actually support myself with this.''

Ron learned many lessons from his time as a young star on The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days that he and his wife refused to support their kids as child actors; the proud father of four is seen with Bryce as a toddler

'My parents were very firm on that boundary, that they were not going to support anyone who wanted to be a child actor,' Bryce revealed to People this week; seen with her dad Ron

Ron Howard was six-years-old when he started his run on The Andy Griffith Show in 1960

Ron also had fame as a 20-year-old when he played Richie Cunningham on the hit ABC sitcom Happy Days (1974-1980); he's pictured with co-star Henry Winkler, who played The Fonz

Bryce has seen her star rise after appearing in The Village, appearing in such other films as Lady In The Water (2006), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Terminator Salvation (2009), The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), Hereafter (2010), The Help (2011) and 50/50 (2011).

But it was her role as Claire Dearing in Jurassic World (2015) alongside Chris Pratt that helped seal her status as an A-list leading lady.

She and Pratt would reprise their respective roles in the sequels Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022).

In her latest film, Howard stars in the spy action comedy Argylle that features the stellar ensemble cast such as Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O'Hara, Henry Cavill, Sofia Boutella, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena and Samuel L. Jackson. 

Bryce has since started a family of her own after marrying Seth Gabel in June 2006 after five years of dating. They are now the proud parents of two children of their own. 

After waiting until she reached her twenties to begin acting as a profession, Bryce had her breakthrough to the A-list in Jurassic World (2015) alongside Chris Pratt

After meeting at New York University  the actress dated Seth Gabel for five years before marrying on June 2006; they have since welcomed a son and a daughter who are 16 and 11, respectively

Along with Bryce, Ron and Cheyrl Howard are also parents to son Reed, 36, and twin daughters Paige and Jocelyn, 39 

Their dad has been hard at work in recent months directing the upcoming survival thriller film Eden, which stars Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, Jude Law, Daniel Brühl, Felix Kammerer, Toby Wallace, Richard Roxburgh, Paul Gleeson and Ignacio Gasparini.

The latter part of his career includes directing such hit as Apollo 13 (1995),How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001), which earned him Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, Cinderella Man (2005), The Da Vinci Code (2006), Angels & Demons (2009), abd Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), among others.