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Do you know who Glen Powell is? If you’ve clicked on this article, then you probably do. And if you don’t there’s a good chance you will by the end of the summer, as he’s starring in both Richard Linklater’s Hit Man and the sequel to Twister.
Hollywood seems to agree that Powell is one of the big movie stars of the next generation, as the 35-year-old Texan actor has signed on to a bevy of high-profile projects in recent months.
The movie that changed the course of Powell’s career was 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, which saw him star as the cocky pilot Hangman alongside Tom Cruise and Miles Teller.
During that experience, Powell became quite close with Cruise, who once famously pranked Powell by pretending he had lost control of the helicopter he was flying the pair in.
In a recent profile interview with British GQ, Powell also hilariously detailed that Cruise has a six-hour-long movie, which he made himself, that is about the art of filmmaking and that he only shows it to his friends.
“Cruise sent him to a cinema in LA to watch a ‘film school’ movie he had put together for his friends. Powell expected to be among a crowd – but no, it was just him alone, in an empty theatre. For six hours. Watching Tom Cruise speak directly to the camera, breaking down everything he’s learned about filmmaking over the years.”
“In the video, ‘[Cruise] is like: ‘Do we all agree that this is what a camera is? This is the difference between a film camera and a digital camera…’ The funniest part is on flying. It was like he put together this entire flight school. So he would literally go ‘OK, this is what a plane is. Here’s how things fly. Here’s how air pressure works.’”
Powell also said that Cruise has no intention of releasing the project publicly: “He said, ‘This is just for my friends’.”
It certainly seems like Powell is intent on following in Cruise’s footsteps as his upcoming blockbuster Twisters has numerous similarities to Top Gun: Maverick. He’s also recently said that he doesn’t have any interest in playing a superhero (except, of course, Batman).