As Apollo 13 turns 25, Ron Howard shares "I never got to space, but I got weightless"

Ron Howard, the filmmaker for Apollo 13, spoke about how they managed to solve the gravity issue. Ron spoke exclusively to Yahoo and revealed how he managed to create the space antigravity effect for the Apollo 13 film. Ron mentioned in the interview that despite never being into space, he still got a chance to be weightless. During the filming of Apollo 13 simulations and visuals, effects were not as advanced as they are today, Ron Howard mentioned. He further added that they initially had several issues regarding this aspect which was crucial for the film, as it was a space film.

Apollo 13 director Ron Howard shares trivia as the film turns 25

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During the pre-production stages of the film, Ron Howard and his team faced several issues trying to simply come up with a way to become truly weightless to give a zero-gravity feel. Ron Howard mentioned that he once ran into Steven Spielberg and discussed the issue of being weightless with him. It was during this time that Spielberg himself got keen to know as to how he and his team would achieve the weightless effect. To which Ron simply told him that he is considering the usage of wires like the ones that were used in 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, Steven Spielberg offered Ron Howard a suggestion saying that he had once seen footage of a bolt capsule or a reduced gravity aircraft that was used to train astronauts. He added that the astronauts would have to use a hatch to get out of it and thus was their training process, according to the news portal.

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Howard liked the idea and took the suggestion and discussed the idea with NASA. The officials at NASA refused them sternly, revealed the director. However, after some persuasion, NASA allowed Ron Howard and his team to use the KC-135 flight for filming. During this process, the aircraft could only achieve weightlessness for close to 25 seconds. Hence Ron Howard, along with the cast, had to make close to 600 dives to achieve the desired effect for the film. According to the news portal, the crew would take roughly 30-40 dives per day to achieve the desired effect.

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Soon the film was released and became a huge success in 1995. It also earned nine Oscar nominations at the time. Later on, Ron Howard met Steven Spielberg and thanked him for the idea to which Spielberg expressed his astonishment mentioning that did not think Ron would actually do it, according to the news portal.

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