Glen Powell tries to thinks of us (the audience) first and that’s why we love him
It was Glen Powell summer this year and we all fell in love with the Twisters star. Now, he was named as one of Vanity Fair’s 2025 Hollywood Issue. Labeled as a “modern icon,” the actor did an interview with the outlet where he talked about the audience.
For many actors, they think of how a film can challenge them. It is all what they want to make. I don’t think that’s a bad way of looking at your career but it does mean that your audience may not like everything you do. That’s also fine. But the mentality of doing something for an audience vs. for an actor is a tricky thing to balance.
For Powell, he said that his process of picking the next project is less about himself and more about the audience who is going to see it. He said that he thinks less about it as an acting challenge and more about whether he can deliver on what an audience needs. “When it comes to that, the thing I’ve really tried to chase is a feeling, like, ‘I hope I have it in me,’ right? I’m trying to do ambitious things that scare me a little bit, because when they scare you, it means that you have to rise to the occasion.”
Glen Powell is audience first
Some actors don’t want to think about the audience reaction at all. That doesn’t seem to be what Powell ever wants to do. “I understand why some people would just play the greatest hits. But at the same time, you get into trouble when you’re trying to diversify for the sake of diversification, and you leave the audience out of it,” he said. “And that’s where I try to be really thoughtful. I try to think, ‘Audience first,’ rather than, ‘Me first.’”
That line of thinking is rare in cinema. Not that there is anything wrong with thinking “me first” when you’re spending years of your life making something. But if someone then doesn’t care about that project, you can’t really hold it against the audience. And Powell understands how a movie going audience wants to interact with a film.
“What does the audience want to see? How can I fit into a role that really challenges what I do, where I’m not settling into any sort of groove that feels too familiar or too monotonous? Do you know what I mean?”
“One for me, one for them”
A statement that people to lean into is this mentality of “one for me, one for them.” Powell talked about it and said that the turn of phrase isn’t really something that he thinks works for his filmography. I agree. While Powell always seems to be having fun with his work, nothing ever feels like he is doing one for “himself.” If anything, it is always honoring the story itself.
“There’s always been this phrase, ‘One for me, one for them.’ And I just completely disagree with that idea,” Powell said. “I think it can be all for them, and it can be all for you, and you just have to be really deliberate about what you’re a part of. You just have to find roles that are flavors that you’ve never explored, or just because a movie’s smaller doesn’t mean it has to be unappealing to an audience. I find that there’s this interesting creative drunk driving where you’re like, ‘Okay, I’m going to go do a small movie for me, a big movie for them.’ That’s not a plan.”
I hope that Glen Powell never loses this love he clearly has for Hollywood and movies. It is why I am so captivated by his filmography and why he is someone I want to see succeed. He’s in it for the movie-going audience and that’s perfection.
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