Glen Powell is used to getting in shape for roles, but The Running Man took “physically demanding” to an entirely new level — and the actor’s body often paid the price.
“The physical toll of the stunts, I don’t know if I fully anticipated what that was going to be,” Powell, 37, exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the film’s Friday, November 14, release. “The reality is, [director] Edgar [Wright] and I looked at each other before the movie started and we just said, ‘No shortcuts. Get it right.’ And Edgar really gave every bit of himself to make sure this movie was told correctly. And I definitely told him, ‘If you hire me, there’s nobody who is going to work harder.’ We really pushed each other to the limit on this one for sure.”
A remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 film of the same name, the dystopian action-adventure follows Powell’s Ben Richards as he joins a game show in which contestants, allowed to go anywhere in the world, are pursued by “hunters” trying to kill them. Powell told Us that he knew taking on the role “was going to be tough” from the minute he finished reading the script as there’s not “one moment” Ben is on screen that isn’t “life or death.”
“He’s fully charged up the whole time and around every corner could be anyone trying to kill him,” Powell explained. “It’s like the most deadly game of hide and seek ever. So your adrenaline’s gonna be up the whole time.”
Powell is certainly no stranger to being a leading man: he brought rom-coms back to the big screen opposite Sydney Sweeney with 2023’s box office blockbuster Anyone But You, before returning to the big screen as tornado-chasing and wet t-shirt wearing Tyler in 2024’s Twisters. That same year, he earned major critical acclaim for cowriting and starring in dark romantic comedy Hit Man.
Still, Powell knew he needed to turn to a trusted confidant when it came to the pressure and expectations for a film as physically demanding as Running Man. That’s why Top Gun: Maverick costar Tom Cruise was his first call.
“I hit up Tom as soon as I got the role. You know, he is the running man. There’s probably no one more synonymous with the running man than Tom,” Powell said of mentor, who has become known for his death-defying stunt work on films like Top Gun and the Mission: Impossible franchise.
Powell noted that while he expected the Oscar winner to share a “small nugget of wisdom” with him, the pair ended up spending “two and a half hours” on the phone together talking things through.
“He just walked me through all the things he’s learned over his entire career, you know, of putting his life on the line to entertain audiences,” Powell shared. “I don’t think everybody appreciates what he does in terms of how far he’s willing to go.”
Powell said that he was “very grateful” for Cruise’s words of wisdom, calling the A-lister — who Powell himself has been compared to in recent years — “one of those rare types of stars” who genuinely nurtures the people around him.
“I don’t know if there’s anyone like him, that sends the elevator back down and just makes sure that you’re taken care of,” Powell confessed. “And to survive a movie like this, I couldn’t have done it without him.”
Powell is the first to admit that he didn’t fully “understand” what leading a massive action franchise entailed, but stepping into Ben Richards’ shoes helped him find a “newfound appreciation” for people like Cruise, 63, and Schwarzenegger, 78, who also gave advice — and friendly warning — of what to expect while filming.
“He’s like, ‘No one realizes it, action movies are brutal, they’re not fun,’” Powell recalled the Terminator star telling him. “He goes, ‘They’re fun to watch. They’re not fun to shoot.’”
And, while Powell emphasized that he and Wright had a “good time” shooting the movie, the actor went home every night in rough shape. “I was licking my wounds, and I was icing my body down at the end of every day,” he told Us. “There was not one easy day on set.”
The Running Man hits theaters on Friday, November 14.
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