"Growing up in Austin, the two guys that were legends there are Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez," says Glen Powell. An aspiring actor, he dreamt of working with both directors — and ultimately didn't have to wait long for one of those dreams to come true. Rodriguez cast a young Powell in 2003's Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, in which he made his film debut as "Long-fingered Boy."
"So, obviously, I wanted to get in the trenches with Rick," he says. Linklater eventually cast him in a small role in 2006's Fast Food Nation and, later, his breakout role in 2016's Everybody Wants Some!! In the years since, Powell has appeared in the Oscar-nominated Hidden Figures and the Oscar-winning Top Gun: Maverick, but 2024 has proven to be his biggest year yet: Powell toplined the first big hit of the year, the rom-com Anyone But You, and stars in one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, the tornado blockbuster Twisters.
He also linked up with Linklater again for Hit Man, a dark comedy that they wrote together, Powell stars in, and Linklater directed. (The film marks Powell's debut as a screenwriter.) "It is so full circle," he reflects. "Rick is a guy who gave me one of my first jobs in Austin, Texas, and was a guy I looked up to so much when I was growing up. I started writing screenplays in my creative writing class freshman year and was studying Richard Linklater movies; now, here I am, releasing a movie I'm really proud of with Richard Linklater."
"And Twister is a movie that I watched as a young kid, and it's such a seminal movie for me," Powell adds. "That movie really has a special place in my heart, and I became friends with Bill Paxton after shooting a movie with him [2013's Red Wing]. So, to get to step into the same boots, in a way, has also been really full circle. I think Bill would have been really proud of what we did with the movie. This business doesn't always make you feel nostalgic or sentimental in all the right ways, but this year has really dished out all of that for me."
Up next on his dance card? A thriller for A24, Huntington, and a remake of The Running Man courtesy of director Edgar Wright. "I think the real benefit I've had is that it's been such a slow burn," the actor says. "I've been doing this since I was 10 years old; I'm 35 now. So, I have had the ability to see so many people do it well, and not well, and to see how careers unfold at different paces. And it's not lost on me how incredible all of this is, and how rare this is."
At the end of the day, Powell just really loves movies, whether he's in them or not. "And I love talking movies," he exclaims. "I actually have this Notes doc on my phone called 'Films I Wish I Would Have Made.'" Below, he shares with A.frame five films from that list.
Directed by: Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen | Written by: Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Singin' in the Rain is a a near-perfect movie, for me. It captures such an interesting era of movies, and I'm obsessed with Hollywood. I love Hollywood. So, that transition from silent pictures to talkies, it's this really interesting era where people are claiming the end of something — that movies are dying — and I think about Singin' in the Rain all the time, because I feel like there's always this chatter about the death of movies. No. We love great stories, and the way in which people consume stories will change, but I really believe the medium of film has never been more exciting, and as technology changes, it only gets cooler.
In addition to that, when I watch Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor in Singin' in the Rain, I had never seen men dance, in a way, where I was like, "These guys are the coolest dudes." It was physical, and it was athletic, and it was fun. One of the best parts about that movie is there's a joy to it. It was entertaining on every level, and if you go back to the inception of that movie, it started with a song. They had a song, and they literally reverse-engineered that movie to become Singin' in the Rain, and it took on this entire life. I love thinking about that, because it shows you there's no one way to skin a cat. There's no one way to make a movie.
That movie just represents the fun of movies, and when I rewatch it, I'm never bored. Not by one frame in that whole movie. It's the best. When I was a kid, Singin' in the Rain was the movie that inspired me to do musical theater and all that stuff. That really got me into it.
Directed by: George Roy Hill | Written by: William Goldman
That's been such a seminal movie for me, as a Texan. I had a poster of Butch and Sundance on my wall when I was growing up. That was Redford and Newman at their prime. Those two guys represented the coolest versions of movie stars ever put on screen, but it was also grounded. Those performances are really subtle. They weren't trying to be too macho or cool; they felt like three-dimensional guys, who had insecurities, and fears, and dreams they knew were never going to happen. They broke the rules, but they fought for the underdog.
I always felt like that was the epitome of being a movie star. It was the wish fulfillment of who we all wish we could be. Across the board, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was a very revolutionary movie for its time. In terms of the romantic element, it follows none of the rules, and the way they shot it, and they music they use, it was just revolutionary. It's one of those movie that I could watch over, and over, and over. I love it.
Directed by: Michael Curtiz | Written by: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch
There are better people to talk about Casablanca than me, but it's such an interesting thing, because Humphrey Bogart's character is so flawed, right? He is so flawed. And Casablanca is one of those movies that, on a whole, it shouldn't really work. But it does! I'm such a fan of that movie.
Directed by: Steven Spielberg | Written by: Michael Crichton and David Koepp
I could talk about Jurassic Park all day. I must have been seven years old, I think, when that movie came out, and I literally fell in love with big movie-making while watching that movie, because that was when I started to realize that movies could do anything. After watching that movie, I was like, "I gotta see that again. I gotta see that again immediately," because I couldn't believe that dinosaurs had come to life onscreen!
That movie feels so big, and it feels so emotional, and it's so adventurous, and there's so much heart baked into it. When they're seeing the brontosaurus for the first time, the filmmaking and the way that Spielberg moves the camera, you are feeling that awe too. And if every department didn't bring it in that moment, and if it didn't feel real, then the whole movie would have fallen apart. So, I still remember watching that movie for the first time, and then when it came out on VHS, I watched all the behind the scenes of it.
Actually, I did one of my first elementary school projects on Steven Spielberg. It was in second grade, and I did this project on the use of practical effects after seeing Jaws and Jurassic Park. Because my favorite part about those movies was the fact that they built these animatronics, and all of the departments had to come together to make this thing come to life. It was so impactful. Now, all these years later, to fricking work with Speilberg on Twisters and to watch how his team of special effects guys and all these department heads make that dream come to life was really incredible — and just full-circle, too.
Directed by: Steven Spielberg | Written by: Jeffrey Boam
For me, Indiana Jones represents a role that only Harrison Ford can play. You look at that character, and you're like, "He is Indiana Jones, and he is the coolest guy on the planet." And it made archeology so cool! It brought this spiritual element to it, and it changed the way that you wanted to go into the catacombs and caves. It brought my imagination to life.
But my favorite part about Last Crusade, in particular, was the father/son story that really was so intimate, in this relationship, and then the movie is so vast in its scale. I remember when they ride off into the sunset at the end of that movie, I was like, "It's perfect. It's perfect. Don't touch it. This is great." That's why Last Crusade is my favorite of the three.
