Everything had been building to this – Glen Powell felt it keenly. With The Running Man, after years of industry speculation, he could finally prove that he could be Hollywood’s next great action star.
But to be the best, you have to first learn from the best. So, before he could run, Powell had to learn – from Tom Cruise – how not to flinch.
Before filming Edgar Wright’s faithful reimagining of Stephen King's novel, which had been loosely adapted for a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger back in 1987, Powell called his Top Gun: Maverick co-star for advice.
What he got wasn’t a few tips. It was, as he puts it, “literally a masterclass”.
“I should probably write it out so people can see it,” Powell says, laughing. “The funniest thing is, I thought it was going to be a short answer for: ‘What do I need to know about starring in an action movie? What should I prep for?’”
Instead, Powell says: "Cruise legitimately gave me everything. He’s probably one of the only people on the planet who could give me that advice. He’s been doing it at the highest level – and the most dangerous level – for a long time."
That conversation changed the way Powell saw the job. “He said: 'You’ve got to make yourself bulletproof. You’re going to go through it. It’s going to be painful, in a good way. Just because you’re faking a punch doesn’t mean a punch isn’t going to land. Just because you’re falling off something doesn’t mean, when you hit the ground, it’s not going to hurt.'”
Powell took that as gospel. “I wanted to do my own stunts. I wanted audiences to know I was out there, that I was the guy in front of this thing,” he says. “Tom’s wisdom really applied to that. It’s about protecting yourself, but also selling it. Pain is temporary. You’ve got to put yourself on the line.”
He grins. “He was very right. I definitely didn’t escape without some cuts and bruises. But the movie delivers in that way.”
For Powell, it’s not just about pain tolerance; it’s about everything that got him here. He knows the man he was a few years ago couldn’t have made this movie. “Every single movie for me has been film school,” he says. “And Edgar Wright's is one of the film schools I’ve always wanted to attend.”
There’s a quiet pride in how he describes Wright’s method. “There’s such intention in the frame – the lenses, how the camera moves, how things flow through camera,” he says. “Even the edit – if something comes from one side of the frame, he wants it to continue in the next shot. He understands how the eye works, and what makes it dynamic for audiences around the world.”
It’s the kind of detail, Powell says, he wouldn’t have understood earlier in his career. “I don’t know if I could have made this movie five years ago,” he admits. “Now, after everything I’ve learnt, I can really talk things out with Edgar, and understand what works on screen and what doesn’t.”
He pauses before adding: “You spend years figuring out who you are, and how you work, and then suddenly you find yourself surrounded by the people who bring out the best in you. That’s where I am right now.”
His growth has come with bruises – literal and otherwise. Powell’s career has been a steady climb, from supporting turns in Top Gun: Maverick, to romantic-comedy charm in Anyone But You, to the brash bad boy of Twisters, to finally stepping into the lead of an Edgar Wright blockbuster. Each one has tested something different – his confidence, his instincts, his patience.
“This is a hyper-specific moment in my life,” he says. “I’ve got the brain trust around me to pull this off. It’s a painful, precise, exciting experience – and it’s exactly where I want to be.”
Pain may be temporary, as Cruise told him. But growth, for Powell, is cumulative. Each lesson builds on the last. Each role leaves a scar that hardens into skill. And now, standing at the front of The Running Man, he’s bulletproof enough to enjoy it.
Wright’s film brings a new edge to the story – less cartoonish than the Schwarzenegger version, more grounded and visceral. It’s a dystopian chase through a collapsing media landscape, filmed with Wright’s trademark precision and Powell’s full physical commitment.
For the actor, it’s not just another step up the ladder; it’s the film he’s been working towards since the start. The one that demands everything Powell has learnt – and the one that finally shows who he’s become.
