Glen Powell says ‘Hit Man’ is ‘a Vitamix of all these different genres, and sometimes those things go really wrong’

Daniel Montgomery
·3 min read
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When actor Glen Powell learned about the real-life Gary Johnson, who inspired the Netflix film “Hit Man,” he thought, “This is a really compelling character. There’s a lot to unpack here.” And when considering who might direct it, “There’s nobody better [than Richard Linklater] with character or story and somebody who can add authenticity. When you look at a guy that’s as complicated as Gary Johnson, I think there’s very few filmmakers that can ground somebody who contains so many multitudes.” Powell talked with actress Rachel Brosnahan about the film during a Q&A following a special April 17 screening of the film in New York City. The film will be released in theaters on May 24, followed by its Netflix premiere on June 7.

Powell co-wrote and produced the film in addition to starring as Johnson, a mild-mannered college philosophy professor and tech consultant for the police department who is suddenly thrust into undercover sting operations, posing as a contract killer to catch would-be murderers. Powell looked at this as the story of “a guy who had always talked about humanity, but never participated in humanity.” However, when he meets and falls for a woman (Adria Arjona) while undercover, he stays in character to keep seeing her. “By being stuck in this identity of a man who represented passion and represented all these things that are very human, that are flawed and dangerous,” he ends up accessing his own messy humanity.

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Wearing different hats in front of and behind the camera for this film, Powell realized “the kind of actor I want to be, which is holistic. I don’t like to be segmented to one thing. I like to participate. I like to build … and not just feel like I’m a talking prop within the greater whole.” That was especially challenging on a film like “Hit Man,” for which the filmmakers had to walk a “tonal tightrope.” The film “is a Vitamix of all these different genres that we’re playing with, and I feel like sometimes those things go really wrong, but it takes a filmmaker like Richard Linklater, who has played in every sandbox, he’s played in every genre. And that’s really where you just feel secure.”

A lot hinged on his co-star as well. “When we found Adria, I mean, it was like the heavens opened,” Powell remembered. “You had to believe that he would sacrifice all of it for the attention of this one woman.” Additionally, “You have to root for her, and you have to believe in her humanity and the fact that she’s truly torn in these places, and Adria just adds humanity to this role that could go wrong in so many other places. And she was also so integral to the writing process, so I give Adria a lot of credit for what I think really makes this movie tick in that way.”

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