On his rocket ship to movie stardom, Glen Powell had been keeping a killer Christian Bale impression in his back pocket.
In his new movie “Hit Man” (streaming now on Netflix), the native Texan plays a nerdy philosophy professor named Gary who channels Bale's “American Psycho” murderer Patrick Bateman and other kooky alter egos as a fake assassin for hire on cop stings. These personas bring Gary out of his shell but also get him in trouble when he “becomes” super-smooth Ron and sparks a love connection with a woman (Adria Arjona) who’d like to get rid of her jerk husband permanently.
It’s a transformative part that allows Powell to show his wide range of talents: He also co-wrote the movie.
“The one thing that you realize about Hollywood is no one's ever going to give you the role that you've dreamed of. You have to bake it up yourself,” says Powell, 35, arguably Hollywood's hottest commodity after high-profile hits “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Anyone But You.”
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When "Hit Man" director Richard Linklater first cast a 14-year-old Powell in his mockumentary “Fast Food Nation,” "that charisma was there and his intelligence was there," the director says. But the real “revelation” came a decade later when Powell starred as a sage ballplayer in Linklater's “Everybody Wants Some!!” “That's when I was like, ‘Whoa, who's this guy?’ ”
The actor, who next stars in “Twisters” (out July 19), and his adorable 1-year-old rescue dog Brisket video-chatted with USA TODAY about “Hit Man,” relocating from LA back to Texas, and remaking an Arnold Schwarzenegger cult classic.
Question: There’s an interesting Clark Kent/Superman dynamic in “Hit Man,” as shy Gary takes off his glasses to become the extroverted Ron. Was that a conscious choice?
Answer: The hard part is that we're not making “The Nutty Professor” here. I'm playing all these different roles, but there's always Gary Johnson underneath all these things. This is really more of a guy becoming the fantasy of who he knows is inside of him. And maybe that's sort of meta for me at a certain point. There's a degree of maybe wanting the world to see you differently than they have.
On the inside, so often I feel like Gary, and so often play a Ron.
You recently were inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame and moved back to your hometown of Austin. Was that a mental well-being thing?
The goal was always whenever I got enough traction out in LA that I could return home. I've always kept a place here in Austin, but I finally got the place that I really wanted. My parents just turned 70 and you want to enjoy every moment you have near your family.
It's really fun to be around people that love movies and love the business. However, sometimes that echo chamber can be not so great for you on the mental health level. When all you do is consume movies and entertainment, you could become a little self-aware and maybe derivative of yourself. Your personal life, there's no sort of freedom there, there's storytelling around that, and I feel like that's just not good for you on the long term.
Well, Brisket probably prefers the Texas barbecue.
There's better meat in Texas than there is in California, that's for sure. And Brisket's liking the space. He's gotten a lot of good cardio here in Texas. He hasn't experienced a Texas summer yet. We'll see how he does.
He actually has experienced a tornado. When we were on the set of “Twisters,” that was like the first couple weeks I had him, we were on a set when a tornado touched down.
What was a hairier experience: being in a fighter plane for "Top Gun" or dealing with the weather craziness of “Twisters”?
The movies that I've always been drawn to are the ones that were really big in scope but intimate in the storytelling and always did something on a technical level that was just kind of mind-blowing.
"Twisters" is a really interesting example. I sound like we were collaborating with Mother Nature, but you are shooting this thing in Tornado Alley in Oklahoma. It's a hard thing to emulate. Unless you are on the ground getting hit with every piece of debris that they can muster up and throw in front of a jet engine fan, the audience isn't going to feel it. But that's what it was like. “Top Gun” was a visceral, intense experience and so was “Twisters."
“The Running Man” with director Edgar Wright stands out on your upcoming slate. What led to doing a new one?
I've been an Edgar Wright fan my whole life. And talking to him about “Running Man,” what's been really incredible is his take on it. It's very much not the original Schwarzenegger flick, it's much more grounded in the Stephen King (novella) version.
In that first movie, Arnold faces off with Jesse “The Body" Ventura and Jim Brown. Which pro wrestler and which NFL player would you pick to throw down with in the remake?
Whew. If I want to win the fight, or if I just want to get my ass kicked? I feel like J.J. Watt wants an acting career, and then on the wrestling side, I think we bring in maybe Ronda Rousey. I haven't thought about who I want to face off with. It's a survival story, the movie is really fun, but they're going to throw everything they got at me.
So, more than just trash.
Yeah. Less debris, more fists.
