Glen Powell's Secret: “I Try to Think Audience First, Rather Than Me ...

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.

You don’t just want to do the thing that has already been a success.

I understand why some people would just play the greatest hits. But at the same time, you get into trouble when you’re trying to diversify for the sake of diversification, and you leave the audience out of it. And that’s where I try to be really thoughtful. I try to think, “Audience first,” rather than, “Me first.”

What does the audience want to see? How can I fit into a role that really challenges what I do, where I’m not settling into any sort of groove that feels too familiar or too monotonous? Do you know what I mean?

Shirt by Gucci; glasses by Jacques Marie Mage.Photograph by Gordon von Steiner; styled by George Cortina.

I do. You see that phenomenon all the time: Actors will have a number of hits and then suddenly get the chance to make something they want—and they make something that nobody else wants to see!

Yeah, totally. There’s always been this phrase, “One for me, one for them.” And I just completely disagree with that idea. I think it can be all for them, and it can be all for you, and you just have to be really deliberate about what you’re a part of. You just have to find roles that are flavors that you’ve never explored, or just because a movie’s smaller doesn’t mean it has to be unappealing to an audience. I find that there’s this interesting creative drunk driving where you’re like, “Okay, I’m going to go do a small movie for me, a big movie for them.” That’s not a plan.

People refer to you as a classic movie star. You’ve got the matinee-idol good looks, but you also have the instinct to make stories that don’t just rely on that. I think it’s interesting that the movie you cowrote, Hit Man, has you in all of these ridiculous costumes and haircuts.

For me, I’m just having fun. Hit Man is an example of a kind of movie that I really, really like, but also I got this great joy out of wondering if I could pull it off. The more I researched the real-life Gary Johnson, the more that I was like, “Wow, this is a tall order and not necessarily a natural fit.” Gary and I don’t share, I would say, a lot in common in terms of the way we orient our lives, and yet it’s really fun to step into the skin of someone like that.

It doesn’t seem like the kind of movie studio executives were offering you.

Hit Man was one of those that really taught me. The business—as we were selling it—didn’t understand what it was. We pitched it around town and people were like, “Oh, great, we want to be a part of this.” Then they were like, “Actually, we don’t want to be a part of that. Can we change that?”

And [director Richard Linklater] and I were always excited about the potential of what we were creating. It was unique and it was different. Audiences couldn’t get out ahead of this movie. It didn’t really fit into one genre.

To get to create that kind of story, you have to have status. Do you feel that there is a performance aspect to just being a lead actor in this industry? In addition to being in front of the camera, do you have to play a part in Hollywood?

I’ve failed for a lot longer than I’ve succeeded. I’ve really gotten a chance to see other people do it. And what I realized is, I think the trap is trying to fit into the mold of something like that where it’s inauthentic.

I guess what I was thinking about was the New York Times article in which you and Sydney Sweeney talked about playing up flirtatiousness in public, even though you weren’t in a relationship, because that’s what the audience of a rom-com like Anyone but You wants.

I think what people forget about with a press tour is that it’s its own sense of entertainment. I don’t think it’s duplicitous. For Twisters, I had the best time because I’m getting to literally live in a world of trucks, and tornadoes, and the South, and country music, and all these different things where I was like, “This is authentically all me.” Shotgunning a beer onstage with Luke Combs is press, but that’s also something that I had the greatest time doing. That was so damn fun.

It sounds like you’re saying you and Sydney would have to be actual friends to play up that kind of thing.

I love her. She’s the greatest. If you’re not having fun with this job, then I think you get burnt out. We just had a really good time. So we have just such a great friendship and really cheer for each other and it’s been a fun ride to do this thing together.

What was it like for you in the years when you weren’t in demand, when you were in your 20s?

As a struggling actor, there’s no harder place to live than being in Hollywood with nothing going on. The currency of that town is how relevant you are and what your last job is. It makes you oppressively self-aware. Where people can get caught in a rut is where they just want to continue spinning the roulette wheel without any thought of why. They just stay at the table for no reason other than to stay at the table.

How did you cope with having nothing going on?

Even at the darkest moments in that town, when I really didn’t have anything happening, you sort of have to lie to yourself, at least a little bit, and act like this is that chapter of the story where things just aren’t going right. You have to believe in the Hollywood legends of those people that you admire, the people that you’re chasing, that had those long stretches of famine as well. I’m very grateful about getting a chance to understand a lot about writing. I had to occupy different types of jobs that allowed me to understand how to finance things, and produce things. I started understanding a facet of this business that’s really serving me right now.

Shirt by Gucci; glasses by Jacques Marie Mage.Photograph by Gordon von Steiner; styled by George Cortina.

What type of things were those?

I’d hit random people up and I’d try to drum up money for other people’s shorts to turn them into features, or I’d try to hunt down stuff and pitch people to get a small role in things. In LA, you are really just hustling to just try to be a part of the experiment at all. People are like, “Oh man, auditioning must be tough.” And I’m like, “No, auditioning is a luxury.”

Finding an agent, finding anybody to talk to you at a damn party, having enough money to pay for headshots, these are the things that no one talks about. Trying to pay for acting class, and trying to get better. Auditioning feels like you’re at the party. You’ve gotten past the velvet rope. You may not be able to afford a drink at the party, but you’re in it, you can taste it. But so often in Hollywood, most of the time you are outside that velvet rope. Most of the time the bouncer is not even allowing you anywhere in the vicinity.

What kind of bit parts paid the bills?

That’s the other interesting thing about this business right now—how much it’s changing. The business no longer supports struggling actors the way it did when I was kind of coming up. I would do an episode of NCIS, and that would keep me afloat for a year. You know what I mean?

But only if you’re careful with the money.

My overhead’s not high. You’re not living a lavish lifestyle. You’re hiding a flask in your boot if you go out for a drink. You’re not necessarily able to afford anything significant in that town, but you are able to stay there. Those little jobs, like getting a commercial, keep life in the system.

What’s it like doing a small part in a big movie? I saw one of your credits on IMDb was a stock trader in The Dark Knight Rises, which is a massive movie, but you’re only a small part in a machine like that. What do you remember about doing that?

I remember everything. You never forget the feeling. It’s something I carry to every set I walk on now, which is just the reverence for being on a set in general. But I remember on Dark Knight Rises the feeling of being able to walk onto a set and you knew everybody in the world wanted to be on that set, right?

Even though it was a small role, I auditioned several times for it. I was getting to work with the greatest director on the planet, Christopher Nolan. And you’re sitting there and all of a sudden Tom Hardy walks in as Bane. It’s electric. It’s sort of out-of-body. That was one of those movies when nothing was going on in my life. I was just fighting for every inch. And when Christopher Nolan casts you in his movie, it’s a validation that’s hard to explain. And I’ve talked to Chris about this. We’ve run into each other at different things. I saw him during his amazing Oppenheimer run, and he’s very proud that he plucked me early. I’m just very grateful that he took a shot.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. For fashion and beauty details, go to VF.com/credits.