On his way to becoming a movie star, Glen Powell always had a killer Christian Bale impersonation up his sleeve.
In his new film The Hitman (now streaming on Netflix), the Texas native plays Gary, a nerdy philosophy professor who manipulates Bale’s American Psycho killer Patrick Bateman and other eccentric alter-ego’s to act as a fake hit man for hire in a police sting operation. These personalities bring Gary out of his shell, but they also get him into trouble when he “becomes” the super-nice Ron and falls in love with a woman (Adria Arjona) who wants to leave her jerky husband for good.
It was a transformative role that allowed Powell to demonstrate his range of talents; he also co-wrote the film’s screenplay.
“One of the things you find in Hollywood is that no one is going to give you your dream role. You have to make it yourself,” says Powell, 35, who has become Hollywood’s hottest new face with buzz hits “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Anyone But You.”
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“He had charisma and he had intelligence,” says “Hitman” director Richard Linklater, who first cast the 14-year-old Powell in the mockumentary “Fast Food Nation.” But the real “revelation” came a decade later, when Powell starred as a wisecracking baseball player in Linklater’s “Everybody Wants Some.” “And then I thought, ‘Wow, who is this guy?'”
The actor, who next stars in “Twisters” (out July 19), and his adorable 1-year-old rescue dog, Brisket, spoke with USA Today in a video chat about “Hitman,” moving back to Texas from Los Angeles and the remake of the cult classic starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Q: There’s an interesting relationship between Clark Kent and Superman in “Hitman,” where shy Gary takes off his glasses and becomes the extroverted Ron. Was this a conscious choice?
answer: The tricky thing is, we’re not making “The Nutty Professor” here. I’m playing a lot of different characters, but in all of them, Gary Johnson is always there. This is about a man becoming the fantasy character he knows he is inside of himself. And maybe at some point, it’s kind of meta for me. Maybe there’s some sense of wanting the world to see me in a different way than it has before.
In my heart, I very often feel like Gary and I very often play the part of Ron.
You were recently inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame and moved back to your hometown of Austin. Was that for your mental health?
The goal was to gain enough traction in LA so that I could always move back home. I’ve had a place here in Austin for ages, but I finally have the place I really wanted. My parents just turned 70 and I want to enjoy every moment with my family.
It’s really fun to be surrounded by people who love movies and the business. But sometimes that echo chamber isn’t so good for your mental health. If you watch too much movies and entertainment, you can become a little self-conscious and a copycat of yourself. You don’t have freedom in your personal life, you end up telling stories, and I feel like that’s not good in the long run.
Well, brisket probably prefers Texas BBQ.
Texas meat is definitely better than California. Brisket likes the space here. He does a lot of cardio in Texas. He hasn’t experienced the Texas summer yet. Let’s see how he does.
He’s actually been through a tornado. We were shooting Twisters, the first few weeks with him, and a tornado came through while we were shooting.
Which was the more terrifying experience: flying in a fighter jet in “Top Gun” or dealing with extreme weather in “Twisters”?
I’m always drawn to films that are really big in scale, but have an intimate storyline and always manage to achieve something stunning on a technical level.
“Twisters” is a really interesting example. It’s like a collaboration with Mother Nature, and the film was shot in Tornado Alley in Oklahoma. That’s hard to replicate. Unless you’re on the ground and you’re hit by all the debris that’s being thrown in front of a jet engine fan, you don’t feel that. But that’s exactly what it felt like. “Top Gun” was a visceral, intense experience, and so was “Twisters.”
Edgar Wright’s The Running Man stands out among your upcoming projects – what inspired you to make a new film?
I’ve always been a fan of Edgar Wright, and speaking with him about “The Running Man,” I feel like his interpretation is really brilliant, which is very different from the original Schwarzenegger film and more rooted in Stephen King’s (novelette) version.
In the first film, Arnold faces off against Jesse “The Body” Ventura and Jim Brown. Which professional wrestler and which NFL player would you like to face off against in the remake?
Whew. Do I want to win matches or just get beaten? I feel like JJ Watt wants a career in acting and on the wrestling side, they might bring in Ronda Rousey. I haven’t thought about who I want to face yet. It’s a survival story and the movie is really interesting, but they’re going to go all out on me.
So it’s more than just trash.
That’s right. Less rubble, more fists.
