Glen Powell is cementing himself as a rising star, taking a particular shine to action roles in films such as Top Gun: Maverick, Hit Man, Twisters, and most recently, the reboot of The Running Man.
But his fascination with the genre seems to be gently guided and moulded by the experienced hand of none other than Tom Cruise.
The biggest action star of our time, it seems that without intervention by Cruise, 63, we would not have seen Powell, 37, rise to the heights he has so far.
Powell revealed in an interview with People that if it wasn’t for Cruise, he wouldn’t have even taken a role in his 2022 project Top Gun: Maverick.
Powell had originally auditioned for Miles Teller’s role, ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw, the son of ill-fated pilot ‘Goose’ Bradshaw from the 1986 film.
When he didn’t get that role and was offered another, he found that he didn’t connect with the character and declined it.
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“And then Tom [Cruise] invited me to come sit down with him,” he continues.
“And we sat down for a couple hours and talked about his life and his career and how he chooses movies, and how he develops roles and those sort of things.
“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. I could make it my own and make something that could be really special.
“And I have to give Tom credit, a lot of times people just try to get you on the hook to get you in a movie and none of the promises are fulfilled. But he fulfilled every single one of those promises. And I’m really proud of the movie and I’m proud of my role in it.”
Since the film, which was Powell’s breakout role, the pair have been seen together at numerous events and premieres.
Cruise popped by the premiere of his mentee’s disaster movie Twisters, at Cinemacon 2025, and of course, they both posed proudly at the premiere of their shared project.
The bond continues even now, with Powell sharing that Cruise had given him some life-saving advice for his latest film.
Powell has said his first phone call after being offered the role in The Running Man had been to Cruise, who spent two hours sharing his advice for leading an action movie.
The Anyone But You star was asked by Hollywood Reporter whether the Hollywood icon had any more words of wisdom.
“He was asking me questions about what the movie was like and what it looked like and how it spanned,” Powell recalled.
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After Powell confirmed most of the scenes were filmed at night, Cruise told him, “‘That’s going to be a problem. Your body is extremely tired at night. People get hurt more often when shooting at five in the morning [because] you’re rushing to make it before sunrise.’
“So most of the advice I got was really just about how not to die on this movie.”
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Powell said he feels grateful to have a mentor in the Jerry Maguire star.
“The reality is there’s probably only one person on the planet that can give this type of advice, and it’s him. So the fact that he’s one call away and he’s always willing to pick up, it’s unbelievable.”
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