The 2022 summer blockbuster has arrived with Top Gun: Maverick. Glen Powell is part of the ensemble cast bringing the Top Gun sequel to life. Glen’s role in Top Gun: Maverick is a major moment for the actor. The 33-year-old steals every single scene he’s in.
Glen is no stranger to Hollywood, but his performance as Hangman is going to propel the actor into a new dimension of his career. So, who is Glen Powell? From how he got his role in Top Gun: Maverick to his personal life, here’s everything you need to know.
1. Glen auditioned for another ‘Top Gun’ character.
Glen didn’t always have his eye on Hangman. The actor actually auditioned for the role of Rooster, which eventually went to Miles Teller. “I felt like I really delivered, and when I didn’t get it, I was absolutely heartbroken,” Glen told Men’s Health. “I got the news on July 3rd, and on July 4th, which is pretty much my favorite holiday—I’m a very patriotic dude from a very patriotic family—I was basically in the fetal position the entire day.”
But that changed when director Joseph Kosinski and Tom Cruise came to Glen with the role of Hangman, the cocky fighter pilot. Glen initially passed on the role, but Tom encouraged him to take the role and make it his own.
“I got to have some great conversations with Tom and Jerry [Bruckheimer] and Joe and Chris McQuarrie. Sort of the promise they made was, ‘Hey, you’re going to get to have agency over who this character is,'” Glen told IndieWire. “I remember Tom giving me some advice, or him kind of thinking out loud to a degree. He said, ‘Look, the first movie was a coming-of-age story. This is a man facing his age story. We want you to represent the original Top Gun. We need that sort of swagger. We need that fun, that unapologetic ego in this movie. We want this thing to play on the attributes that we think make you special. We want this to be whatever you want it to be.'” And with that, Glen was sold on Hangman.
2. Glen is from Texas.
Glen was born and raised in Austin, Texas. His parents are Glen Sr. and Cyndy Powell. He has two sisters, Lauren and Leslie. He went to the University of Texas at Austin before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time.
3. Glen rose to fame on ‘Scream Queens.’
Glen’s first onscreen role was in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. His first breakout role was playing Chad, Chanel’s boyfriend, in the FOX series Scream Queens. He went on to have roles in Hidden Figures, The Expendables 3, The Dark Knight Rises, Everybody Wants Some!!, and Set It Up before landing Top Gun: Maverick.
4. Glen is taken!
Glen is currently dating model Jehane-Marie “Gigi” Paris. They were first spotted together in early 2020 while on vacation in Mexico. They went Instagram official in 2021 on Valentine’s Day. Gigi has accompanied Glen on his Top Gun press tour.
5. Glen has his pilot’s license.
Glen and his co-stars had to learn how to fly F-18s in Top Gun: Maverick. Tom taught Glen and the younger cast members how to fly, starting with a single-engine Cessna. “Then I put them in an airplane where they could do some aerobatics. Then a jet where they could pull serious Gs and feel what it’s like with an ejector seat. The first day they’re in the F-18, they’re filming,” Tom told People.
Glen revealed in 2020 that Tom paid for him to get his pilot’s license while filming the sequel. “Tom bought me an iPad with my flight school downloaded and prepaid. And yesterday, after months of flying, studying, and testing…I’m the real deal,” Glen wrote on Instagram.