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In Ron Howard<\/a>‘s Emmy-nominated guest stint on The Studio<\/em><\/a> as a fictionalized version of himself, he receives a note from the film studio that he does not take well.<\/p>\n So, Entertainment Weekly<\/em> had to know, as the acclaimed director of movies such as A Beautiful Mind<\/em> and Apollo 13<\/em>, what is the most unbelievable note he’s ever gotten from a studio?<\/p>\n “Oh God,” he says with a laugh. “When we were trying to sell Splash<\/em>, [producer] Brian Grazer and I, we were going to every studio, they were all turning us down, and one said, ‘Does it really have to be a mermaid?'”<\/p>\n At this, Howard pauses before deadpanning, “We didn’t go with that company. We decided, yeah, it really should be a mermaid.”<\/p>\n The 1984 romantic fantasy film stars Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, John Candy, and Eugene Levy, and famously follows a young man (Hanks) who falls in love with a mysterious woman who is secretly a mermaid (Hannah). In addition to being a critical and commercial success, the film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, so it’s safe to say it all worked out in the end, studio notes notwithstanding.<\/p>\n On The Studio<\/em>, Howard is one of several major real-life Hollywood players who play a fictional version of themselves in the Apple TV+ show. The list also includes Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Dave Franco, Zo\u00eb Kravitz, Olivia Wilde, and many more.<\/p>\n The Emmy nomination marks the first time that Howard, who started his career as an actor before transitioning to directing and producing, has been nominated for his acting chops specifically. He told PEOPLE<\/a> that he was “getting a kick out of it,” and joked that maybe he “should be talking to the acting department at CAA \u2026 maybe I should be talking to the acting branch.”<\/p>\n