Glen Powell displays his many talents (and killer alter egos) in 'Hit Man'

Although Glen Powell has been in the industry for quite a while ("NCIS," "The Dark Knight Rises," "Hidden Figures"), he became more popular when he appeared as Lt. Jake "Hangman" Seresin in Tom Cruise's blockbuster movie "Top Gun: Maverick." In fact, Cruise liked him so much that he paid for Powell to attend flight school, so Powell is now a licensed pilot.

Now with his new romantic action comedy "Hit Man," Powell is showcasing his many talents (and killer alter egos) as he not only acts in the movie but also co-wrote the film with director-writer Richard Linklater and is co-producing as well.

The movie, which premiered at the 80th Venice Film Festival, is about Gary Johnson (Powell), a college professor and tech guy turned undercover mole, who falls in love with Maddy Masters (Adria Arjona), a woman he is trying to save.

Arjona, the lovely Puerto Rican actress, was also a pleasant revelation in the movie.

Below are excerpts from a Q&A held after an advance screening of the movie at the Netflix Tudum Theater where Powell and Arjona introduced the movie and Powell participated in the Q&A.

Glen, this is drawn from an article that I believe you sent to Richard Linklater, director and your co-writer on this movie. So, what about the article that made you think you wanted to play Gary Johnson?

The original article was in Texas Monthly, it was written by Skip Hollingsworth. It was about this guy Gary Johnson who was a fascinating figure. Everything you're seeing in the movie he worked, got pulled, got through tech, and then kind of filled in for somebody else, and instead of being a generic hit man, he embodied the fantasy of what a hit man was.

I was fascinated by that idea and all these different characters. He was an interesting character. So, when we were initially talking about who could be the right filmmaker for it, that was the leaping-off point. I remember I came to Rick and said, "I think there's a really interesting character here, and I think there's a really interesting story here." He goes, "I read that article when you were in seventh grade." He goes, "I don't know what to chase there. It's a really interesting guy, but I don't know where it goes." And I said, "There's this really interesting part of the article about this woman that he meets who is essentially trying to kill her husband because she feels like she's really in danger. And he let her off and they started this friendship. What if we chase that?" Because I assume he's still the hit man to her.

There's a lie built at the center of that story. So, I pitched this idea to Rick where I said, think of it like Tootsie, a man who is a misogynistic guy who puts on the clothes of a woman and then on the other side ends up becoming a three-dimensional human being with respect for the other gender. What if we have a guy who is good at emulating humanity, but not good at participating in it, but by putting on the skin of a guy who represents passion, which represents humanity, he becomes a better human on the other side." So that was the entry point and the approach to all of it. But then, based on that article, we were able to take creative license with all of it and bring in some "Double Indemnity," "Body Heat," and some of our favorite movies to spice it up a little bit.

You have a long history with Richard Linklater, and he is known for bringing past collaborators into the writing process with him. This is your first feature screenplay. How did that conversation start and how did you figure out what that partnership would look like together?

Just like with anything with Rick, it happens organically. Rick is one of those guys. He lives in Austin, Texas. He's so out of the epicenter of the business that nothing ever feels loaded or the business doesn't feel ever present in the room, ever. What made this process great is it happened early pandemic. Rick and I had a lot of great conversations about people who, during the early pandemic, were going through massive changes in their lives, especially with their identity. People felt stuck in who they were. They felt stuck in their houses, but more than anything, they felt stuck with their choices.

The number of decisions they made put them in an identity that maybe they didn't like. And what I think a lot of people saw in the pandemic was an opportunity to be whoever you wanted to be and whoever you wanted to be with. And I thought, what an interesting universal emotion to jump off of.

We started chasing that a little bit. And the more we talked about it, the more Gary Johnson became this fantasy of who we can all be. And it was a really special thing. So, we started talking about our favorite movies and pitched things that made each other laugh. There's like this really funny calendar that my family made for me of me taking phone calls to different places on our family trips, which is me with Rick on the phone. 'Cause you never know when Rick's gonna call. But I was like, when Rick calls, you pick up.

We'd be on a walk on the beach, or on the top of a mountain, or they'd be at the family dinner, and I'd be outside talking to Rick about this movie. But the best part about Rick is that he lets the story define. You let the story tell you where it wants to go and he never made me feel like I was the young guy, the young writer coming in inexperienced. It was always a collaboration from the get-go. So, we got to shape this thing. Both hemispheres of our brains work together for something special.

Glen Powell. Photo: Janet Susan Nepales

Well, this is such an infusion of so many genres. If you were to look at the amount of film references that we talked about while we were making this movie, none of them line up. None of them go in the same sandwich. What's interesting about someone like Rick is Rick's major gear and the litmus test that he talks about all the time on set is he's like, "Well, would that happen? I don't think that is how it would happen. That doesn't feel real to me."

The interesting part is that's the great grounding aspect of this entire thing. No matter what the genre, we always choose fact over fiction. We had the real New Orleans police department around telling us how things went. We talked to real people. We went through all of Gary Johnson's debriefs and I listened to so many recordings of Gary. So, all those things that matter, we got to take creative license where it was going to be entertaining for the audience and where it would be wonderful. Then we got to ground it in ways that make sure that that magic trick is pulled off in the way that you need it. Because you need to ground the story before you can take the fantasy and run with it.

How did you find writing for yourself as an actor? It's an incredibly charismatic performance but there's a lot you have to do in this movie and you're in the earlier stages than typical and figuring out what you're gonna do, how you're gonna do it. How did you work through that knowing your strengths and maybe wanting to push yourself a little bit?

This was an interesting one in the fact that it wasn't until, I'd probably say, two weeks out that I ever thought about myself in the role. I wrote it knowing I was gonna play it, but then all of a sudden, you're shifting gears from writer to actor, and then I was like, oh no, I wrote a part that I can't play. You feel like, oh, I hope I'm up to this. Because as an actor, you have to have this weird bulletproof belief in yourself because this town can be really hard and if you listen to all the people along the way that tell you the odds, I've had plenty of people tell me the odds out here and if you listen to those odds most likely is you're gonna pack up and go back to Texas. I am back in Texas now but for better reasons.

The thing that is interesting about this one is that I got to a point when we were developing this movie where we were writing so much up until the last minute that I didn't even get to show Richard Linklater any of those characters until I was on set, which was fun. At first, it was anxiety-inducing, but then it's fun. Then it became a great reveal. I'd step out of the cast van, and he would see these characters for the first time and these accents, and I'm fully in character. It was a great experience.

I was in a screenwriting class when I was 14, and we studied Richard Linklater. My creative writing professor was obsessed with him, and I was the only person in my creative writing class writing screenplays. And it was so interesting to be in Austin, Texas, and know that a guy was doing it, and he was doing it at the highest level. And I was looking at this Texan and being like, dang, this guy is one of the greats and he's in our midst, here in Texas.

It's been wild, this moment in my life is incredible for so many reasons. But mostly incredible because I get to pinch myself at moments like this when I did a movie with Richard Linklater when I was 14 and I was in awe of him. I got to have like a line in "Fast Food Nation." And you come all the way here, to this moment, where I get to make a movie I'm proud of, that sends people out of the theaters with a great feeling and puts a great message out in the world about who you are and what you can be. And I get to do it with my friend, Richard Linklater. It's incredible.

This is an independent film, it was made that way, and you're a producer on this movie. What did you learn about working in that space? Especially again given the unique challenges of a movie like this and executing it at the highest level.

The story was originally set in Houston, Texas. Gary Johnson operated out of Houston, Texas. Texas wouldn't give us tax incentives for it, ironically. I think we got a good film incentive program passed since, but it was really interesting how sometimes these pivot points when you're making a movie, are your greatest moments. Where, again, the story is telling you where it wants to go, and all of a sudden, you're thinking where this thing could be set and New Orleans kind of raised their hand. And the more I thought about it, the more I was like, New Orleans has this amazing city where it's romantic and it's dangerous and murder seems very possible, and every type of character is possible.

In terms of Gary Johnson, he's one man, but he has all these different facets of himself he's trying to explore. And the parishes of New Orleans felt like this wonderful identity crisis in one city. All of a sudden, it revealed this new layer. As a producer, what I'm starting to realize is sometimes you can't stress about some of these things, you have to let the story guide you a bit.

Adria Arjona. Photo: Janet Susan Nepales

Rick's process is so singular. We shot this movie called "Everybody Wants Some," and if you haven't seen it, it's great. It's one of those movies that I'm hoping more people see because it's the spiritual sequel to "Dazed and Confused," a movie that is one of the great Linklater pastimes. But it's where I found a great creative working relationship with Rick.

I learned in that movie how Rick brings the cast into a movie and bakes, really follows people's voices, and follows people's instincts. And when Adria came in, when Austin came in, Sanjay, Retta, Evan, he let people take ownership of the roles. And you end up having people that when you're given a seat at the table, instead of showing up and saying the lines, it's just so interesting what people bring when you empower people. And it's so interesting how Rick has such a defining point of view on things, but he's also a great listener. And it was incredible to watch.

You don't see sex scenes in movies very much anymore, probably for good reason. It's really hard to get right. And a lot of times they don't feel like they're part of the same story. It almost feels like sometimes the intimacy coordinator could be directing those scenes or it could be directed by someone else. It feels sometimes divorced from the story.

One thing that Rick and I talked about early on in the process was making sure that Adria had a seat at the table on every single part of this. An interesting exercise that we did was during those intimate scenes, we all had essentially a shared Pinterest where we would send things that we found to be exciting and enticing, and things like that, whether they were paintings or statues or poetry or anything like that. Nothing too lascivious, but what it ended up doing is you were able to have those conversations about the fantasy of how these two people engage in this stuff. And it was done in the most tasteful way that was more an emotional response, not a physical what are you doing, but how should it feel.

It was one of the most exciting things because Adria and I got to go into that understanding where we both were. That's just such a singular thing that only someone like Linklater would come up with and deliver. It made that scene crackle with the chemistry that you see.

It's especially interesting because I don't necessarily associate his movies generally with that level of sexiness. And so, the fact that he can come into this one and give you that is pretty amazing.

I think we may be the first Linklater sex scene.

We can do a movie marathon. We can check this out. Let's talk a little bit about the characters within Gary in this movie. You mentioned surprising Richard playing as you came out in these different disguises and things like that. Which of those felt most naturally to you? Which felt like the biggest departure? How did you find your way into all these different role-plays?

We had to cut a few pretty last-minute for budget and time, but yeah, a lot of those are directly from briefings and recordings I heard of Gary Johnson. Essentially, because hit men don't exist, you're pulling these things from pop culture and movies. You probably see "American Psycho," I took inspiration. That's how Gary did it.

He was building these things off of his imagination of what he thought that person wanted to see across the table. The most shocking one to Rick, where he was laughing so hard, he couldn't breathe, is when I came out as the redhead nightmare, whatever that character is. And we had a great time. The one that was really funny was that with Tanner, when I'm playing the guy who's the Bayou redneck.

I got out of the car and everybody's waiting to shoot and we're sitting around, they're bullshitting and everybody's like, where's Glenn? And I was literally right next to Rick. He's like, when is Glenn getting here? I'm like, I'm Glenn, dude, let's go. We both looked at each other, he didn't even recognize me in the outfit, which is great. But all those characters, for an actor this movie was so fun to shoot, and that this role is just a dream on so many levels, but getting to make one of your heroes smile and laugh and give you high fives at the end of scenes on those things, it was just awesome.

There are a lot of great set pieces in this movie. I do need to ask you about the cell phone, it is an unbelievable sequence. Talk about the choreography of it, the interplay between the two of you, how that came about, stuff like that?

Well, that was an interesting one because that scene was recrafted a couple of days before that scene. I kept reading through the script. I read through the script when I'm shooting something I continue reading through and try to just get the flow of things and I kept getting that scene knowing that the house of cards had to feel like it was falling down. The audience had to be on the edge of their seat, wondering how he was going to get out of this. And the scene was much more linear. There wasn't all the same van listening. We played with him writing things down on paper.

Rick always made fun of me. His whole thing over the course of the movie, he would say, "Is that how it happened?" And I would say, "Rick, I'm craving something else. There's something else here. I'm craving something else." And on that scene in particular, we were about to shoot it. I said, "I'm craving something else." And that's when we had this idea that the van was there, they were listening, there were other elements. So, we had to have a performance on top of a performance on top of a performance. So, watching those channels intersect and watching again backstage of this performance for the audience, that's where it was like this entire movie is really about role play and the love of role play and how sometimes your best qualities can come out in role play.

This is the moment where you see these two as a team, where fiction becomes fact. It's where they come together, and you solidify this new version of their romance and one that defines it. So, I think that's a really good indicator of how Rick and I worked as far as the process goes. We never gave up. Rick talked about our process as a Mexican knife fight, where I just thought Rick was like the hardest working guy in the world and he thought I was the hardest working guy in the world, but neither one of us said it out loud so we'd be working till one a.m. and I'm like, dude this guy just doesn't quit. I have to work tomorrow.

But I think that's what it takes is you never give up on the movie. You can continually be shaping it and continually make it better and to watch a guy like Richard Linklater, who's been doing it at such a high level, still be so thrilled and enchanted by the art of making movies and just the feeling that he gets being on set. It's so inspiring. I've gotten to work with some pretty amazing people. It's so nice when your heroes love movies and love making movies, even after all the success and the accolades and all that stuff. He's an inspiring guy to work with.

Is there anything else in the tone and the calibration of the movie that you guys figured out along the way? Because it is both precise and spontaneous and it maintains that throughout the whole runtime.

What is interesting about Rick is we do rehearse it; these things are rehearsed. And that scene, the cell phone scene is rehearsed. Adria and I knew that was going to be a tough one to pull off. It's a little bit of a ballet of sorts as an actor. You have to rehearse it. So, Adria, again, incredible work ethic, really came through on that. But what makes Rick's movies so interesting, and I think why so many filmmakers always ask me about his process, is that they feel so improv, they feel so effortless, but his process is so rehearsed.

You read the script every day with the whole cast. Every day, every day, every day. And then everybody brings their things in, whatever their ideas are and how they would say a line. And soon enough, it becomes exactly what I want to say and how I want to say it. Then you get on the day, and it's just play. You can find those little magical moments. It feels like you can leave room for those wonderful mistakes that make great performances but everybody's on the same page, everybody's dialed in, everybody's facing the same direction.

Well as everyone saw it's a great movie to see with a crowd. It's in theaters May 24th; it's going to be streaming on Netflix June 7th. When this movie premiered in Venice you were not able to be with the film, so I wanted to wrap by just asking how you've experienced people experiencing the movie these last few months. Have you gotten to travel with it a little bit and see it with people who love it?

This has been such a magical moment. It's really hard to describe. To watch people's reactions to it, we always had the audience at the center of this when we were talking about it. It's a hard thing when you're playing all these different characters and sometimes the audience is ahead of the area, sometimes they're behind. So, considering it, and especially when you're talking about a thriller, film noir, a bit of a screwball comedy, all these different genres, you never know where it lands.

To be watching it from a distance, watching it in Venice and Toronto, and hearing how much people love it. It was special. And I'm very grateful to our Netflix partners who came to the table in such a major way and supported this movie and are doing a great job on this campaign, showing it to folks like you. Because the best part about a movie is that you want people to see it. And getting to share this movie has been a great joy. So, we're trying to get as many people into this one as possible, so please tell all your friends as well.

Glen Powell and Adria Arjona. Photo: Janet Susan Nepales

This movie is based on a Texas Monthly article, but the linchpin to everything is a guy who's changed because of a woman, a guy who finds his humanity because she brings it out of him. And we needed to find a dynamic person who was going to cause a guy to completely sacrifice all logic to go to passion, to go to humanity. And when I met Adria, you met a person that you were willing to risk everything for. A person who is infused with humanity and loveliness and kindness, but you could also see pulling off some pretty wild things as you'll see in this movie. In addition to being an incredible actor, she's an amazing collaborator. If you know anything about Rick's process, he brings actors into the process to watch Adria's bring on this movie was truly exceptional and she's as much of a writer on this movie as Rick and I are.

Adria Arjona on working with Glenn Powell and Richard Linklater

I'm going to torture you (Powell) and do the same to you and say all the beautiful things that I mean this man is such a gentleman and he's such a brilliant creative and I'm so excited for all of you to experience this movie because it is so you. When I first watched the movie, I was so impressed by your ability as an actor I don't know if I'm a quarter of an actor that you are, it was so impressive. I didn't see any of the characters that Glen created during the process. He hid them from me, he only wanted me to see Ron, who was cool and helped our process. So, when I watched it, it was a big surprise. You're beyond talented, not only as a writer, but as an actor, and I'm so proud of you.

You get these little gifts of life to work with people that change you and I just love collaborating with you and I can't wait to see what you continue to do, and I hope we get to work together again.

Working with Rick was a dream. He's one of my personal favorite directors so when I first Zoomed with him, I've never been more starstruck than when I first Zoomed with Rick. He is the loveliest, egoless collaborator you can ever imagine. He is so open to ideas.

These two gentlemen gave me a seat at the table, and they asked me what I wanted to make of Madison. And that's not normal. People don't usually do that. So, they gave me a great gift and I think you can see it. It's very much a collaboration. Madison is very much you (Powell), Rick, and me, just brainstorming ideas.

—MGP, GMA Integrated News