Glen Powell soared into stardom and our hearts as the cocky pilot Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick. So, what better mentor to have than the star of Top Gun? Powell sat down with Entertainment Weekly and talked about doing his own stunts in the film, as Tom Cruise advised him on taking on the action role. “My first call was to Tom,” he says. “Tom Cruise is obviously one of the great actors of all time, but maybe the greatest stunt performer ever. And so, I just said, ‘Hey, what do I need to know?'” While Powell expected a five-minute conversation, he was instead given a two-hour session of sage wisdom from the Mission: Impossible star. Powell explained, “I have a breakdown of how he goes into every movie and the prep that you need to do. He’s, like, ‘Hey, if it’s called The Running Man, you better show up ready to run.'”
The star of the new Edgar Wright film said he begged his director to show him clearly while he did his own stunts,
There were times where Edgar would be shooting something, and I’m getting rocked. Like, I’m getting thrown over, like off of roofs, and over walls, and taking real punches to the gut. I’m like, ‘Edgar, that looks like you’re shooting it like there’s a double. If I’m gonna be taking a shot to the face, please, please let them know it’s me, that I’m putting my body on the line to entertain them.'”sponsored content
Powell continued, “That’s the kind of entertainers I like, people that don’t compromise on that, that they want to do it right. You leave with a couple bruises, you leave with some scars, but at the end of the day, that’s what this job’s about. You don’t want to half-ass it.”
Wright is directing The Running Man from a script he co-wrote with Michael Bacall and is producing the film with Nira Park and Simon Kinberg. Powell is joined in the cast by Katy O’Brian (who had a breakthrough role in Love Lies Bleeding and shared the screen with Powell in Twisters) as a contestant; Daniel Ezra, who played the character Spencer James on 106 episodes of the CW series All American; Josh Brolin (Outer Range), playing a TV executive who is the main villain; Lee Pace (Halt and Catch Fire) as a ruthless hunter; Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) as a “naïve rebel who tries to help the desperate man”; Emilia Jones (CODA) as a “privileged woman blind to the oppression of the government“; David Zayas (Dexter) as a character named Richard Manuel; Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead) as the host of The Running Man, a violent reality show promising an outrageous cash prize; 6-foot-8-inch actor and former MMA fighter Chi Lewis-Parry (28 Years Later) as a runner; and Jayme Lawson (Sinners) and William H. Macy of Fargo and Boogie Nights in unspecified roles.
The Running Man hits theaters on November 14.
