Glen Powell in 'Hit Man'
(Netflix)

Why Is Glen Powell Scaring Everyone With a Cannibal Urban Legend?!

No one quite knows why he is doing it, but Glen Powell is terrifying everyone. In interviews, he’s been continually telling the story of his sister’s “friend” and a dating app situation, but the reality is that Powell is spreading an urban legend and we are all freaking out.

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Powell has been doing the interview circuit for his new film Hit Man, and when he was on Jake Shane’s Therapuss Podcast, he shared a story about a date his sister’s friend (supposedly) went on that had me questioning whether or not I will ever use dating apps.

The story goes like this: A woman goes on a date with someone from a dating app, and it goes well enough that she goes back to his home. There, he tries to give her a massage, and she gives him a few moments before she gets a weird vibe and decides to leave. Later, she goes to the emergency room because her skin feels strange, and they discover that the lotion used on her was to break down enzymes to prepare her skin for human consumption. The police then supposedly find women’s corpses at this man’s home.

An absolutely horrifying thing to hear, right?! And Powell said it in such a real and charming way that I fully believed him at first, as did the rest of the internet.

Powell’s story is, however, an urban legend. The video (which went viral this weekend) stems from a legend that has been debunked in the past, which tells a story of a girl who had welts on her skin from a guy. Snopes debunked it, and that version typically has the girl in question sleeping with a necrophiliac, but it is the same general idea: girl sleeps with a guy or goes to his house, feels off and goes to the hospital, hospital calls the police, and a bizarre crime is uncovered.

If you do a bit of Googling, you’ll find other variations of the cannibal version that all share the same main outline. For those who did believe Powell’s story, it was kind of obvious that if this did happen, we probably would have heard about it. (I say as someone who … fully believed it to be a true story at first.)

It’s making people even bigger fans of Powell

Here is the thing: This is pretty funny. Powell sharing this story and pretending like it is real is so hilarious (now that I know I’m not going to die). He didn’t need to joke around like this; he could have easily told the “truth” about himself, but instead, he sold an urban legend as the truth and the internet clung to every world.

It does make me excited for all of the stories that Powell can share moving forward in his career. Like are we going to hear him talking about the legend of a woman who appeared in the mirror to him after he said her name in a locked bathroom?

At least I can breathe a sigh of relief. I don’t have to add “maybe being eaten by cannibals” to my list of things I am afraid about when it comes to dating. Still, what in the world convinced Glen Powell to pretend like this was real?! I’m obsessed!


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Rachel Leishman
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.