Based on what a lot of actors say, it seems the hardest part of the job has to be the audition process. Most actors have to compete for major roles and then wait to hear back, with most who try out ultimately being rejected. It has to be quite a tough experience, but Glen Powell once had to go through what might be an even worse experience, waiting for Stephen King's approval after he thought he had a role.
Both the star of the forthcoming adaptation of The Running Man, Glen Powell, and the film’s writer and director Edgar Wright appeared at New York Comic Con, and (via People) Powell revealed that he had to wait for Stephen King’s approval of his casting. It seems it all came down to how King viewed one of Powell’s recent performances. The actor said…
Edgar offered me this movie, and I was like, ‘Yes.’ I’m like, ‘Let’s go…’ And then, like, later that night [Edgar says], ‘By the way, like, you have to be approved by Stephen King. He’s gonna watch Hit Man tonight.' And so I had to wait overnight for Stephen King to watch Hit Man and hope that I still had the role in the morning. It’s terrible.
It’s not uncommon for successful authors to get some degree of approval when their work is adapted to film. Stephen King is one of the most famous authors to ever live, and King has famously been frustrated by adaptations of his own work in the past. It seems that to allow for a new adaptation of The Running Man, King wanted to approve the lead actor.
Luckily Richard Linklater’s Hit Man was a pretty well-regarded film, and Powell’s performance was called out by many critics as a highlight. If nothing else it shows that Powell is capable of leading a major motion picture.
But even before King gave the green light to Powell’s casting, he also had script approval. Edgar Wright says it was just as nerve-racking to submit the script of the film and wait for the author’s ok. As he put it:
Stephen King read the screenplay before we started filming, and you know, Stephen King, he's like the most famous English teacher in history… I was like, ‘This is so nerve-wracking to have to hand in our homework to [him].’ But he loved the screenplay, and so it was great.
Getting approval as an actor from Stephen King would be stressful enough, as King is a clear cinephile who loves movies and watches a lot of them. But as a writer, I can’t imagine handing my writing over to King to get an opinion. I would probably have a coronary while waiting for a response.
Stephen King gave his approval for both the actor and script, and he has since seen The Running Man and also given a strong endorsement of the finished product. The Running man hits theaters next month.
