Being a film star is awesome

Glen Powell thinks being a movie star is “awesome”.

The 36-year-old actor began dreaming of stardom as a child, but he admits that success in the film business hasn’t come easily.

Glen told the new issue of America’s GQ magazine: “If you’re in Hollywood, I always find it to be very disingenuous when people are driving across town to the Valley in the heat of summer, memorising two lines, practising them a thousand times and then acting like they don’t care.

“The amount of work that it takes, I always find that people that downplay it, which – it’s fine to downplay it, but I’ve never been a guy that can play it cool. I’ll tell you exactly how I’m feeling with all of it. I don’t know any other way to do it.”

Glen has enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent years, becoming one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood. And the film star admits that he’s relished his recent successes.

He shared: “This is cool. I have wanted to do this since I was a kid, and it’s awesome.”

Glen is well-known for his chiseled physique, and he feels that definitions of manhood in Hollywood are changing.

He explained: “When you look at actors of yesteryear, if they’re hitting at 36, they look like Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums.

“Speaking of masculinity, I feel like that is one of those things, the health and wellness thing, that used to not feel like guys’ owning that space as much. And I do feel like the tide is gonna turn on that, where it’s a space that I’ve been really interested in for a while, but I feel like it’s also now becoming a little bit more in vogue.

“When I go back to Los Angeles, when I socialise and bring guys together, instead of just going, ‘Hey, let’s all go grab a drink,’ a lot of times I’ll just bring ’em all to a sauna and I’ll just load all my buddies in a sauna. And everybody appreciates it. Go sauna and cold plunge together.”

Earlier this year, Glen heaped praise on Tom Cruise, describing his former co-star as a “great mentor”.

The actor starred alongside Tom in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, the 2022 action movie, and Glen admits that his showbiz pal has played an important role in his recent success.

Glen told Extra: “He’s the best kind of friend you could ask for, just a real cheerleader and just a real great mentor and friend, and he loves when other people are winning, especially when he knows what it takes to make that kind of movie.

“He’s done it – a lot, and he knows the work ethic and diligence and sacrifice it takes to do it.”