Howard doesn’t clarify what that rhetoric is, though we can assume it’s Vance‘s rhetoric he takes issue with. That’s based on a similar answer he gave in September of last year, telling Deadline he was “surprised and disappointed by much of the rhetoric that I’m reading and hearing” in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. “People do change, and I assume that’s the case” about Vance, he said. “Well, it’s on record. When we spoke around the time that I knew him, he was not involved in politics or claimed to be particularly interested.” He concluded with a rousing civics lessons that he would repeat, almost word-for-word, to Vanity Fair months later: “I think the important thing is to recognize what’s going on today and to vote. And so that’s my answer. It’s not really about a movie made five or six years ago. It is, but we need to respond to what we’re seeing, hearing, feeling now, and vote responsibly, whatever that is. We must participate. That’s my answer.”
Unfortunately for him, it’s not the last answer Howard would be required to give on Hillbilly Elegy. Vulture managed to get more out of him in an interview published today, asking what he thought about the legacy of the film now: “I don’t think about it,” he responded, somewhat unbelievably. “I know it’s a mixed bag and probably quite culturally divided. I also know that reviews were bad and the audience-reaction rating was pretty good.”
Offering a bit of behind-the-scenes insight, Howard conceded that Vance was “frustrated” by the reception to the film, “And he felt that, just as reviews had kind of turned on the book, his involvement was in some way tainting or coloring the critical response, and he resented it.” As to whether the negativity around Hillbilly Elegy pushed Vance further into conservative politics (he allegedly declared himself “done with Hollywood” out of embarrassment), Howard said, “I can’t speak to that. When I was working with him, all his quotes about the administration were very public. He was trying to run an investment fund. So the run for Senate and the strategy he’s chosen to follow are not what I would’ve expected.” The filmmaker confessed he did send Vance a text message after the election, “which was just sort of ‘Godspeed. Try to serve us well,'” Howard recalled. Hopefully things with Eden go a little better than they did with Hillbilly Elegy, and with Vance’s vice presidency.
