‘He is not a killer but he can pretend’

That is the logline of Hit Man, in which Glen Powell plays the eponymous protagonist. What Powell doesn’t have to pretend to be is Hollywood’s newest ‘Hot Man’ (cheesiness fully intended) and perhaps its most well-rounded heartthrob in recent times.

In Hit Man, Powell not only effortlessly essays the central role of a college teacher whose side hustle is posing as a fake hitman, working on behalf of the New Orleans police squad to nab potential criminals, he also teams up with director Richard Linklater to pen the screenplay of this dark comedy which also works very effectively as a rom-com. With Hit Man, Linklater — the man behind the Before Sunrise films and Boyhood and much more in between — who mostly delves into themes related to suburban culture and the passage of time, explores something different, and aided by a scene-stealing Powell, they run with it.

What works for Hit Man, which has emerged as a significant hit for Netflix globally, is undoubtedly Powell’s charm and his sizzling chemistry with co-star Adria Arjona, but also how he cheekily embraces the genre. In pretending to be a hitman, Powell’s Gary Johnson tries on a wide variety of disguises, flexing everything from Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman in American Psycho to John Travolta’s Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction to Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men. In one disguise, he even channels Tilda Swinton. When he isn’t slapping on prosthetics, he scores a win as the smooth-talking ‘killer-on-hire’ Ron as well as the ‘dorky-turned-hot’ teacher Gary.

A poster of the Netflix hit Hit Man with Adria Arjona and Glen Powell sporting his different avatars in the Richard Linklater for which he has also penned the screenplay

Cocktail of charm & charisma

As an actor (and, of course, as a looker) Powell has shown the ability to slip into the kind of roles that have charm and charisma as a prerequisite. He also fits easily in the bracket of the classic bad boy, his turn as fighter pilot Jake Seresin aka ‘Hangman’ in Top Gun: Maverick, illustrating that completely.

Powell, 35, may have started acting at 15, with notable credits on screens both big (he is a Linklater favourite and has also worked with the likes of Denzel Washington, who he counts as a mentor) and small (remember Scream Queens?) but it was this character in the Tom Cruise biggie — in which he meshed a combination of sardonic wit and beguiling charm — that brought him into the kind of spotlight he finds himself in at the moment.

For the 2022 film, that served as a sequel to the iconic 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, Powell had initially auditioned for the more significant part of Rooster that eventually went to Miles Teller. Powell wasn’t too happy about signing up for ‘Hangman’ but a call from Cruise, who assured him greater control over his character, brought him on board.

Maverick, for which Cruise ensured that Glen obtained a pilot’s license (Powell is now close enough to Cruise to be in the actor’s coveted ‘Coconut Cake Club’, namely Cruise’s close circle of friends to which he sends a special cake from a designated California bakery every year), was not only the summer blockbuster of the year but also the first Hollywood film to earn more than a billion dollars after the pandemic pause all but virtually shut down movie theatres.

With mentor-friend and his Top Gun: Maverick co-star on the Cannes red carpet

Among the many brilliant scenes in the high-octane film, that moment in the climax when Hangman comes to the rescue of Maverick and Rooster in the sky with the smooth words: “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, this is your saviour speaking. Please fasten your seat belts, return the tray tables to their locked and upright positions and prepare for landing,” ranks high.

After that came Anyone But You. Shot in Australia, the film gave Powell more than enough opportunity to show off both his ripped abs and rugged charm, establishing him as the kind of swoony leading man who makes even an average romantic comedy worth at least a watch (or two).

Shaken ’n’ stirred

With his big-budget film Twisters — a semi-reboot of the 1996 film Twister, considered seminal in the disaster movie genre — set for a July release, this is increasingly being hailed as ‘the summer of Glen Powell’. According to latest reports, the actor has six more significant projects in the pipeline.

What works for Powell is that he has both the acting chops and the rakish attractiveness to pull off a variety of roles. Put him in a tuxedo and given that sarcastic wit that he has often put on display, the man does have the ability to be the next James Bond and leave everyone shaken ’n’ stirred. His soft-boy ruggedness easily reminds one of a young Clint Eastwood, making him a shoo-in for the lead in a Western (that he hails from Texas is a plus).

His brooding romantic hero persona makes him eligible to play anything from a Mills & Boon protagonist to the Byronic hero embodied by Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton have played the tortured antihero in screen adaptations of Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel).

Brad Pitt (not so) lite

If he plays his cards right, Powell, as is being increasingly suggested in the media, could be the next Brad Pitt. We aren’t just saying it, Richard Linklater is too. “You look at Brad Pitt: ‘Oh, I want to hang out with him,’” the School of Rock director has said recently. “They attract you, you’ll follow them somewhere. You want to be wherever, whatever they’re doing. Some personalities have that quality, most don’t… Glen does.”

Screen presence apart, what makes Powell a bona fide heartthrob and legitimate boyfriend material? The man loves dogs, has his family accompanying him to all his movie premieres (where his dad and mom often hold up placards to “embarrass” him) and is single, having broken up with model Gigi Paris in April.

Few can rock a tuxedo as well as Powell. James Bond, anyone?

Powell also has a good head on his shoulders, something that is hard to come by in the business that he is in. For one, he doesn’t want to be the next big star, he only wants to do films that keep his creative instincts alive and also bring in big box-office returns. “There’s no certainties in this town. And for me, I hope there’s no end game. I hope I’ve not made it because I just want to keep doing this job for as long as I’m alive. That’s my plan,” he said in a recent interview.

Something tells us this man is in it for the long run. And he is only getting started.