Glen Powell Isn’t Taking a Moment of His Wild, Crazy, Totally Surreal Year for Granted

Glen Powell‘s 2024, in brief: January, “Hit Man” celebrates its U.S. premiere at Sundance; February, “Anyone but You” crosses $200 million at box office; April, the actor is cast in Edgar Wright’s much-hyped “The Running Man”; May, Powell is inducted into the Texas Hall of Fame and tipped to star in J.J. Abrams’ next super-secret film; June, “Hit Man” arrives on Netflix; July, “Twisters” is released to critical acclaim and big box office bucks; August, filming on his Hulu TV series “Chad Powers” kicks off; November, “The Running Man” filming commences in London, Glen Powell lookalike contest takes place in Austin, Texas.

Those are just the highlights.

For Powell, this level of professional success has been both hard-won and long-gestating (his first gig: a small part at age 14 in Robert Rodriguez’s “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over”), punctuated by star turns in smaller films (from “Everybody Wants Some!!” to “Set It Up”) and major moments in some of our biggest blockbusters (hello, “Top Gun: Maverick”). There’s no doubt 2024 has been the biggest of Powell’s life, but as he reflects on the year that was, it’s clear his enthusiasm remains rooted in his first role in the movies: as a fan.

“I’m really trying to be thoughtful about, what would I want to see in the movie theater right now? What are the things that I grew up on? What’s the flavor that’s missing? What would get me charged up to go see something opening night?,” Powell said during a recent interview with IndieWire. “I’m trying to look at this job as a fan first. And I think that’s been really fun. It’s been a crazy joy to go on the ride this year.”

And still, wild professional ride aside, the first thing Powell wanted to chat about when he jumped on Zoom with IndieWire last month was everything going on with his family: His little sister just got engaged, his older sister is pregnant with her second (!!) set of twins, and the rest of the clan was about to fly out to London to spend most of December and the holidays with Powell as he works on Edgar Wright’s remake of “The Running Man,” his next big movie in a slew of them.  

Powell is going to be pretty tied up with Wright’s film, which adapts Stephen King’s dystopian novel of the same name (and which was previously made into an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle in 1987), for the foreseeable future — he noted that he’s going to be in London until next August working on it. It’s a somewhat secretive shoot, but the star has been able to share some tidbits. The day we spoke, he had just posted some shots of Wembley Stadium to his Instagram.

“Oh, we’re shooting a pretty crazy sequence in ‘Running Man,’” he said. “We’ve been taking over Wembley for the week. That was literally my office. One of the boxes in Wembley is literally my holding area, that was my hair and makeup [spot]. We had an action sequence within the building that we were doing. It was a pretty surreal way to spend the day.”

Daisy Edgar-Jones, Brisket Powell, and Glen Powell attend Charlize Theron’s Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) Block Party at Universal Studios Backlot on July 13, 2024 in Universal City, CaliforniaGetty Images for CTAOP

And what of Insta-celeb pup Brisket Powell? Well, he just got his first sweater, so his dad is officially “that guy who dresses up his dog.” He’s loving London, and everyone on set is treating him very well. Powell’s trailer on Wright’s film? It says “Brisket” on it. “I’m so glad he’s here with me. He’s brought a lot of joy to the whole set,” Powell said. “Everybody is like, ‘I think that dog has the greatest life of any dog I’ve ever seen.’ Yeah, he’s having fun.”

Powell is having fun, too, seemingly every minute of every day. “I was talking about this yesterday on set,” he said with a big smile. “Which is, even at my most tired on set, I’m still on a movie set, and the happiest you’ll ever see me is on a movie set, working with other people and playing around and drumming stuff up and trying to make the best thing possible. I’ve always had a high level of energy, and right now I’m getting to work with great people on great stories. I’m not burnt out at all, I’m feeling as charged up as I’ve ever been. As long as my friends and family don’t abandon me and make me do this on my own, then I’m good. Then I’ve got everything I need.”

Time? That’s a little harder to come by. Initially — like, months and months ago — Powell and I had discussed going birding together in Central Park to talk about “Hit Man.” And, yes, there is a connection there: His character in the film, Gary Johnson, is a birder, a meticulous kind of guy who relishes observing wildlife before his own life gets actually wild.

But separated by an ocean — and a very busy schedule for Powell — we had to get creative. Eager to test Powell’s latent birding knowledge, I quizzed him on four common North American birds, using flashcards I already own (we were already done by the time a laughing Powell pressed, “Can I ask you a personal question? Why do you have these cards?”).

Even years out from co-writing the film’s script (and all the bird knowledge that came with it) alongside long-time personal hero and professional collaborator Richard Linklater, Powell is still a pretty good spotter: he got the American Robin, the Northern cardinal, and the black-capped chickadee with ease, though the tufted titmouse temporarily stumped him. He’s not giving up on in-person birding yet either, adding at the end of the quiz, “We could crack open a bottle of tequila and have a hell of a great birding time.”

Glen Powell attends the premiere of Netflix’s ‘Hit Man’ induction into The Texas Film Hall of Fame at The Paramount Theatre on May 15, 2024 in Austin, Texas … with his parentsThe Hollywood Reporter via Getty

“Hit Man,” which Linklater directed and Powell starred in, required that kind of wonky knowledge and can-do, let’s-have-fun spirit. Based on the true-life tale of Gary Johnson, a seemingly regular dude turned fake hitman, is the kind of funny and sexy and original film we don’t get enough of these days. But it took some work.

“We tried to research every aspect of this movie and do it right,” he said. “The birding was a real-life Gary Johnson quality and one that you want to honor. There’s a lot to get from that movie and a lot of different pieces of research that went into it. We brought the New Orleans Police Department in and we got to make sure all the police stuff checked out. I got to shadow some professors at the University of New Orleans. Obviously, with the surveillance stuff, we wanted to make sure that felt right and true. There were a lot of different worlds to live in.”

One of the best parts of “Hit Man” concerns the many strange get-ups Powell slips into, as Gary goes deeper into his fake hitman persona, turning up for potential jobs in different outfits meant to give his possible “clients” what they want: a Russian weirdo, a gun-toting redneck, the sexy smooth-talker who wins the affection of Madison (Adriana Arjona).

“We always wanted to make sure those characters felt like how Gary would actually have done it,” Powell said. “There were no prosthetics. It was all homemade stuff that he could pull off the internet, stuff you would get from Jo-Anne Fabrics or Michael’s. He’s not getting it from a professional place. We tried to honor that within the making of this movie, to make sure that it didn’t feel like we were making the Hollywood version, that we were really trying to start from Gary and move forward from that place.”

But good intentions and meticulous craftsmanship can only get people — even Glen Powell and Richard Linklater! — so far. Even people who “loved” their script wanted to change it.

“Trying to get ‘Hit Man’ made, I always kept in the back of my head that Rick and I had such a joy writing the script,” he said. “We wrote it on spec, we wrote it during COVID, there were no deadlines. Then when we showed it to people, and everybody was like, ‘Oh my God, this is fun, but I want it to be this,’ [and those were] changes to the foundational concept of what it was. We both understood that this had themes that were very universal, these concepts of self-identity, the way that we see ourselves compared to how the rest of the world sees us. Who this man is and how he operates within the world is very specific, but the feeling that he has is something we all feel. No one fully feels seen in who they are and how they want to be seen.”

Richard Linklater and Glen Powell at the Sundance Film Festival screening of ‘Hit Man’ held at the Eccles Theater on January 22, 2024 in Park City, UtahVariety via Getty Images

Powell said he and Linklater always knew that feeling could resonate with a large audience, even if some potential partners got too caught up on other elements of the film, trying to cram into a genre-specific box that didn’t speak to them.

“I think so many people that wanted to make this movie were looking for the genre, and going genre first rather than feeling first,” Powell said. “Rick and I always kept returning to the feeling, the way we talked about the movie, the stuff that really got us excited about it. That’s something that, as creatives, you can’t really shake, but it’s something that the business doesn’t necessarily reward, because it’s not so simple. This wasn’t reverse-engineered to be something at this time of year, this movie was really generated by Rick and I entertaining each other and getting a kick out of this guy, this real-life character and this real-life journey and just not letting go of that despite no one believing in that movie.”

That mindset didn’t just help “Hit Man” get made, but seemingly Powell’s entire, quite booming career. “It’s been something that I keep having to return to, thinking back on being a broke actor in LA and you’re trying to get auditions and you’re trying to move your way up in the town, and a lot of people tell you, ‘You shouldn’t be here,'” he said. “Sometimes, you should hear it to a degree and in a way, and then sometimes you have to go, ‘OK, I hear you, but I have a feeling here. I have to chase this.’”

(This is the moment any Powell fan will likely hear a line from another of his 2024 films ring out: “If you feel it, chase it.”) “It’s important to be aware of the noise, it’s important to not move through the world  not just holding your ears closed completely. You have to be tough and hear what the world is saying,” he added. “And at the same time, I think you have to have conviction. I’m just really proud that Rick and I had conviction in what we wanted to make on this one.”

Powell has wanted to make movies “literally, ever since I was a kid.” This is a guy who recreated a stunt sequence from “Mission: Impossible 2” as a tween — shot for shot, edited it together himself — and then starred in “Top Gun: Maverick” alongside Tom Cruise. He’s the last person to give up on his creative convictions.

“It is not lost on me that Richard Linklater is a guy that I idolized as a kid growing up in Texas,” Powell said. “In Austin, there was this burgeoning film community and Rick was at the center of it, really pushing actors and artists and other filmmakers. He was a god to me growing up. He was the guy. He made some of my favorite movies. He was an Austin boy doing it at the highest level possible. And he gave me a huge break.”

Glen Powell as Gary Johnson in ‘Hit Man’Matt Lankes / Netflix

Linklater first cast Powell in his “Fast Food Nation” when the rising star was just 18. Ten years later, Linklater gave Powell his first true breakout role in the rangy hangout movie “Everbody Wants Some!!” These days, they’re real friends, true pals, and the kind who clearly love making stuff together,

“I just feel so lucky that he was the one who brought me into this moment with this collaboration,” he said. “Because I think it’s been so representative of the slow burn of how long it’s taken to be a kid who tried to do this since he was 10 years old, took his first acting class at 10 years old to now being 36 years old and being in this moment with one of your heroes. It just shows you that these things don’t happen overnight, and probably for the best. Sometimes you get to idolize people. And if you show up on time and you work hard, sometimes you get to show up on set with those people.”

Even Powell, who seems pretty good at going with the flow, is still struck by their partnership and the others it has helped engender.

“I think the thing that’s been really surreal about this year is the people that I’ve admired since I’ve been young are now becoming my friends and collaborators,” he said. “I’m getting to write a movie with Richard Linklater, I’m getting to work every day with Edgar Wright, I’m prepping a movie with J.J. Abrams. And then the filmmakers that are now coming out of the woodwork wanting to write or collaborate or whatever? It’s been surreal.”

Writing a film alongside an established and lauded filmmaker like Linklater has practical applications, too. Asked how working behind the camera has helped his acting work, Powell was characteristically enthusiastic.

“I think it allows me to ask the right questions,” he said. “As an actor, I always see other actors, and they sometimes [look] at the material from their perspective of just their character. Actors have to think about their character and how they move through the world and those rules and how they’re affecting things. But when other actors on ‘Hit Man’ were asking me questions about the writing, you now [have to] understand the ecosystem that is in place and the perspective on how you’re moving through that narrative and how crucial it is that every character feel three-dimensional and lived-in and authentic.”

Richard Linklater and Glen Powell on the set of ‘Hit Man’©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection

Powell has some other writing projects in the works already, most notably the upcoming Hulu comedy series “Chad Powers,” which he co-created with Michael Waldron, based on a viral Eli Manning character the football player himself invented for his EPSN+ docuseries “Eli’s Places.” He’s also long been attached to a film version of the “Captain Planet” animated series, both as co-writer and star. That one might take a bit more time.

“I’m very, very passionate about ‘Captain Planet.’ I want that one to get made,” he said. “And I feel like we have a very, very strong way into that world and something that I think the world wants to see, but the people that own that property have other ideas and other plans, and that’s fine. Look, I’ll just keep making movies and keep doing what I’m going to do, and eventually, we’ll see if that ever comes back around. But at the end of the day, it’s out of your control.”

As for his own directorial dreams, Powell says he’s got them, but not just yet. He’s having too much fun now anyway, and learning plenty.

“Down the line, I’d love to [direct], but I think the thing that I’m really just excited is I get to be in film school right now,” Powell said. “Working with Rick, just seeing how he moves through the day and how he works with actors, I picked up invaluable skills on how I would love to work with actors when that time comes. And it’s not going to be soon! I’m just getting to start acting. I feel like I’m just sinking my teeth into this job finally, and so the directing thing will be down the line.”

These day, he’s just enjoying the ride ahead of him, but fondly looking back at where it all started. Powell recalled a key experience from that other Linklater collab, when the pair were making “Everybody Wants Some!!,” the film that essentially launched him into “this is your next major movie star guy” land.

“Rick wrote me this amazing letter right before the movie came out, just about separating the process of making a movie from the process of releasing a movie and really holding onto the creative relationships you made on set and how you feel about those people, and not letting box office or critics get to how you feel about those relationships,” Powell said. “You work hard to make the thing and you work hard to sell the thing. And I think if you have a healthy head on your shoulders, you can never buy into the wins as just your wins. As long as you get to keep doing this job, that’s the greatest win.”

“Hit Man” is now streaming on Netflix.