Glen Powell is only 35 years old, but he’s been around the movie business since he was 10, with his first credit coming as a 14-year-old in “Spy Kids 3D: Game Over” as Long-Fingered Boy. That means, even though he’s only been a part of Hollywood’s A-List for the past few years, he has a much longer filmography to his name — and he’s confident in naming his favorite film experience to date. No, it’s not playing Long-Fingered Boy.
“I’m just trying to make movies that I’d want to see, and I think ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ will be my favorite movie I’ve ever made in my whole life,” the actor told Vogue in a new interview. “There’s not going to be a more charmed, lovely experience. When that movie ended, I sobbed as I was shaving off my thin mustache.”
The ’80s-set comedy about a college baseball team first propelled Powell to being something of an internet heartthrob in 2016, along with the Claire Scanlon rom-com “Set It Up” a couple years later, before flying to superstardom with “Top Gun: Maverick” in 2022. With aviator sunglasses hanging off his shirt and a “CHiPS”-style mane, Powell was a portrait of laid-back ease in Richard Linklater‘s film, continuing a partnership that began on “Fast Food Nation” a decade earlier. The two Austin locals have now made four films together, including “Apollo 10 1/2” and next year’s “Hit Man.”
Being part of the same community in Texas — Powell still splits his time among the ranch outside Austin where he grew up as well as New York and LA — made his pairings with Linklater a natural fit. In fact, he was game to participate in one of the prizes being auctioned off at the Texas Film Awards in March 2023: If you raised your paddle, you could win an advance screening of “Hit Man” with Powell in attendance. So far it doesn’t seem that he’s been cast in Linklater’s “Merrily We Roll Along” adaptation, but as that movie’s being filmed over 20 years, who knows.
This holiday season, Powell’s now starring in the throwback rom-com “Anyone but You” opposite Sydney Sweeney, and he’s definitely leveraging his experiences on “Everybody Wants Some!!” and “Set It Up” as well as just his love of the genre. Yes, he is an aficionado.
“I loved ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,’ ’10 Things I Hate About You,’ the list goes on. Obviously ‘When Harry Met Sally.’ I don’t know if you consider ‘Legally Blonde’ a rom-com, but one of the most starstruck I think my family’s ever been was meeting Karen McCullah, who was one of the writers of [the movie]. Karen got to come hang at the ranch, and she’s loved by the whole family.”
