Glen Powell, star of “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Anyone but You,” recently spoke in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter about why he has decided to, now that he has finally made it in Hollywood, leave the Tinseltown “fishbowl” and move back to his home state of Texas. He added that, though he is ditching Hollywood the town, he plans on continuing to make movies.
According to Powell in the Hollywood Reporter interview, he spent more than a decade and a half in Hollywood, where he worked hard to build a career before finally hitting it big with his leading role in “Top Gun: Maverick” and making it in the notoriously difficult industry. Now, after finally landing that success and showing he can do other roles with his leading role in a romantic comedy with “Anyone But You,” he has decided he can leave.
He said that, now that he is 35 years old, he is ready for a change and feels he can safely leave without torpedoing his career. He said that the benefit of “getting to this point in Hollywood is that I can now leave Hollywood.” Powell added, “It’s like I’ve earned the ability to go back to my family.” Now that he’s headed back, he plans on finishing a college degree while continuing to work in the industry.
Further, speaking about the “fishbowl feeling” of Hollywood, Powell said that what makes him uncomfortable is “This idea that you’re a function here. Someone will go, ‘Hey, friend, want to come to this guy’s house? Yeah, come over.’ And then you show up, and suddenly you’re there for, like, someone’s tequila launch and all of a sudden there’s a photographer and you’re like, ‘Wait, what are we doing here?’ And I think you get enough of those that you just want to bring your family as close as possible — or run to them.”
Further, Powell added that leaving Hollywood for Austin was the advice of a fellow Texan, Matthew McConaughey. Powell, describing that conversation he had with McConaughey, said, “He’s like, ‘Hollywood is the Matrix, man. You plug in and it’s all fake world.’”
Continuing, Powell further described the conversation with McConaughey, saying, “He’s like, ‘Then I go to Austin, and I unplug. It’s all real. Those are my friends, that’s my family, my actions matter there.’ And he’s right. If you’re here, you live in the Matrix all the time, there’s no separation of those worlds. And for me, especially as my parents get older and my niece and nephew are growing up, I want a separation of those worlds.”
Powell also spoke about the acting scene and his mentor and role-model Tom Cruise, saying, “First of all, there will never be another Tom Cruise.” He added, “That is a singular career in a singular moment, but also movie stars of the ’80s, ’90s, early 2000s, those will never be re-created.” Giving an example, he said, “Oh, I’ve heard the stories from the guys on Expendables 3. It was these giants — Antonio Banderas, Harrison Ford, Schwarzenegger — and they were all like, ‘Man, you are doing this in the wrong moment.’ Like, ‘This is not the time.’”
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Speaking about why he plans on finishing his college degree now that he is moving back to Austin, Powell said, “I think it’s really important to my mom and it’s more of an emotional thing for me. Plus, I’m so close, I can taste it.”
Featured image credit: By Bill Ingalls – https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/30753710173/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54210824