Acclaimed director and occasional actor Ron Howard has been talking about the incredible way Daryl Hannah won her iconic role in his 1984 fantasy rom-com “Splash.”
Per IMDb, the plot of “Splash” is as follows: “A young man is reunited with a mermaid he briefly encountered as a boy and falls in love with her without knowing her secret.”
The movie starred Tom Hanks as Allen Bauer, the young man in question, with Hannah playing Madison, the mermaid he falls in love with.
Its cast also includes the likes of John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Dody Goodman.
Per People, director Howard, 72, was chatting on the April 22 episode of the “It Happened in Hollywood” podcast, alongside “Splash” producer Brian Grazer, when he discussed Hannah’s audition for the film.
Daryl Hannah Emphatically Outperformed Everyone Else to Win Her Role in ‘Splash’
GettyRon Howard told “It Happened in Hollywood” that of the many talented performers who auditioned for the role of Madison — including model Christie Brinkley — Darly Hannah comfortably outperformed them all.
Moreover, not only did Hannah, 65, outdo the other actresses, she also outdid the trained professionals who had auditioned to be her body double for “Splash’s” underwater scenes.
That may be because it was a role Hannah had always dreamed of playing, as Howard explained.
Howard said, “When I met her, she said, ‘I’ve dreamed of being a mermaid all my life. When I was eight years old, I would literally take a garden hose and go down to the bottom of the pool and draw oxygen through the garden hose so that I could swim and practice.'”
Howard admits he initially thought “maybe that’s just a great story,” but he still decided to cast her in the role. Once filming began, she continued to emphatically impress both him and Brian Glazer.
The director continued, “When we went in to just test her out in the mermaid tail in a tank, we also had some women who do this professionally in Florida. They play mermaids in these underwater shows at aquariums, and Daryl blew them all away. I mean, it was like, we couldn’t even use a double. She so embodied in the most organic, natural way, a real character, underwater, that it was just — was mesmerizing to watch.”
Hannah’s performance as Madison in “Splash” helped to make the movie a resounding success, both critically and commercially.
It still holds a hugely impressive 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and, having cost just $11 million to make, it grossed almost $70 million worldwide (per Box Office Mojo).
‘Splash’ Propelled Daryl Hannah to Superstardom
GettySince “Splash,” Ron Howard has gone on to direct critically acclaimed movies like 1995’s “Apollo 13,” 2001’s “A Beautiful Mind” — for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director — 2006’s “The Da Vinci Code,” and 2008’s “Frost/Nixon” (per IMDb). However, the movie also propelled Daryl Hannah to superstardom.
Sure, she had previously appeared in the likes of 1982’s “Blade Runner” and 1983’s “The Final Terror,” but it was undoubtedly her performance as Madison the mermaid that truly put her on the map.
Hannah has since gone on to star in 1987’s “Roxanne,” 1989’s “Steel Magnolias,” 2003’s “Kill Bill: Volume 1,” and 2004’s “Kill Bill: Volume 2,” amongst many other popular movies (per IMDb).
We wish Ron Howard and Daryl Hannah all the very best in their ongoing careers.
