Making it as an actor is one of the toughest endeavours one can take upon themselves, and many quit before realising their true potential. On the other hand, many persevere and stick around until that one role shoots them towards global fame, and that is kind of what transpired with actor Glen Powell. Making his debut as a child actor at the age of 13, Powell went from one small role to another until one letter changed his life.
Talking to GQ magazine about his roller-coaster of a career, Glen recalled how his family’s way of nurturing him taught him many skills, some of which would prove important in his later life. He said, “Whether it’s changing a tyre or operating a tractor or breaking a horse. They were big on skills in my family.” He stated that his house had a gun range in the basement, and he basically grew up with a “gun in his hand,” while constantly looking for new ways to cheat death. The love for acting was also born at a young age, as Powell’s mother recalled how he and his cousins used to perform plays for the family at the range.
Powell mentioned that during the early days of his career, he didn’t fit into the leading-man mould that was prevalent. Talking about the dark, brooding men who had their feelings shoved deep inside of them, Powell said, “Robert Pattinson was probably the prototype for this, or someone like Christian Bale. Like, I’m not Christian Bale; he has a certain amount of gravitas and weight to him. But when Chris Pratt broke out with Guardians of the Galaxy, it really helped not being dark or brooding. And when Pratt kind of appeared on the scene where he was doing things that were a little more silly and buoyant, that’s where I felt most at home. And that’s where I feel like I had a gear that is a necessary flavour in terms of Hollywood, and not a gear that a lot of guys can play.”
Glen Powell in Twisters.
Glen Powell in Anyone But You.
Before GQ or many publications around the world, Powell had talked about his childhood and love for acting to Sylvester Stallone in a letter. The actor wrote him because he wanted to be part of Expendables 3, which, along with the usual star-studded cast, also had a number of younger stars like Ronda Rousey, Victor Ortiz, and Kellan Lutz. The letter worked, and Powell got cast, but the actor soon hit a snag after starring in Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick. The actor revealed in an interview with THR that we nearly “went broke” while waiting for Top Gun’s release. He said while recalling the pandemic that delayed the movie’s release, “I’d never made any significant amount of money on a movie, including ‘Top Gun’, and I was depleting a bank account to a point where my accountant was like, ‘This pandemic cannot last much longer.’”
After leading movies like The Hitman, Twisters, and Anyone But You and breaking the internet with rumours of dating co-star Sydney Sweeney, Powell is set to lead two major projects this year. The first is a series titled Chad Gable, where he will play a down-on-his-luck American football player, and the other is The Running Man directed by Edgar Wright.
