Glen Powell: Meet the new Hollywood star who can be a heartthrob, a jerk or an action hero | Film

TThere is no reason to remember the 2012 romantic comedy Having a crush – an independent production that grossed less than a million dollars worldwide despite the presence of well-known actors such as Jennifer Connelly and Greg Kinnear.

There’s even less reason to remember Glen Powell in this film, unless you were specifically looking for his square jaw and sandy hair: the Texas part-time actor, just 23 at the time, played a supporting role in the ensemble and was referred to in the credits only as a “good-looking frat student.”

For a while, it seemed as though the casting would be the story of Powell’s career. Blond and green-eyed without looking strikingly Aryan, tall and muscular but not cartoonishly buff, he is good-looking in such an archetypically American way that he was once in danger of being forever relegated to the background. He was equally perfect as a cocky college jock in Richard Linklater’s rowdy 2016 comedy Everyone wants something!! – when he played astronaut John Glenn in “The Last Man” in 2016, a symbol of clean white American masculinity. Unrecognized heroesIf there’s no one in the industry who resembles Timothée Chalamet or, at the other end of the physical scale, Jason Momoa, then Glen Powell looks a bit like a lot of people – as if a studio executive had put together a movie star identikit using bits and pieces from Ryan Gosling, Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

This is not the blow it might seem: Powell exudes such a classic, even typical Hollywood star quality that it is a surprise that it has taken him so long to rise to the top of the A-list. But he has done it. Within just a couple of films, particularly through his supporting role alongside Cruise in Top Shooter: MaverickPowell has been elevated from frat boy to “That Guy” – a leading man equally comfortable in the roles of heartthrob, goofy comedian and everyman action hero.

This year it felt like he was omnipresent. Everyone except youa light-hearted romantic comedy with her It co-star Sydney Sweeney, stayed in theaters for months due to their sparkling chemistry and exceeded all industry expectations with a gross of $220 million for a genre that is often limited to streaming these days. Speaking of streaming: Netflix had a sensation for home cinema in the spring with HitMana lively crime farce that Powell wrote together with Linklater and which lives entirely from his laid-back southern charm.

The big test comes this weekend: Twistersa disaster film with lots of effects (and a long-delayed sequel to the 1996 hit Twisters), which will show whether Powell can open a major summer blockbuster. Even if not, Hollywood has a few more attempts in store for him – including Huntingtona comic thriller inspired by the Alec Guinness classic Good hearts and crownsand an Edgar Wright remake of the Schwarzenegger film from the 80s The running man.

If there’s a certain retro quality to Powell’s leading roles to date – even those not actively linked to past multiplex hits – it doesn’t seem entirely coincidental. He thrives in genres like comedy that are buoyed by the personalities of individual stars. In recent years, that’s been anathema in superhero-obsessed Hollywood, where longstanding franchise characters have greater appeal than the actors who play them. Take Marvel’s trio of Chrises – Hemsworth, Evans and Pratt – who have yet to establish a concrete identity as leading men outside of the comics realm. That Powell has never been cast in a superhero role in his two decades in the business is so surprising it almost seems pointed: He may be comparable to the Chrises in terms of profile and physicality, but his screen persona seems different from theirs.

“I think he cultivates this distinction consciously,” notes celebrity journalist Tom Fitzgerald of the website Tom & Lorenzo. “He seems to want to be a throwback to the leading men and action stars of the ’90s much more than he wants to don a cape and tights. He’s starting to choose roles that never really let the audience forget he’s Glen Powell; total, Harrison Ford-style star performances that are above the title. Aside from Robert Downey Jr., most superhero movies tend to suppress this kind of megawatt power.”

Superhero movies have lost their hold on culture in recent years as audiences grow tired of the constant oversaturation and cross-pollination of franchises. Top Shooter: Maverick was the biggest hit of 2022, riding a wave of ’80s nostalgia and perhaps also an audience hunger for heroes who feel a little more human even when performing absurd aerial stunts. Powell’s semi-villainous role was comparatively minor – Miles Teller was credited second as the surly son of Cruise’s character – but his nimble, cheeky manner and goofy grin turned heads; more than Teller, it seemed, he emerged from the film’s success as the natural heir to its 60-year-old star.

For film author Christina Newland, whose book She found it in the cinema Powell’s Hollywood history goes back further than Cruise, although he explores female desire and audience behavior in cinema. “He’s in the style of a Paul Newman or Robert Redford: glamorous looking but always happy to get his hands dirty,” she says. “He can play cowboys, romantic leads and action-adventure heroes and is liked by both men and women. He’s just very classically handsome, masculine, a sports guy and a real Texan to boot. Compare him to the only other more ‘box-office’ leading man right now, Timothée Chalamet, and you’ll know what I mean.”

The trick with Powell is his affable silliness, which counteracts all of those alpha-male qualities – not unlike Ryan Gosling, another traditionally built guy who dabbles in action but never shies away from playing the fool or the fool. (It’s not too hard to imagine Powell replacing Gosling in the role of the wayward Ken in last year’s mega-hit.) Barbie.) Newland agrees: “What is contemporary about him is his willingness to be silly and to play around, to not take himself seriously in the old school sense, to make a fool of himself in his various disguises in HitManto joke around on social media. It makes his traditional appearance more approachable and personable; it’s a winning combination.”

Perhaps it is this relaxed manner that most distinguishes Powell from his colleagues: a self-assured feeling in his own skin that comes from having waited a while for fame to hit him. At 35, he is not exactly green behind the ears; he has been acting since his youth (he made his film debut at the age of 14 in Spy Kids 3D: Game Over) and has played enough inconspicuous supporting roles that his joy in taking on leading roles is palpable without turning into an excessive desire to please.

His public appearances follow suit: he is talkative and self-deprecating, dresses elegantly but without much regard for haute couture (Fitzgerald describes his style as “similar to that of the best-looking guy from the town you grew up in”), and frequently brings his shaggy rescue dog, Brisket, onto the red carpet—surely a ploy to please the audience, but one that suggests he would rather be a star who followed his own agenda.

“The easy-going nature of his personality is what really appeals to people at the moment – right now everyone wants to be or do like him,” says Fitzgerald, who goes on to describe him as “a living stress antidote for an extremely stressful time.” That description best describes Powell’s casually cool charisma after an era of Hollywood production that made being a movie star seem like awfully hard work – all that flying and fighting in front of green screens and skin-tight Lycra. Powell makes it look a lot easier in worn denim and boots. If this is what post-superhero fame looks like, it’s no wonder everyone wants a piece of it.