‘Hillbilly Elegy’ director Ron Howard ‘surprised’ by JD Vance’s far-right politics

Vance is the Republican nominee for the US Senate in Ohio, where he will face Democratic congressman Tim Ryan in November

Ron Howard, the man who directed the widely panned film adaptation of JD Vance’s bestselling memior ”Hillbilly Elegy“, said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he is ‘surprised’ by Mr Vance’s newfound far-right politics.

“I always knew he was conservative, but [he] struck me as a very center-right, a kind of a moderate thinker,” Mr Howard said.

At one time, that description may have been more accurate. The author and venture capitalist was fiercely critical of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, writing that Mr Trump was “reprehensible” and that his policy positions ranged from “immoral to absurd”. It is unclear whether Mr Vance voted for Mr Trump or independent candidate Evan McMullin.

But when Mr Vance announced his candidacy last year for the Ohio Senate seat being vacated by Republican Rob Portman, he quickly changed his tune — deleting tweets critical of Mr Trump and staking out terrain on the far right of the political spectrum.

During the campaign, Mr Vance has falsely claimed that President Joe Biden has flooded Ohio with illegal drugs, apologised for his criticism of Mr Trump, called the nation’s current leaders idiots, and said he didn’t care what happened to Ukraine in the wake of the Russian invasion.

This hard turn to the right, which ultimately won him Mr Trump’s endorsement and the Republican primary last week, has taken Mr Howard aback.

“It was a family drama based on real events,” Mr Howard said of the film, based on Mr Vance’s best-selling book. “There was a lot that I personally related to about the family dynamics, but also the region, the sensibility that I had long been looking for a way to express through a story. It ended with him at Yale and wasn’t ever meant to suggest that he was headed in the direction of politics.”

Mr Vance, 37, is a heavy favorite to win the election over his Democratic opponent Tim Ryan in November. Mr Ryan, a long-serving US congressman from northeast Ohio, has faced criticism from Asian American groups for campaign advertisements that they have said are stoking anti-Asian sentiment in the US.

Mr Vance rocketed to fame with the publication of Hillbilly Elegy in 2016, which addresses his childhood in Appalachia and social issues in the region. Though it enjoyed commerical success and acclaim, it was also widely criticised in Appalachia and beyond for its use of stereotypes and anti-poor rhetoric.

Mr Howard’s film adapation was similarly criticised. It has a 25 per cent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was given just two out of five stars by Rolling Stone, which described it as “sound and fury signifying nothing.” It was also accused of perpetuating damaging stereotypes about poverty.