Glen Powell's Transformation From Child Star To Hollywood Heartthrob

It's fair to say the Hollywood career of Glen Powell has been somewhat of a slow build. After all, it's been over two decades since he made his big-screen debut, back when he was all of 13-years-old.

Since then, film and television viewers have watched him grow up in front of their eyes, effortlessly making what can often be a fraught transition from child star to adult actor. For Powell, that journey has seen his cache in Hollywood grow as he's graduated from supporting roles to leading ones, from TV roles and small films to some big-budget blockbusters. Along the way, Powell has earned the opportunity to share the screen with a wide array of talent, from Hollywood legends (including the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Kevin Costner, and Denzel Washington) to rising stars (Zoey Deutch, Sydney Sweeney, and "Normal People" star Daisy Edgar-Jones, to name three). 

Yet he's only recently emerged as one of Hollywood's hottest stars, an A-lister who can carry a movie and fill theater seats. It's been a heck of a ride, and it's only just begun. To find out more, read on to experience Glen Powell's transformation from child star to Hollywood heartthrob.

Glen Powell was born in 1988 and raised in Austin, Texas, the middle of three children. Among his many interests as a kid were sports. "Growing up, I was an athlete (football and lacrosse) and just acted for fun," Powell recalled in an interview with Nylon.

He had another passion, however: making his own little movies on a VHS camera. That particular passion ignited when he became fascinated by the filmmaking process after watching "Jurassic Park," enlisting his friends to appear in his homemade epics. Not surprisingly, the young Powell desired to someday enter the entertainment industry. As the future star told Austin Monthly, he wasn't certain initially whether that would mean a role behind the camera or onscreen. "I just knew that I wanted to be in the business."

His parents, Glen Sr. and Cyndy Powell, encouraged his artistic pursuits by enrolling him in acting classes at Austin Musical Theater. By the time he was 11, he'd demonstrated enough acting ability to land a role in the theater's 2000 production of "The Music Man," cast as the understudy for one of the leading roles. He credits the theater's casting director, Donise L. Hardy, for recognizing his raw talent and encouraging him to keep at it. "She really celebrated actors," Powell recalled. "She made me want to show people what I had."

By age 13, Glen Powell was already a musical theater veteran when he auditioned for a small role in "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over," which was shooting in Austin. He got the part and made his screen debut as Long-fingered Boy, who appears in one brief scene with star Daryl Sabara.

Looking back at that experience during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Powell recalled how that transformative adventure intensified his interest in filmmaking. For the young actor and aspiring movie director, stepping onto a bona fide movie set for the first time was like being transported to another world, and he felt right at home. "I will never forget that moment," he said. "I was 13, I think. And I shot my part, and then I hung out behind the camera." His curiosity overtook him, and he spoke with whoever he could, asking questions of the camera operators and the stunt performers. "The entire crew had the most interesting jobs on the planet," he said, recalling the friendliness he encountered on the set.

More than two decades later, the experience has continued to resonate with him. "I think the 'Spy Kids' experience was really one of the best days of my whole life," Powell gushed.

"Spy Kids" wasn't Glen Powell's first audition. Before that, he told The Hollywood Reporter, he'd auditioned to join the cast of "Moolah Beach," a short-lived reality show that was essentially "Survivor" for kids. "They asked me, 'Do you have any special talents?' and I froze," he recalled. "I didn't have any special talents, so I just said, 'I can do voices.'" Spoiler alert: that disastrous addition did not land him on "Moolah Beach." 

The teenager's reality show dreams finally came true when he was cast in a similar show, "Endurance," in which youngsters from all over America competed in various challenges of strength and skill. "I wanted to be on the show really bad, and I got kicked off during the first episode," he said during an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," which also featured an "Endurance" clip of young Powell tanking a challenge by losing his grip and falling into the ocean.

The ramifications of that TV appearance hit Powell like the proverbial ton of bricks when he returned to school after his classmates witnessed his televised humiliation. Being smaller than his classmates and the object of mockery was not a pleasant experience. "It's the most embarrassing thing that can happen to a freshman in high school," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Glenn Powell's next big film experience came when he landed a role as a member of the Harvard debate team in "The Great Debaters." At the time, he was a high school senior, planning to study economics in college. "You need a backup plan," he told Austin360. "If the acting thing doesn't work, I may go into entertainment finance."

Years later, Powell revealed how influential the film's star and director, Oscar-winner Denzel Washington, was on him. It was Washington, in fact, who advised Powell to stop playing it safe and roll the dice on an acting career, encouraging him to move to Los Angeles and really put himself out there. "Denzel Washington really pushed me out of the nest a bit and said, 'You should double-down on yourself. You should give this a shot,'" Powell recalled while interviewed for "Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist," via Today. Since achieving his own degree of fame, Powell has since encountered Washington — who's happy to take full credit for his succes. "He's like, 'You owe me,'" Powell added with a laugh.

He followed Washington's advice and headed to L.A. Before long, he was landing guest spots in such television shows as "CSI: Miami," "NSIS," and "Without a Trace," along with some film roles, including a bit part in "The Dark Knight Rises." Thanks to Washington, Powell's Hollywood career had officially begun.

During the late 2000s, Glen Powell was an actor on the rise, making his mark in L.A. Then, tragedy struck when his agent, Ed Limato — who also repped Denzel Washington — died. "After Ed passed away in 2010, I floated around town for a couple years fighting for work," Powell recalled in a 2014 interview with Nylon. 

Meanwhile, Powell had become hellbent on becoming part of Sylvester Stallone's "Expendables" franchise and pulled out all the stops to land the role of the group's resident hacker, Thorn. "As a fan of Sylvester Stallone, the franchise, and action movies in general, I wanted this role more than anything," he said, while also understanding that numerous hungry young actors felt similarly. 

In an attempt to gain an edge, he wrote Stallone a letter, explaining why nobody but him would be better as Thorn. "I told him that in Texas I grew up with a gun range in the basement, learned to fight from my uncles who lived and breathed mixed martial arts, and spent much of my childhood finding new and creative ways to cheat death." Claiming that he'd essentially spent his life in preparation for the role, Powell eventually got the part. It wasn't until later that he learned that his letter had more impact than he'd realized. "[Stallone] told me recently that my letter sealed the deal," Powell added. 

The attention that Glen Powell garnered for his role in "The Expendables 3" led to more memorable parts, including playing astronaut John Glenn in "Hidden Figures," and a recurring TV role in the Fox horror-comedy "Scream Queens." 

It was the 2018 Netflix rom-com "Set It Up," however, that proved to be a game-changer for Powell's career. Co-starring with Zoey Deutch, the two played harried assistants to awful bosses, who set their respective bosses up with each other in hopes they'll ease up on them in the workplace. The movie marked the first time that Powell was the leading man in a movie — in fact, he told The Hollywood Reporter, it took some major convincing before the producers — who wanted to cast "High School Musical" alum Zac Efron — would even let him screen test. 

As a review in The Guardian observed, Powell hit it out of the park. "His delivery borrows something from Matthew McConaughey and something from Jack Nicholson, every word out of his mouth sharper than it needs to be, and every physical act an explosion," wrote film critic Jake Greenberg. The film proved to be a surprise hit; suddenly, people who wouldn't return his calls a few weeks earlier were calling him.

After the success of "Set It Up," Hollywood opened up for Glen Powell as bigger and better opportunities beckoned. One of these was arguably one of the most eagerly anticipated sequels in movie history, "Top Gun: Maverick." As The Hollywood Reporter noted, he was originally up for the role that ultimately went to Miles Teller before being cast as another character, fighter pilot Hangman.

Powell's first instinct after reading the script was to pass upon realizing his character contributed little to the film. "If I were editing this movie, I would cut him out immediately," Powell told British GQ. Surprisingly, rather than tell him to take a hike, star Tom Cruise instead invited Powell to share his concerns. Cruise, Powell said, didn't brush him off, but instead listened intently.

As Powell told People, sitting down with Cruise for what turned out to be some extensive discussions was what led him to take the part. "And it was really a series of those conversations that convinced me that this could be a role that could actually be exciting, that I could have a little bit of creative license." Ultimately, Hangman was rewritten based on Powell's input.

Not only did starring in "Top Gun: Maverick" boost Glen Powell's stock in Hollywood, it also provided him with a whole new skillset — and something to fall back on if that whole acting thing didn't pan out. As he revealed in a 2020 Instagram post, he earned his pilot's license while working on the film. "After wrapping a shooting day, Tom [Cruise] would rocket off into the sunset in his P-51 while I would limply shuffle into the cast van." As Powell observed, "The wings were just so much cooler than the wheels..."

Clearly sensing Powell's envy of his flight skills, Cruise gave Powell a special gift in celebration of Christmas when he paid for him to attend flight school. Powell put in the work, and it paid off. "And yesterday, after months of flying, studying, and testing ... I'm the real deal," he wrote in the caption of a video in which his flight instructor literally rips the shirt off his back after the successful completion of his first solo flight. As Powell clarified, shirt-ripping is simply a tradition — signifying that one's instructor is now off the student's back — not something that took place on a regular basis. 

Glen Powell returned to the rom-com genre with "Anyone But You," co-starring with breakout "Euphoria" star Sydney Sweeney. In spring 2023, the actors made a joint appearance to hype the film at CinemaCon, a Las Vegas-based convention for cinema-owners. During their presentation, their flirty behavior led to reports that the two had become an item while shooting the film in Australia. Later that year, they appeared together on NBC's "Today," where Hoda Kotb tried to get them to confirm they were in a romance. Powell denied it then muddied the waters a bit by professing his love for Sweeney.

It wasn't until the following year, after the film had premiered that Powell revealed the truth: the whole thing had been orchestrated by Sweeney in order to drum up interest in the flick. "The two things that you have to sell a rom-com are fun and chemistry," Powell told The New York Times, admitting that he and his co-star had that kind of chemistry in spades. "That's people wanting what's on the screen off the screen, and sometimes you just have to lean into it a bit — and it worked wonderfully. Sydney is very smart."

As Powell pointed out, the plan proved to be a rousing success; "Anyone But You" exceeded expectations by raking in more than $220 million at the box office.

A big reason those rumors that Glen Powell was having a fling with Sydney Sweeney grew so prevalent was that both actors were in relationships with other people. In Powell's case, he'd been dating model Gigi Paris since 2020. They went public with their romance in 2021 and appeared together on numerous red carpets.

After three years of dating, however, they parted ways. As an "insider" told People, she was allegedly dissatisfied by how frequently they were apart due to his burgeoning career. "Gigi and Glen had broken up several times," the source claimed. "They had been on the rocks since 'Top Gun' came out. Gigi was never happy with the long-distance filming ..." 

According to the source, infidelity had nothing to do with the split, which was the result of the physical distance between the two when they were working. "She's on different coasts modeling, he's on different coasts filming," the insider explained.

Glen Powell had worked with director Richard Linklater in 2016's "Everybody Wants Some!!" and they reunited for a subsequent collaboration. The result was the 2024 film "Hit Man," a comedy in which Powell portrayed a guy who passes himself off as an assassin for hire. Not only did Powell act in the film, he also co-wrote the screenplay, along with Linklater and Skip Hollandsworth, co-editor of Texas Monthly and writer of the true story upon which "Hit Man" is based. 

While "Hit Man" is officially Powell's first screenwriting credit, by no means is it his first foray into writing. As he revealed in an interview with Collider, he'd written other screenplays in the past — just nothing that had ever been produced. When Powell read Hollingsworth's article about psychology professor/make-believe hitman Gary Johnson, he knew there was a story there that he wanted to tell — and felt he could write. "And, immediately, it was so clear there was such a compelling character there," Powell told Script.

Powell pointed out there are many talented screenwriters who'd yet to have one of their scripts made into a movie, but it wasn't reflective of the quality of the writing. "But Hollywood is not a meritocracy and just because you write something compelling and great there's a thousand other people that have to say yes to get that movie to the screen," he said.

In the summer of 2024, Glen Powell took his next step toward Hollywood superstardom when he headlined the summertime blockbuster "Twisters." A sequel to the 1996 hit "Twister," the film features Powell in the role of Tyler Owens, whose daredevil storm-chasing has made him a social media sensation — imagine YouTube superstar MrBeast, but with tornados.

The film generated an impressive $220 million but garnered mixed reviews. Powell's performance, however, was widely praised, even in the negative critiques; IndieWire, for example, described him as "churning pure charisma out of thin air," while The New York Times declared, "Powell often looks like he's having a blast, but in 'Twisters' it sometimes feels as though he's in an entirely different movie than everyone else." 

The magnitude of headlining a big-budget popcorn movie was not lost on Powell. Recalling how he and his cousins were blown away by the original "Twister" — one of his cinematic favorites when he was a kid — he marveled at having the chance to star in the sequel. "I'm really getting a shot to return to worlds that I've always wanted to occupy," he told IndieWire. "I got to do it on 'Top Gun!' I'm getting to do it in 'Twisters!'" The way Powell viewed it, the success of any big Hollywood production is a shot in the arm for the whole industry. "I think the whole business wins when a movie like this wins," he said.