Feature: Glen Powell Gets Ready with GQ!

Glen Powell is still catching his breath when he comes to the phone Sunday, just hours before he’ll hit the red carpet at the Golden Globes. He’s nominated for the first time in the Lead Actor category for Hit Man, a movie he co-wrote and another piece of evidence that Powell knows more about refreshing the rom-com genre than 99% of Hollywood. I wonder if nerves are setting in before the big night, causing the minor panting, but he assures me he’s feeling pretty chill about the whole thing. The cause of the shortness of breath is that even though it’s still only Sunday morning in Los Angeles, Powell and his family have already started getting ready for the night in true action-hero style. Just three minutes before our call, Powell says, he emerged from the plunge pool with his sister after a session in the sauna. They were at the gym before that, and the whole Powell family already ran hills together, too. “I was like, shivering at the beginning of the call,” he relays in his friendly Texan-twinged accent.

Powell knows the most important parts of looking great in a tuxedo are done outside the stylist’s quarters and hair-and-makeup chair. Actually, the process of getting into the tuxedo and onto the red carpet starts many years earlier. Powell began writing Hit Man at the start of the pandemic. He realized it was a moment “you either downshift or you throttle up, and I decided to throttle up,” Powell says. When the actor found a decades-old Texas Monthly article about Gary Johnson, the police investigator he would base the story around, he started crafting the script while everyone else was learning to knead sourdough.

His initiative paid off; Hit Man eventually became Powell’s second collaboration with Richard Linklater (who cowrote and directed) and earned him a Best Actor nomination at the Globes. It’s a neat summation of his time in Hollywood. It’s clear he and his action-chasing Twisters character have more in common than a love for cowboy hats. “This town [Los Angeles] was never going to give me anything,” he says. “I was very frustrated immediately and realized, ‘Okay, I can’t wait for the phone to ring I’m going to have to either pick it up and dial myself, or I’m just going to have to create this thing myself.’ I didn’t wait for things to happen, I always woke up and made them happen.” [More at Source]

written by Mouza on January 20, 2025 under

Feature: Glen Powell for The Hollywood Issue 2024

There’s a lot of talk about how handsome Glen Powell is and how he’s bringing back the vibe of the old-school Hollywood leading man. But if you want to understand who he is deep down, just note that when he got the chance to write his own lead role, he made himself the dorkiest character imaginable—one who masquerades as a succession of increasingly ridiculous figures in outrageous outfits and absurd hair.

That was Netflix’s Hit Man, directed by Richard Linklater, a fellow Austinite who gave him his big break in 2016’s Everybody Wants Some!! We’re thrilled to have Powell as part of our 2025 Hollywood Issue. Here, he delves into not just his impressive string of hits, but also the lean years when he was a Hollywood nobody. If he happened to get invited to the party back then, he says, he’d have to smuggle in his own drink in a flask because he was so broke.

Vanity Fair: In Hit Man, your character gives a speech in which he talks about living on the edge, and how you’ve got to have some danger and excitement in your life. There are many things not to live your life by in that movie, but that’s not a bad message, is it?

Glen Powell: You don’t want to take all the lessons from it. [Laughs.]

Your filmography is very eclectic. You’ve got romantic comedies like Anyone but You, you’ve got big-budget tentpoles like Top Gun: Maverick, visual-effects action movies like Twisters, you’ve got indie-feeling, cross-genre films like Hit Man. Are you deliberately mixing it up to avoid being pigeonholed?

When it comes to that, the thing I’ve really tried to chase is a feeling, like, “I hope I have it in me,” right? I’m trying to do ambitious things that scare me a little bit, because when they scare you, it means that you have to rise to the occasion. [More at Source]

written by Mouza on January 20, 2025 under

Feature: Glen Powell for Sharp Magazine

Glen Powell is feeling unusually confident. It’s a Tuesday night in December 2007, and the young Texan actor is on the red carpet at the Cinerama Dome at the ArcLight cinema in Los Angeles for the premiere of the Denzel Washington–directed drama The Great Debaters, in which he has a small but juicy part as the Harvard debater Preston Whittington. Nobody is paying much attention to Powell, whose most prominent screen credit to date had been as “Long-Fingered Boy” in Spy Kids 3D. But Washington’s publicist eventually persuades a solitary camera crew to come his way.

“This guy’s in the movie,” the publicist tells the reporter, who seems skeptical that speaking to this beaming, bushy-haired teenager will be worthwhile. But Powell’s grin, so open and affable, is difficult to resist. “Okay,” the reporter replies warily. “I guess we’ll interview you.”

Powell speaks eagerly about having been cast by Washington on the strength of a live table read, about what it was like to shoot on the Harvard campus, about what he learned at the gruelling debate camp where he and other actors were sent to bone up before the shoot. The reporter, clearly running out of questions, rounds out the conversation with a softball, asking Powell if he has any resolutions for the new year. Powell, with a glint in his eye, doesn’t hesitate. “I want to be Denzel Washington,” he says.

This must have sounded outrageously brash, if not outright presumptuous, considering that at the time Powell had only barely begun the long and arduous process of proving himself in the entertainment business. But looking back on this moment now — and laughing at his show of mock bravado — even somebody as humble as Powell can admit that maybe his playful red carpet boast had been on to something. Between the stratospheric commercial success of the blockbuster disaster flick Twisters, the near-universal critical acclaim of the awards-season hopeful Hit Man, and the TikTok ubiquity of the future classic romcom Anyone But You, Powell has been decisively coronated as one of the biggest movie stars of his generation — the Denzel Washington, if you will, of a new era. [More at Source]

written by Mouza on January 20, 2025 under

Feature: Glen Powell for The Washington Post

Glen Powell gestures to the asphalt where his dreams were almost crushed. He was 13 years old, playing pickup basketball on this very portion of the Austin Studios lot with fellow child actors from the third Spy Kids movie, when he accidentally knocked one of his co-stars to the ground. They were taking a break from filming the popular children’s franchise, on which Powell, whose character is simply referred to in the credits as “long-fingered boy,” was only working for the day. This was his first acting gig. Would he ever be allowed on a film set again?

The other kid was fine. So, it turned out, was Powell. As he relays this memory on a May afternoon, it seems ludicrous he ever worried about such a mishap derailing his acting career. But Powell has always been farsighted. He knows that what you do in the present can determine your future. This apparently manifested as anxiety during his childhood. As an adult, it became business acumen.

Which might help explain why Powell, 35, seems to be everywhere this year. He appears on the covers of glossy magazines. He sneaks into all your social media feeds. He shows up on daytime talk shows, where he tells Gayle King that he isn’t chasing love but will accept it if it “hits me in the face.”

Not only has Powell gained credibility among critics by becoming a regular weapon in Richard Linklater’s arsenal — most recently in the action-comedy “Hit Man,” which the actor co-wrote — but he might also be on the verge of reliable blockbuster stardom. After an attention-grabbing supporting role in the massively successful “Top Gun: Maverick,” Powell stars in the disaster film “Twisters” (opening Friday), Lee Isaac Chung’s sequel to Jan de Bont’s 1996 smash hit featuring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton.

Paxton, admired for grounding big-budget productions with palpable humanity, is a hard act to follow. Skeptics raise an eyebrow at Powell, who has been described as the next Matthew McConaughey because of his wide grin, chiseled look and Texan geniality. He is already set to expand his résumé with a diverse slate of film and television projects — plus a potential Broadway musical — and keeps a notebook full of advice from the likes of Tom Cruise. But does that translate to trajectory? Is Powell the next McConaughey or Cruise? Could he become a Paul Newman or a Robert Redford, earning artistic respect on par with his jawline and smile wattage? [More at Source]

written by Mouza on July 20, 2024 under

Feature: Glen Powell for GQ Magazine

Move over Chris Hemsworth, there’s a new shredded stud in Hollywood and he goes by the name of Glen Powell. The 35 year-old Texan first gained our attention while rubbing shoulders with Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick and next month will be getting his rom-com on in Anyone But You with Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney. But we’re less interested in his career, here, than in his physique. Specifically, those eye-popping abs, traps and delts he fashioned for that Top Gun beach football scene – an homage to the famous volleyball match from the original.

In LA, if you need to get in shape fast, you call Nick Mitchell, founder of global fitness brand Ultimate Performance. “I’m not a celebrity trainer,” Mitchell says.“I hate that [title], it’s vomit-inducing, but this was an interesting opportunity and Glen Powell is genuinely the most positive, upbeat guy, so why not?”

With most celebrity film roles, trainers work towards a ‘money shot’ scene, in which their client’s physique will be most on show – like the beach football scene.

“Different roles have different looks,” says Mitchell. “Top Gun is more cartoonish, more over the top. For the beach scene, we worked on specific poses. Every few days we’d literally get him to do the arms down, holding the ball thing that became a meme to see how that would look. It was all about mirror-muscles.”

“We were focused on muscle building for his upper body, and more functional training for the lower,” Mitchell continues. “It’s everything from traps to deltoids. back, abs and obviously arms. We did train his back for balance, but we weren’t doing heavy squats and leg curls and those kinds of things.”

In other words, Powell trained to look good in certain poses, in one scene – which isn’t at all how you should structure your own training unless you’re starring in Top Gun. Still, there’s a lot to be learned in analysing how they did it. [More at Source]

written by Mouza on December 19, 2023 under

Feature: Glen Powell for Bustle

It’s been over 24 hours since Spotify Wrapped dropped, and Glen Powell seems to be the only person left on the planet who has yet to open his. Granted, he’s had some obligations that might have taken precedence over gazing at a personalized portrait of his own music taste: celebrating the holidays (at his old friend Paris Hilton’s #Slivmas last night), filming a Twister sequel (for which he’ll decamp to Oklahoma tomorrow), and promoting his latest film, Anyone But You (via photo shoots like the one we’re on the set of today). But because Powell is a famously polite, infectiously enthusiastic, self-proclaimed people pleaser, he’s willing to undergo this intimate ritual in front of me.

Sitting in a rented house in Laurel Canyon — with record-lined walls, vintage oriental rugs, and imposing wood beams — Powell whips out his phone. As the slideshow begins to load, I guess what Powell’s listening data will reveal. The actor, 35, is a proud Austin native and a Texas Longhorns superfan. He’s also a writer and film nerd, who instantly recognized Francis Ford Coppola’s lesser-known drama, Rumble Fish, when it came on in the background of the shoot. A soulful, introspective guy who’s not afraid to say things like, “The older I get, the more I look at my parents with awe at the fact that it’s really hard for love to survive 40 years in this world.”

So maybe Zach Bryan will clinch the top spot? Or he’ll endear me with some Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris?

Alas, the first song to be highlighted is “Unwritten,” by Natasha Bedingfield. Also known as The Hills’ theme song.

“I had to learn every word of this for Anyone But You,” Powell insists as the song blares off his phone. (I can confirm it is one of the movie’s best bits.) “Oh God, that is truly embarrassing if it wasn’t.”

Exposure to soaring, feel-good anthems is one of the hazards of being America’s current Top Rom-Com Guy. His big break was Set It Up, the 2018 Netflix movie that inspired countless think pieces saying that the rom-com was back after a long drought. After that, Powell was cast in Top Gun: Maverick, which inspired countless think pieces about how Hollywood was back post-pandemic. Now he’s in Anyone But You, a modern take on Much Ado About Nothing out Dec. 22. Co-starring Sydney Sweeney, whom he was briefly rumored to be dating (he’s not), it’s a classic enemies-to-lovers tale that sees a pair of arch-nemeses reunite at a destination wedding, where they pretend to be a couple.

But you will not hear Powell dissing romantic comedies, as The Kissing Booth star Jacob Elordi did recently. That’s partly because Powell is a scholar of the genre. He grew up watching The Wedding Singer with his two sisters, who teased him for sharing a name with the film’s villain, Glenn Guglia. (“When you look at movies, Glen’s always the asshole or the weird neighbor. I’m like, ‘God dang, man.’”) One of his first jobs in the industry was working for one of Hollywood’s most accomplished female producers, Lynda Obst, who was responsible for Flashdance, Sleepless in Seattle, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. He started off as her intern, then was promoted to script reader, where he provided feedback on the many, many rom-coms that came across her desk. He became a student of the Hollywood system, understanding what makes a good script and what he had to offer to one. [More at Source]

written by Mouza on December 19, 2023 under

Feature: Glen Powell for Nobleman Magazine

With a sharp grin and a sense of humor as dry as the air in this beautiful Bel Air mansion, Glen Powell enters the room. He is contained, but yet still abounding with life. The Texas-born Powell has been steadily climbing into the screens since 2016. But as of late, he has solidified his stake in our hearts with his role as “Hangman” in Top Gun: Maverick, the resurrection sequel to the iconic 80’s film Top Gun.

Glen Powell showed up to the shoot looking the best out of all of us. “Style is deliberate”, he would later tell us. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. How I dress shows how much I care about it.” This is one of the many glimpses of his humility and thoughtfulness. He shows immense intentionality in all he does. Glen is more than just one thing, he truly is a Renaissance man. He can put on any hat and have you admire how seamless the transition would be.

The beautiful Bel Air estate we found ourselves sharing moments with was a perfect reflection of Powell himself. The subtle and strong mix of modern architecture swirled together with the nostalgic whispers of the past. The hand-in-hand combination of complexity and comfort. You can feel the same way when you meet with Glen, taken back by how he commands a room but also how he makes you feel like the only one in it.

As we sat with him, he held nothing back in his answers. Made thoughtful and authentic quips, and was genuinely excited to be with us like we were a part of the Powell family sitting by a fire at his family’s ranch. Powell tells us behind-the-scenes stories from Top Gun: Maverick, as well as gives a look into what’s coming next for him. All mixed with reminiscing about his family and travels.

How would you define a NOBLEMAN?

Glen Powell: I’ve always been attracted to people that are kind of unapologetically passionate about everything. When they like something, whether it’s traveling, cars, watches, or even sports. If you’re passionate about it, it’s cool. I always find that passionate people are always the most interesting. Their passion usually results in having the most style, and being wise because they’re curious about the world. [More at Source]

written by Mouza on December 19, 2023 under

Feature: Glen Powell for GQ Hype!

It’s a warm, early fall evening in New Orleans, and the cast and crew of Hitman, a forthcoming Richard Linklater-directed movie starring (and written and produced by) the actor Glen Powell, are just gearing up for a night that will stretch until 4:00 AM. To keep everyone fueled into the morning, Powell and his co-star Adria Arjona have paid for a visit from an espresso truck. After approaching the bright red truck and ordering a coffee through the window, Powell, dressed in the dark clothing he’s wearing for that night’s scenes, heads back towards the set. As he walks away, the barista, a wave of familiarity washing across her, poses a question to those still in line. “What was the name of that guy? The good-looking one in the shirt? I recognize his face.” A few moments later, it will dawn on her: “That was the friggin’ hottie from Top Gun!”

This seems to be happening to Powell more frequently, since donning a jumpsuit as Jake “Hangman” Seresin in Top Gun: Maverick. Not just getting recognized, which happens two or three times a day now, Powell says. But being almost recognized, which suggests something a little more interesting: that Powell is the sort of actor who is right on the cusp of being absolutely everywhere. (An Austin native and lifelong University of Texas fan, Powell recently approached UT legend and former NFL quarterback Vince Young to tell the QB that he was a fan, only to have Young give him a quizzical, confused look. Later, Powell opened up Instagram to find a DM from Young: “Dude, sorry, I realized you were the guy from Top Gun while we were talking.”)

If you were one of those who knew of Powell before he was friggin’ hot in Top Gun, it’s likely from one of the many well-played supporting roles he’s had in recent years: as one half of the enduringly likeable couple in the Netflix rom-com Set It Up; as a witty, cerebral 1970’s college baseball player in Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some; as John Glenn in the Best Picture-nominated Hidden Figures. But it was playing “Hangman,” an arrogant hot shot you’re not supposed to like but who’s so square-jawed and charming you can’t help but root for anyway, that subjected his Hollywood ascent to increased G-forces. [More at Source]

written by Mouza on November 27, 2022 under

Feature: Glen Powell for Men’s Fitness!

WHEN GLEN POWELL heard there was going to be a Top Gun sequel, he didn’t have a ton of internal debate: he wanted in. After all, it was his father showing him the original Top Gun—which became his favorite movie, starring who would become his favorite actor, Tom Cruise—that made him want to become an actor in the first place. How determined was Powell to be in Top Gun: Maverick? He started learning how to live like a pilot months before even auditioning, heading to Edwards Air Force Base to fully immerse and live with aviators in order to see how they do what they do every single day. It also meant turning down offers for other major movies before he was even cast in this one. He was set on Top Gun: Maverick, and the role in his sights was Rooster, the son of Tom Cruise’s gone-but-not-forgotten best friend, Goose, from the original Top Gun. And then something he wasn’t expecting happened: Miles Teller got the part.

After months and months of prep—which ended up overlapping with the release of Set It Up, the Netflix romantic comedy that jettisoned his career into a new stratosphere—he auditioned for Maverick producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Joseph Kosinsky, and Cruise himself. And it wasn’t going to happen. “I felt like I really delivered, and when I didn’t get it, I was absolutely heartbroken,” he says. “I got the news on July 3rd, and on July 4th, which is pretty much my favorite holiday—I’m a very patriotic dude from a very patriotic family—I was basically in the fetal position the entire day.”

The powers that be were impressed enough with what Powell showed them, however, that they did want him for another part in the movie, the role that would eventually become a character named “Hangman” (Ahead of the Top Gun: Maverick release, Hangman is still shrouded in mystery; fan theories online speculate on his connection, if any, to previous Top Gun lore, but those involved with the film have been tight-lipped). Powell’s heart was still set on Goose’s son, though, and he wasn’t sure there was any fit in the movie other than the one he had become so attached to. It’s somewhere we’ve all been before: when you want something so badly, and for one reason or another it just doesn’t work out. Is it worth it taking something slightly less, or slightly different from what you wanted? Or is it better to just cut your losses and move on? That’s the choice Powell found himself facing. [More at Source]

written by Mouza on May 18, 2022 under

Feature: Glen Powell for Texas Monthly!

In Richard Linklater’s 2016 film Everybody Wants Some!!, a comedy about college baseball players set at the fictional Southeast Texas University, a smooth-talking ladies’ man named Finnegan hits on a coed by telling her his astrological sign. He’s a loyal and confident Leo, but, he confesses with a carefully rehearsed look of bashfulness, “the truth is, I wound easily.”

Finnegan is a bit of a playboy, but Glen Powell plays him with such charm that you want to be friends with him anyway. The 33-year-old Austin native has since portrayed astronaut John Glenn in Hidden Figures and won hearts in the Netflix rom-com Set It Up; more recently, he teamed up with Linklater again on the nostalgic Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood. On May 27, you can catch him in Top Gun: Maverick as Hangman, a pilot training for a specialized mission under Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, reprised by Tom Cruise.

Texas Monthly: You’ve been in Los Angeles for fourteen years. Is it easy for you to identify Texans out there?

Glen Powell: Oh, yeah. Texans head out there feeling like they’re going to take over the world. I also find that Texans, more than anyone, are undeterred when s— inevitably goes wrong. There’s a thing about Texans: you get punched in the nose, and you go back in the fight.

TM: It’s been two years since Top Gun: Maverick’s release was postponed. What’s it been like waiting for the rest of the world to see it?

GP: It’s been a slow decay of my looks, you know? (laughs) The experience feels so far away, but the cool part is we’re putting real fighter jets eighteen inches away from each other. It’s visceral—you feel complete investment in the well-being of the characters in a way that you don’t get in other movies. When movies get bigger, sometimes they lose emotion. And this one maintains it. [More at Source]

written by Mouza on May 18, 2022 under
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