What made the Glen Powell lookalike contest so special was those behind it

Our beloved lookalike contests are taking over. Actors are all getting praised city to city (typically in their home towns) and it is great. The best of them was the Glen Powell contest, judged by Powell’s own mother and aunt.

It ended up being my favorite of the contests because not only does a man like Glen Powell seemingly love bits like this but everyone stepped up to make it genuinely fun to watch. And it helped that the winner ended up with a year supply of Torchy’s Tacos queso and a cameo in a Glen Powell movie!

The lovely team who organized the event wanted to share their admiration for the hometown hero and I reached out to organizer Kate Carpenter both prior to the event and after to talk about it all. Carpenter organized the event with Henry Long, Emma Swarts, Lucca Sgro, and Julia Kubiak. “The most shocking part of the day was, for one, the fact that we didn’t get shut down.” Carpenter is referring to the fact that some of these contests have, in fact, gotten shut down by police. Famously the Timothée Chalamet contest was so out of hand it had to move locations.

“We had been preparing doomsday preparations because our permitting process was not smooth at all and the city of Austin made it pretty difficult to feel comfortable and confident in the space that we had it,” Carpenter said. “And so even though we had put up all these stronghold protections to make sure we’d be able to host it, we were really concerned we’d get shut down. But we didn’t and that was incredible and shocking, especially to me and Henry, my boyfriend, who planned it and was in charge of ‘security’.”

What a line-up of judges!

The original prize for the Chalamet contest was $50. My favorite part of the original pitch for the Glen Powell contest was that it said “some money” as a prize. The event, decidedly, had much cooler prizes day of. I asked Carpenter about the surprising Glen Powell video and his family’s involvement in it and how all of the extra prizes came to be.

“We had gotten a call from a family friend of the Powell’s before the event so we weren’t completely shocked that Mrs. Powell was there but we didn’t know that his aunt was going to be there, so that was exciting to have two people,” Carpenter said. ” And they were there very early. So before the event had even kicked off, before one Glen had even signed up, we were like ‘Oh no. I don’t want her to think this was a failure or a flop. We want her to think this is going to be exciting.’ But we expected her to come but we weren’t for sure, so the moment I saw her, I recognized that smile anywhere.”

Carpenter went on to talk about how excited they were to have the Powell family there to help pick the best Glen of the competition.”We were so happy and esctatic to have the Powell family on board because who is better to judge who looks the most like Glen Powell than the Powell family themselves?”

Okay but who did she think should win?

I love that a Top Gun: Maverick Glen Powell won. As a huge Jake “Hangman” Seresin girl, I think that it rules that he stuck with the vibe and even had his flight suit very unzipped. The winner, Max Braunstein, was a “deserved” win according to Carpenter but she had another favorite as well.

“Personally, I think that number 9 got robbed as a finalist,” she said. “He looked just like him. He was wearing a blue shirt, he was so kind, and he just effortlessly looked like Glen Powell. Number 9 was robbed, put it on the record.” And honestly, isn’t that the reality of these contests? Sometimes, the real winners don’t even make the final round!

When I asked Carpenter if there was anything else she wanted to share about the day, she responded by saying she was just thankful for the team who helped make this possible. “I think something I really want to share is how thankful I am to have a team of friends who are so excited and willing to do incredible things like this. This was not completely out of the ordinary for us but the biggest thing we’ve done together yet,” she said.

“And it was so fun to have all my people celebrating something we all care about: Cinema, Glen Powell, and the Austin community. And to be supported by such great and giving people who will just do something on the fly.”

When it comes to Torchy’s donating queso? Carpenter said that they are “very smart” and I have to agree. This was the best marketing tool of all time.

An event rooted in genuine appreciation

What I love about this take on the lookalike contest is that it was rooted in the love and appreciation that Austin has for Powell. You can see it by how many people showed up for the event! There really is no one who loves being from Austin more than Glen Powell but seeing how much that city also loves him is very sweet.

He is one of my favorite celebrities because he does feel like a genuinely great guy and seeing people celebrate him like this in his hometown is amazing. And I hope that Braunstein’s family enjoys their cameo in Powell’s next film and I hope that all the Glens remember this day and the amazing work that Carpenter, Long, Swarts, Sgro, and Kubiak all put into it.