Photoshoots > Outtakes > Session 053

VANITY FAIR – The Texas-born-and-bred actor is grabbing Hollywood by the horns—starring in and writing hit movies at a breakneck speed. “There’s not one part of me that’s jaded,” he tells VF.
There’s an old saying in Glen Powell’s family, a Texas-ism that cautions against ego: “Don’t dance before you get in the end zone.” Years ago, Powell finally attained the career success that had long eluded him—but still, “I do not feel like I’m in the end zone,” he tells me, his fluffy pup, Brisket, lying in his lap. “To keep playing the game is where I live. As soon as you feel like you’ve made it, that’s sort of the beginning of the end.”

Powell is one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading men, having embodied charming alphas in box-office hits like Anyone But You and Twisters while proving his screenwriting chops with Hit Man, cowritten with Richard Linklater. He checked off the “classic remake” bingo box with The Running Man, which hit theaters earlier this month. When prompted, Powell can rattle off the pivotal moments that fueled his star’s momentum, starting with a breakthrough two-day role on NCIS in 2012. But per his family’s mantra, the very polite, Southern gentleman is still hesitant to deem himself a success. “I’ve had these little victories over the course of my career that have taught me different lessons,” he says.

It’s ironic, then, that the Hulu series Chad Powers—which Powell cowrote, executive produced, and stars in—is about a cocky college quarterback who quite literally dances before touching down in the end zone, leading to viral fame and public shame. The series, loosely based on Eli Manning’s ESPN+ show, Eli’s Places, tracks an absurd Mrs. Doubtfire–meets–Animal House comeback plot. “There’s not one part of me that’s jaded,” he says. “I’m really pinching myself every day that I’ve stumbled into this moment where I get to do this.”

That characterization is a typical Powell understatement. As a teenager, he landed a small part—“long-fingered boy”—in a big movie, Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids 3. “I shot for a couple hours maybe, and they had to literally kick me off [set] when the grips were moving all their stuff out. I didn’t want to leave,” he remembers. Soon thereafter, Powell got to work in his family’s garage, building his own makeshift studio. “I got PVC pipe and old skateboard wheels, and I literally made my own camera dolly so that I could shoot movies with my friends.”

It’s clear that beneath Powell’s charming smile is an unstoppable grind. His hustle has taken him far: “When I first moved out to Los Angeles, if I would get an audition or a meeting on the Universal lot, I was the guy that, maybe the meeting was 30 minutes to an hour, I would stay there all day,” he says. “I didn’t want to leave. I would go around the lot and try to meet people, and go explore the lot. I’d go eat food from the Desperate Housewives crafty [craft services]. I just wanted to be a part of that world.” Now his production company, Barnstorm, has a bungalow on that same lot, thanks to a deal with the studio.

This, Powell knows, is his real superpower. “The reality is I’ve never considered myself to be the most talented person,” he says. “I never felt like I was the guy that showed up and could nail it. But I knew that I was always the guy that was going to outwork the person next to me, and no one would ever outwork me.”

With a whopping five projects lined up, it’s hard to disagree. He’s currently working on a comedy about a country music star with Judd Apatow, something Powell can hardly believe when he says it out loud. His genuine aw-shucks enthusiasm might be why the internet, which has affectionately compared him to a capybara (though Powell self-identifies as a golden retriever), loves to root for him. When he mentions A-list names like Tom Cruise (“a guy that I really modeled so much of my taste and choices after”), throughout our conversation, he always seems sincerely starstruck. He’s just as excited to be here—on a film set, on a red carpet, or in a movie theater—as we are to see him.

And he’s more than happy to pay that feeling forward. “If somebody wants a selfie and they’re like, ‘Hey, my mom’s over there. She’s embarrassed to talk to you. Can you go say hi?’ I will walk across that restaurant. I’ll go say hi to your mom. I’ll make a birthday video for whoever,” he says. “That’s what I’m here for. It’s such a small amount of steps for me to make a real difference in someone’s day, and I’m more than happy to do that.”

If you do stop Powell on the street or in a restaurant, however, here’s a hot tip: He’d much rather talk about movies. “You’ll never see me more excited. I leave a movie theater and I want to talk to everybody about the movie,” he says with such conviction it’s hard not to believe him. “That’s my love language.”