Glen Powell is an American actor who was born in 1988 in Texas. He has been acting for nearly two decades, but his career has reached New Heights in the last three years thanks to roles in Top Gun: Maverick and Twisters.
Starting with Powell landing of high-profile overall alongside Tom Cruise in an instant classic, the young star kicked off a run that culminated with his starring role in a summer disaster blockbuster of his own.
Let us take a look at who Glen Powell is and how his career has grown in recent years.
Who is Glen Powell?
Powell was born in Austin, Texas, on October 21, 1988. The son of Glen Powell Sr. and Cindy Powell, he played sports in high school and was attending college for communications before he dropped out to chase his dream of being an actor. He is working on finishing his degree, but it is taking longer than anticipated, given the demands of his career.
The eventual Twisters star landed a role in The Great Debaters starring Denzel Washington in 2007 and then struggled for a while, missing out on roles in Friday Night Lights and The Longest Ride. He made small appearances on television series, including NCIS and CSI: Miami, but he was far from making it onto the big screen and into the spotlight. This would change in the early 2020s, though.
Top Gun: Maverick was a coming-out party
Powell played the role of Hangman in the 2022 summer blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick. This movie, a sequel to the 1986 classic, was led by Tom Cruise and centered around a daring mission by naval aviators.
This movie was a fast-paced, intense action film featuring breathtaking aviation sequences that were filmed in collaboration with the United States Navy.
In the film, Hangman was a cocky, yet caring pilot who enjoyed major character development throughout the film. Towards the beginning of the movie, Hangman is shown as a pilot who will go out of his way for personal glory, even going so far as to abandon his wingman and go off to seek victory on his own.
Powell’s character grows as he accepts being passed up for the mission in favor of his rival, Rooster, and then goes out and ultimately saves the lives of both Rooster (Miles Teller) and Maverick (Cruise).
A hero in the end
Audiences cheered in theaters throughout the United States when the unnamed enemy country’s fifth-generation fighter exploded just after achieving miss a lot on Mavericks playing, and Hangman's voice came over the radio as his F-18 descended from the clouds.
This was the perfect example of character growth, as Hangman's cocky yet humorous play on Maverick's earlier style of talking (“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, this is your savior speaking. Please fasten your seat belts and return your trays to locked and upright positions, and prepare for landing …”) demonstrated the character's ability to engage in friendly trash talking while his action showed that he stepped up in the moment.
Hangman still showcased his confidence and charisma (I am good, Rooster. I’m very good.”) However, he was much more friendly, and his actions demonstrated his true character.
Hangman became a real hero in that scene, a lovable character who harnessed his skills and confidence while outgrowing the arrogance that he portrayed earlier in the film. This may have been Powell's best acting performance, but he was still a secondary character. It was a great launching point, but he needed to prove that he could be the star and carry a film in the lead role. These opportunities would come throughout the next two years.
He followed that up with Devotion
Just a few months after the release of Top Gun: Maverick, Powell was seen again in Devotion, a naval aviation film taking place during the Korean War.
This film is more serious than Top Gun: Maverick, exploring the history of racism in the United States military. It follows the bond that develops between a white pilot and a Black pilot who is one of the first Black flyers to join their unit. Powell plays a much different character type, and he did a great job with both roles. Powell still wasn't quite the star of his own movie yet, but he was a clear co-star here, and Devotion was another step in the right direction.
This movie doesn’t feature quite as much action as the Top Gun sequel, but there is much more depth to the acting in the role that Powell plays right from the beginning of the film. There’s still character development, but it is a different kind of development. In this movie, Powell reinforced his action star reputation while also showing off a wide breadth of acting chops. This helps set the stage for his future career advancement.
Anyone But You with Sydney Sweeney
Powell was a co-star in the 2023 romantic comedy Anyone But You alongside Sydney Sweeney. The chemistry between the two stars was electric and natural, and the movie showcased a new type of role that Powell could excel in.
Anyone But You helped introduce Powell to a new audience, and it also helped him cultivate a reputation as a more versatile actor. Up to this point, most of his starring roles had been action-based movies, especially those based on aviation. Showing that he could carry a romantic comedy was a distinct departure from what his A-list career had been based on to that point.
It was with this movie that Powell truly became a star, and his career would only accelerate to higher levels from this point on.
Powell is taking over the summer of 2024
2024 is the summer of Glen Powell. This is a year that he will remember forever, and it will define his career. Earlier this year, Netflix released Hit Man, which starred Powell in a unique role. This is part action film, part drama, part love story, and part psychological thriller.
Powell plays the role of an undercover police informant, Gary, who is a professor by day and a fake hitman by night. He works with criminals to take on contracts, positioning himself as a professional killer who can get the job done no matter the cost. However, after he takes the contract, he works with law enforcement to take down his would-be co-conspirator.
That is until he takes on the character of Ron and meets a woman named Madison who is desperately trying to escape from her abusive husband. Madison tries to pay Ron to have her husband killed, and the fake hitman quickly finds himself in quite a moral dilemma. At first, he tries to help Madison in other ways and help her escape without killing her husband.
That doesn't work, though. They run into her husband, Ray, and an altercation ensues. Powell's character learns that Ray is going to attempt to kill Madison and tries to warn her, and he soon finds out that Madison killed Ray. Gary tries to help her avoid criminal charges and ends up fulfilling his promise of becoming a real hitman in the process.
This is an emotionally complicated movie that explores moral questions, love, loyalty, and violence. It was Powell's finest work today and showed that he could headline a drama movie with intense action scenes.
What comes next for the Twisters star?
The next question was whether Powell could headline a true action film on the scale of Maverick. He definitively answered this question with his starring role in Twisters. Powell absolutely carries Twisters and thrives as one of the leads.
Twisters is up there with the best work of Powell’s career to date, and it will be remembered years from now as his true breakout performance. Twisters caps the run that started with Top Gun: Maverick and propelled Powell to the highest tier of Hollywood stars.
Follow Us
Subscribe
