Glen Powell Loves His Life (and Work) and ‘Running Man’ (Interview)

Consider this juxtaposition: back in 2022, Glen Powell spoke to me about how he had to put his career ascent on hold with the various release delays of “Top Gun: Maverick” — at first, for production reasons; later, like all of us, for pandemic reasons. But, as we would all eventually discover, he knew that he had the goods as hotshot pilot Hangman, it was just a matter of people getting to see the film.

Smash cut to today, and there’s Powell sitting in front of a giant sign that reads “The Running Man.” He’s not The Running Man’s friend. He’s not trying to catch The Running Man. He is The Running Man. (Though, Powell says the smash cuts started long before “Top Gun”; to get a truer sense of his rise, we need to start with “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over”.) That’s not to mention that Powell is also the star and co-creator of Hulu’s new football-based comedy, “Chad Powers.”

So, yes, it’s a pretty exciting time to be Glen Powell. Which is maybe one reason he recently posted an Instagram photo of himself in a track suit with the caption “I love my life” underneath it. (We’ll get back to that.)

Now, of course, as Powell is clear, it’s not that easy. And anyone who has paid attention knows that Powell works his ass off. It’s just both so endearing and rare to see an actor know, deep down, he has what it takes to be a movie star, then actually become a movie star in a day and age where there aren’t really many movie stars anymore.

As opposed to the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Edgar Wright’s updated version is a pretty faithful adaptation of Richard Bachman’s (aka Stephen King) “The Running Man.” In it, Powell plays Ben Richards, a down-on-his-luck husband and father living in the far-flung future of 2025 (a nice little quirk from the original 1982 book) who agrees to participate in a game show, “The Running Man,” that no one has ever won. It’s run by a ruthless television executive (Josh Brolin), who doesn’t care very much that Ben is taking on the gig so that he can win enough to afford the medication he needs to save his sick daughter’s life. All he has to do is hide out for 30 days without getting killed by the masked military agents hunting him down. (Yes, if you haven’t noticed, some of the “futuristic” themes of “The Running Man” feel pretty real right now.)

When I spoke to Powell, he was in London, getting ready to fly to New York City for the film’s premiere and to host “Saturday Night Live” this coming week. It was a little on the early side where I was, but Powell wasn’t really having any of my excuses.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Glen Powell: Grab yourself a cup of coffee and wake up, man. We have an interview to do. What time do you usually wake up?

IndieWire: I guess a little before 10:00 a.m.

You wake up at 10 a.m.?!?! You’re going to live forever, man. I wish I had your sleep.

Well, I do have some caffeine right here in my new “Chad Powers” cooler that randomly showed up in the mail… (Gesturing to new “Chad Powers” cooler.)

(Laughs) Yeah, man…

And yes, I’m certainly going to live forever drinking Holiday Creamy Vanilla Coca-Cola Zero first thing in the morning. (Gesturing to new Holiday Creamy Vanilla Coca-Cola Zero in hand.)

I’m also a Vanilla Coke guy. I’m glad you kept the “Chad Powers” cooler.

They sent a hat, too.

You have to rep the Catfish. Don’t throw it away.

I’ll cherish it forever. I just assumed you designed this.

I had a strong hand in designing it. When Michael Waldron and I were first talking about it, the first scene I wrote in that pilot was the scene where Russ gets sprayed in the face with the dirt dauber spray. And I wrote the mascot as a catfish and Waldron was like, “Why are we going with a catfish? Because it’s Southern?” And I’m like, “No, catfish as in catfish-ed.” So it’s funny how this silly joke has become not just the designing of the uniform, but what the students are wearing and the history of the university. It’s been a wild ride.

Speaking of wild rides, the other day you posted a picture of yourself in a track suit at a party with the caption, “I love my life.”

(Laughs) Look …

Yeah?

Anyone who knows me knows that was my birthday party.

OK.

I was only in town for a couple of days. We’ve been sort of on the run here, literally and figuratively. But we got to throw this party, track suits and tequila. I threw this party years and years ago and people still talk about it. So I was like, alright, I’m going to bring it back. It’s the first time I’ve been in L.A. for my birthday in a really long time. It was a hit again! People love it.

It did look like a hit.

Wearing sneakers and track suits? The dance floor is always rocking. No one is uncomfortable.

Here’s my controversial take on “The Running Man.” I think “The Running Man” is dangerous and people shouldn’t do it.

Well, unfortunately, for every naysayer like you, there’s an evil producer out to prove you wrong.

Yes, I am a naysayer.

When there’s an audience, there’s a way. And I think that’s one of the cautionary tales that we talk about in this movie…

Cautionary? Almost everything in this movie is actually happening. It doesn’t even feel cautionary.

Stephen King wrote this book in the early 1970s, came out in 1982, it’s set in 2025. Even if we made this movie two years ago, it would feel too far into the future. But now in 2025, it’s here. Even when we were shooting this, even from a year ago to now, the deep fake technology, you could kind of see the seams of the magic trick. And now I’m seeing videos all the time and I have to look to the person next to me and ask, “Is this real?” That’s the world of “The Running Man.”

Talking to Stephen King after he saw the movie, he just lost his mind over it: “This is just a wall to wall, fun, adrenaline-filled action movie, but it’s also a movie of our time.” It causes you to reckon with a lot. Where we are and how we ended up here.

Lee Pace’s villain is a guy in a military uniform with a mask on, as normal citizens are trying to help your character. This is now stuff we see every day in the news. And I’m not trying to say it’s not a fun action movie, it is, but there’s also some disturbing stuff in here that’s become reality.

It’s what makes sci-fi one of my favorite genres. It allows you to separate yourself and just kind of be on the ride watching the movie. People are on the edge of their seat watching this movie, taking it all in because it’s relentless. And then I’m getting these calls a day or two later, “We are living in ‘The Running Man.’” And I’m like, yeah.

Arnold Schwarzenegger saw it.

Yeah, that was a week ago, but we finally got to show the world that Arnold loved it. We talked to Arnold before the movie started and we talked to him about our way into the story, which is much more loyal to the Stephen King book.

I’d say the first film doesn’t follow the book much at all outside of the concept. This film follows the book very closely.

That’s exactly right. And Arnold was a fan of the original Stephen King book. But for practical reasons, they had a director switch early on in production…

A lot of people don’t realize the first film was directed by Starsky from “Starsky & Hutch,” Paul Michael Glaser.

Yeah! It was actually going to be directed by the director who directed “The Fugitive.”

Andrew Davis, who also directed “Under Siege.”

Yeah, and Starsky directed the film! The interesting thing with Schwarzenegger is, you want to be careful— I haven’t had to do this really — but I can imagine it must feel odd when another actor is embodying a character you played. So I like to approach it as a human to human thing. I wanted to talk to Schwarzenegger to make sure he felt good about it and his blessing. But again, exactly what you’re talking about, the overlap narratively is very light. We get to follow what Stephen King actually intended in the first place.

Yeah, Jesse Ventura isn’t in this one.

No, there is more of an “American Gladiators” sort of swing. Which is just the nature of the studio and the attributes of the character are a little bit more like WWE. Ours is much more like SEAL Team 6.

And Ben Richards isn’t forced into it this time. He agrees to do it for money.

That’s what I also found to be interesting. I always loved the entry point to the Stephen King book. Edgar and I joke about it, it’s the most high-octane pharmacy run of all time. This is a guy who leaves his house to sign up for a game show to make enough money to get his daughter some medicine to save her life. And he winds up signing up for an unwinnable game show.

What I love are the simple stakes of just trying to show up for your family and how this story just kind of like gets bigger and bigger in scope. Which brings the eyes of the world to a guy who is just isolated to this apartment and just trying to take care of the people he loves closest to him and he ends up being a symbol for the word. You get to the end of the movie and you’re like, whoa, that was a ride.

I saw you mention you got advice from Tom Cruise about running at night. You refer to him as “TC.” I didn’t know that was a thing…

Oh, really? Everybody in his life calls him that.

OK, so if you know Tom Cruise, he’s “TC”?

He’s TC, yeah. I’ll call him Cruise, TC. But yeah, TC is how most people refer to him.

See, I can’t call him that, but you can because you know him.

I got to see him the other night. It’s so wild the journey he and I have kind of been on together. From starting the journey of “Top Gun” and riding that wave through COVID and figuring out what the theatrical landscape would look like on the other side of it. How he’s continually showed up for me in my life as a friend and a mentor — and really, just looking out for me.

It’s hard to fathom, movies stars don’t do that, right? They don’t send the elevator back down and take care of people, for the most part. He’s just a very rare type of person who really just wants everybody around him to win.

Speaking of “Top Gun,” it’s an interesting smash cut from how you were feeling about your career then, feeling you had something that was going to break through but keeps getting delayed, to right now seeing you sitting in front of a sign that says “The Running Man” and you are playing The Running Man.

Well, there are no assurances. That’s the other thing that I find to be really dangerous to forecast too far into the future. With this job, you just kind of take every moment in front of you. Now, you can dream, but the likelihood those dreams come true are very small. It’s kind of a hard business to navigate.

Even when “Top Gun” was being delayed, I knew the movie we had, but it still doesn’t guarantee audience reaction or what it will do for you personally. I think that’s what made that journey kind of wild is because you want to be really deliberate about the type of movies you do and the people you collaborate with. But, also, you’re running out of money. It is a weird jump cut to where we are now. But, again, nothing is guaranteed and I treat every movie like it’s my last.

I mean, that’s true you did know the movie you had. I ran into you on the street after the “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” premiere while we were both trying to get a car and I believe you told me “Top Gun” would “knock my socks off.” And now you’re The Running Man.

I always had confidence in the movie. But I have had enough experience, I’ve been doing this long enough, to know that I’ve seen other people run the same race that I’m running…

To be fair, I do know you work very hard.

Not to quote Chad Powers again, but to start dancing before you get in the endzone, what happens is you fumble it.

And it gets returned for a touchdown by the other team.

Just career-wise and life-wise, it’s fun to dream, but at the end of the day, I think my favorite part of this job is just kind of being present and not looking too far down the field. Kind of going, hey, to make this movie with Edgar Wright, one of my favorite filmmakers of all time? You sort of just bite it off one thing at a time. But for me, I think it’s a dangerous thing to get too far over your skis in any capacity. I also think that’s a way you’re never really living in the here and now with all of it. You’re not enjoying the movie you’re getting to make with the collaborators. You’re too far ahead. Does that make sense?

To quote Glen Powell, “You love your life.”

(Laughs) You know the best part about it? Right now, I’m going to see my family tomorrow in New York, we’re going to get to do the premiere. I have all my friends coming in town for the premiere and “SNL.” I have to say, the thing I’m really enjoying about showing this movie to even like guys like Robert Rodriguez. I talked to him yesterday and Robert loves this movie. He gave me my first gig…

Right, “Spy Kids”…

And the full circle nature of that? You talk about jump cuts. That is the ultimate jump cut. It’s the guy who got let on set for the first time in Austin Studios and never wanted to leave. They literally had to make me leave that set after I shot my one scene I just wanted to hang out and ask people questions … and here we are. It’s like, I can’t believe the guy who gave me my first gig is even commenting on a movie I get to be on with another great filmmaker. I do love my life! And I get to experience this with my family and my friends. It’s as good as it gets.

Next, you’re in J.J. Abrams’s “Ghostwriter,” and there’s not a lot known. How does it end?

How does that movie end?

J.J. Abrams loves people to know the full plot of his movies.

Nobody knows the premise of the movie! OK, that’s funny.

A Paramount Pictures release, “The Running Man” will be released in theaters on Friday, November 14.