Glen Powell has been all over the 2024 movies, particularly through his Twisters role. As the actor becomes a bigger name with every role he stars in, the 35-year-old recently reflected on his slow rise into stardom. Apparently one piece of advice from Sylvester Stallone was key to keeping his genuine persona.
Part of Powell’s charm is he is a proud Texan with a pup to his name that goes by Brisket and parents so close to him that they’ve cameoed in his movies multiple times. But it took some time for the actor to be fearless enough to be himself as a movie star. As he shared:
When I first moved to L.A., I had representation at the time that told me to lean away from it. I literally showed up to an agency wearing a cowboy hat, and they were like, ‘Dude, are you straight off a farm? What’s going on here?’
During an interview with Sharp Magazine, Glen Powell said that he was originally told to ditch his Texan twang in order to fit into the mold of Hollywood stars. He remembers finding himself in “a bit of an identity crisis” because he was suddenly being told “what you should be and how you should do it” once he moved to Los Angeles to really pursue his dreams.
At one point, Powell can also recall himself wearing a fedora and skinny jeans and feeling out of place in his skin. However, it was none other than Sylvester Stallone that helped him tune out the noise and get him back to who he really is.
Powell has been working in movies since he was a kid on Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, alongside the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas, before he reunited with them for the amazingly star-studded The Expendables 3 in 2014. Powell’s connection with Stallone in particular came in handy when the Rambo star suggested that he “get back to what feels like you.”
How did Glen Powell get in with Rocky? Well, the actor actually wrote a letter to Stallone and the third Expendables movie director, Patrick Hughes, that ultimately helped him get booked for the incredibly stacked film that would be a huge stepping stone for his career. Years after he was part of the action-filled flick, he even nabbed another important role to him and his roots, Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some! by not shying away from being a Texan (the coming-of-age film is set in Texas).
Everybody Wants Some! was a box office bomb, but it allowed Powell to connect with fellow Texan Linklater and later write and star in Hit Man for him. Nowadays, he’s always getting fans thirsty with his movie star quality and even having people argue he’s preferred to friendly Canadian Ryan Gosling! We’ll be interested to see where his cowboy hat takes him next.