Now that so many of us have seen Top Gun: Maverick, perhaps multiple times, how thirsty are you for Glen Powell? Let’s come back to the thirst in a minute because I don’t think we’ve spent enough time this summer on how Glen Powell even got to be in Top Gun in the first place.
Glen, who played Hangman in the movie, originally auditioned for the role of Rooster, which eventually went to Miles Teller. Glen says he gave everything in that audition, and that must be true, since Tom Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski offered him another part. Which of course ended up being the PERFECT part for him. But Glen was resistant at first, because he was so crushed that he didn’t get the part he really wanted, at least initially.
So Tom Cruise campaigned – kinda remarkable in and of itself if you think about it, that one of the biggest movie stars in the world is out here courting an upstart actor to take on a smaller role in his film. Glen says Tom took a lot of time showing him the aerial footage, walking him through the story, talking to him about how he could make an equally great impact in a role he hadn’t considered. At that point Glen is a 20-something almost-star who hasn’t quite gotten to the next level but he thinks he knows enough, right? Well, not that much. As he says:
“I felt pretty confident about how I chose movies and what I want to do and then Tom basically blew my mind with how he has created his career. … He said, ‘What kind of career do you want, Glen?’ I was like, ‘You, man, I want to be you.’ And then he said, ‘How do you think I got here?’ And I was like, ‘You choose good roles.’ He said, ‘No, Glen, I choose great MOVIES and then I make the ROLES great.’ It’s true… Joe [Kosinski] just saw my mind melt and I was like, ‘Dammit, this guy’s good.’ I had to kind of take a leap of faith on what the Hangman role would be and I gotta say these guys lived up to every promise that they promised.”
And here we are. Glen is in the biggest movie of 2022, a movie that has broken all kinds of records, a movie that people are hyperbolically saying saved movies and movie theatres. Which brings us back to the thirst. Because while there may have been people who were thirsting for Glen before Top Gun: Maverick came out, the movie made the thirst go TikTok:
@keoghaan he’s playing ken in the barbie movie in my book #glenpowell #topgunmaverick #barbie #glenpowelledit #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #foryourpage
♬ I wanna love you - lucyyyjne
That’s just a sample – there is a LOT of Glen Powell appreciation on TikTok. There are also a LOT of people who didn’t watch Set It Up the first time around when it came out in 2018 and have gone back for it on Netflix, and the combination of Hangman with his performance in a rom-com is sending the thirst into overdrive. I interviewed Glen for TG:M a few months ago, so I can tell you…he backs up those abs with a lot of personality and charisma and general movie star quality. It’s fun talking to him – which is why I can’t wait for him to come to TIFF.
The film is called Devotion, with Jonathan Majors in the lead role, and Joe Jonas, randomly, is in it too. Once again Glen is suiting up in the cockpit, as it’s based on the true story of US Navy fighter pilots during the Korean War. Jonathan Majors is Hollywood’s next big deal (some might say he’s already a big deal considering that he’s getting cast in literally everything). Glen is building towards that now. The two of them together in one film? It’s a moment.
Devotion is a world premiere title at TIFF. Trailer is below.
Here’s Glen with his girlfriend Gigi Paris yesterday flying out of LAX.