Glen Powell Is the King of the Rom-Com
Bringing back the Matthew McConaughey-Level Male Leads to Rom-Coms
For the girls who get it, just the name Glen Powell should cause a physical reaction. Not just for the Top Gun beach scene — or the Anyone But You shower scene — but because he’s the face of a new era: the great return of the mid-budget rom-com.
We thought the genre was dead and buried. For a while, it was. We had to subsist on the crumbs of endless rewatches and Netflix Wattpad adaptions. And each teen romance franchise was worse than the last. We went from watching the tolerable To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before adaptation of Jenny Han’s famous series to barely watchable renditions of literal Wattpad books like The Kissing Booth and My Life With the Walter Boys.
To make it worse, the change was so abrupt. Many people point to the summer of 2011 when both No Strings Attached (starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman) and Friends with Benefits (starring Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake) came out within months of each other. If you’re struggling to remember the difference between them, it’s because there isn’t one. Two identical movies going head-to-head with each other? The rom-com bubble burst — curse you, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis.
Prior to that, there had been a reliable summer romance movie in theaters each year. It was the date night flick. Old faithful. Studios knew their female demographic and their partners would drive the box office. But then, suddenly, it vanished. Marvel summer blockbusters took over until no one was going to the movies at all. Streamers won. And they certainly were not giving in to the romance department.
But it's 2024 and we’re so back.
2023 was the year of the girl, with Barbie making studios remember that unabashedly femme features can make a chunk of change — globally. Then, the frenzy of Shondaland’s Bridgerton series hit and breathed life into the romance genre. The final piece of the puzzle? The sleeper hit Anyone But You, a romance that became a solid cinematic hit, starring Sydney Sweeney and . . . you guessed it, Glen Powell.
As the male lead in the most profitable Shakespeare adaptation of all time — yes, Anyone But You was an adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing that knocked10 Things I Hate About You out of the top spot — Powell sure has some heat on him. And he’s using his undeniable charm, leading-man looks, and charisma to good use by bringing back the rom-com.
What’s Glen Powell in?
Glen Powell’s filmography is surprisingly long and filled with hits. Although he’s been gaining a steady amount of attention over the past few years, he’s been putting in the work consistently for about a decade.
Personally, I started seeing him everywhere in 2016. His blonde hair and good looks cast him as a generic frat boy in film after film after film. In 2016, he pretty much played this role in Everybody Wants Some!! This underrated Richard Linklater college feature where he starred alongside future co-star Zoey Deutch, but not as her love interest. But his turn as a 1980s crafty baseball player pales in comparison to the hyper-inflated, campy frat boy, Chad, that he played alongside Nick Jonas in the misunderstood Scream Queens. Fans of the cult classic will remember.
His real 2016 breakout was in Hidden Figures. More importantly for his career, the Hidden Figures premiere was also where he was photographed grinning so gleefully it became a meme. And when you’re a meme, you know you’ve made it.
2018 was also a terrific year for Powell. Fans of the romance genre and the period drama might have caught the quiet Netflix film, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. But many more will remember his true Netflix breakout — Set It Up.
Without a doubt, Set It Up was one of the greatest rom-coms attempting to revive the dying genre in the late 2010s. Here, he met Zoey Deutch again and they starred as overworked assistants for Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs. In an attempt to get more free time to pursue their own dating lives, they engineer a Cyrano plot. They manipulate their boss's calendars, get them to date, and reap the benefits. It’s the perfect combination of wacky schemes, chemistry, and real heart. And it’s what solidified Powell as a romantic interest. But could he carry a big-budget movie?
2023 was his year to confirm that he could. After finally proving himself as a mainstream heartthrob in Top Gun: Maverick, he starred as the leading man in two films in 2023: Anyone But You and Hit Man. Due to delays, Hit Man is finally coming out this summer. But, in the meantime, Anyone But You has become Gen Z canon.
In the Sydney Sweeney enemies-to-lovers hit, Powell carries the film’s acting with his blend of physical comedy and emotional vulnerability. I hate feeling sorry for blond men — but somehow he makes me root for him.
That’s why he made Hollywood Reporter’s list of rising stars. The Young Hollywood A-List Top 10 as this generation’s “The Megawatt Smile.” It’s a nod to his charm, but also his earnestness and likability. He can do it all. And the fact that he chooses to keep doing rom-coms is a testament to the fact that he plays on his strengths.
What makes Glen Powell truly great?
Like the male heroes of the rom-com genre before him, Glen Powell isn’t ashamed of being a romantic lead.
Kate Hudson — star of the iconic How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days — said on The View in early 2024, “it's hard to get male movie stars to make rom-coms … that's a big part of the equation … is to have that event. If we can get more Marvel guys like … hey, come to do a rom-com!
The good actors think they’re too good for ‘silly’ roles like complex male characters. Meanwhile, they’re waiting for the phone to ring from Marvel so they can run around in tights for two hours … make it make sense.”
Even actors who started on romantic television shows refuse to even acknowledge their start. Jacob Elordi wants to be known for Euphoria and Priscilla but talks down his breakout role in The Kissing Booth. Rege-Jean Page couldn’t wait to get out of Bridgerton — but where is he now while Kingsley Ben-Adir has the career Page thought he would have? On the other hand, Charles Melton says nothing but good things about the hellscape that was Riverdale and is closer to an Oscar than either of the other two.
Back in the day, incredible actors like Chris Pine, Matthew McConaughey, and Heath Ledger played romantic leads with no shame. I mean, DiCaprio is famous for Romeo + Juliet, Gatsby, and Titanic. If he can do those roles and still be taken seriously, so can anyone else. These giants elevated the genre, paving the path for the few daring souls who venture to do romantic films these days. Like Glen Powell.
Glen Powell was made to be a romantic comedy heartthrob not just because of his looks, but because he takes the genre seriously. His roles are funny, but imbued with a non-pretentious depth — a hard balance to strike.
He’s also a good sport about the type of press required to promote a romantic film. The Cilian Murphy method of press tour promotion is to visibly hate being there — which works when you’re playing Oppenheimer. But when you want your audiences to fall in love with you, not so much.
“So often actors look at marketing or publicity as, like, ‘Oh God, now I have to go market the movie? I just wanted to make it,'” Powell said to Hollywood Reporter. “And then you look at a Margot Robbie or Ryan Reynolds, these actors who embrace marketing in unexpected ways, and what ends up happening is the audience has a blast while they’re publicizing a movie and then they’re desperate to see it.”
This is precisely the quality that convinces me that he has what it takes to “make it in this town” — as it were. And the greats agree. JJ Abrams told Hollywood Reporter: “I think Glen has just begun to scratch the surface of what he is capable of onscreen. Simply put, he’s a terrific actor — but it’s his humility, humanity and sense of humor and willingness to show vulnerability and laugh at himself that makes me certain he is going to do some pretty incredible work in the years ahead.”
What Is Hit Man about?
Powell’s latest turn in Hit Man shows his versatility and the potency of the genre. First of all, he co-wrote and co-produced it with Richard Linklater. So, he’s not only a pretty face, he’s just as dynamic and surprising behind the camera.
Hit Man has all the elements of what makes Glen Powell great: It’s fast, it’s never what you expect, and it has a surprising well of heart and depth.
Based on a true story, the movie follows a professor who puts his surprising acting skills to use by pretending to be a hitman to stop murders before they happen. The real Gary Johnson moonlighted as a fake hit-man for the Houston PD. Johnson told his unbelievable story about his work in a 2001 piece in Texas Monthly. And while his work is the foundation of this story, a small anecdote he tells at the end is where Linklater and Powell set their sights.
In Johnson’s story, he describes an instance where a woman came to him looking for a hit man to kill her abusive husband. Rather than turning her in, Johnson helped her find resources at a women’s shelter so she could leave the man.
But of course, this wouldn’t be an action-packed romance without taking some liberties. In the film version, Johnson falls in love with this woman and what ensues is a thrilling saga of identity with a whole lotta heart.
Hit Man is just the start of Powell’s writing and production career. He also has Twisters alongside Daisy Edgar Jones in the pipeline and an A24 film Huntington in production. You’ll be seeing that meme-worthy face everywhere — and you’re going to love it.
Watch the Hit Man Trailer now.
Hit Man is available to stream on Netflix starting June 7.
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