Glen Powell is one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood, although he doesn’t live there. It’s a status he has recently achieved after years of working hard to reach this point. While his own work should certainly be applauded for that, there are other people who he gives some of the credit for his success, specifically, and surprisingly, Chris Pratt.
Glan Powell looks like the textbook definition of a Hollywood movie star and a leading man, so it’s perhaps a bit of a shock that it took this long to make a name for himself. Speaking with GQ, Powell himself says that his own success came as part of a shift in Hollywood’s thinking, which is best exemplified by the success Chris Pratt saw after being cast in Guardians of the Galaxy. Powell said…
I remember when Chris Pratt broke out in Guardians of the Galaxy. There’s no doubt it really helped—not being brooding or dark. Like, I’m not Christian Bale. Christian Bale has a gravitas and a weight, and Pattinson had his thing. And when Pratt kind of appeared on the scene where he was doing things that were a little more silly and buoyant, that’s where I feel most at home. And that’s where I feel like I had a gear that is a necessary flavor in terms of Hollywood, and not a gear that a lot of guys can play.
Actors are capable of a wide range of performances, but they certainly have areas where they are most comfortable and most capable. Powell seems to feel that prior to Guardians of the Galaxy, studios were looking for more serious actors, performances with, as Powell says, “gravitas.” It’s not a word one would use to describe Chris Pratt's Guardians of the Galaxy performance.
Glen Powell is certainly right to a degree. Following Guardians, Chris Pratt himself saw his career explode, with additional franchise roles in the Jurassic World movies, playing a similar character, and even voicing similar characters in The LEGO Movie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Not bad for a guy who wasn't supposed to audition for Guardians of the Galaxy in the first place.
For those films that couldn’t get Pratt himself, but wanted performances like that, there were those, like Glen Powell, available to fill the void. Interestingly, there are those who now feel Glen Powell is being forced on us as a movie star, a charge that previously had been laid on Chris Pratt.
Whatever the reason that Glan Powell finally came into his own, there are a lot of movie fans who are surely glad he did. Powell’s next film will be Edgar Wright’s take on Stephen King’s The Running Man, which looks to be a far cry from the Arnold Schwarzenegger-led original version of the film. He's also set to star in the sports comedy Chad Powers on Hulu. Those are just the sort of projects and roles that likely would have been handled in a very different way a few years ago, that might have left Glen Powell out of contention.
