Glen Powell opened up about the trajectory of his acting career in a new interview, revealing that he decided to move out of Hollywood and back to his home state: Texas. The 35-year-old actor explained what led him to leave the glamor of Los Angeles while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in an interview that was published on Wednesday, May 22.
While crediting fellow Texas native Matthew McConaughey with advice, Glen told the outlet, “He’s like, ‘Hollywood is the Matrix, man. You plug in and it’s all fake world.’ He’s like, ‘Then I go to Austin, and I unplug. It’s all real. Those are my friends, that’s my family, my actions matter there.’ And he’s right. If you’re here, you live in the Matrix all the time, there’s no separation of those worlds. And for me, especially as my parents get older and my niece and nephew are growing up, I want a separation of those worlds.”
Glen struggled when he started out as an actor. After moving to L.A., the Scream Queens alum didn’t land back-to-back roles until later in his career. He moved from place to place in L.A. in the early days, and he hit a low point when he wasn’t selected for new gigs.
“I just remember walking back to that garage after, thinking, ‘This is where you’re going to live for the rest of your life, you loser,’” Glen recalled. “I had to really look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘I know you love movies, and I think you’ve got good instincts, but you may not be an actor.’”
Nevertheless, Glen kept auditioning and collaborating with as many artists as possible, writing his own scripts and steadily landing more roles over time. After getting cast in Top Gun: Maverick followed by Anyone But You, Glen quickly reached movie star status.
“That’s the funniest part about this moment,” he explained to the publication. “I’ve worked really hard for a long time, putting things together and just trying to get them in shape enough for people to give a s**t.”
Now that he can be more selective with his film roles, Glen dropped a bombshell: he turned down starring in the upcoming Jurassic World film.
“Jurassic is one of my favorite movies. It’s one of the things I’ve wanted to do my whole life,” he said, before explaining his reason for declining the role. “I’m not doing that movie because I read the script, and I immediately was like, my presence in this movie doesn’t help . And the script’s great. The movie’s going to f**king kill. It’s not about that. It’s about choosing where you’re going to make an audience happy and where you’re going to make yourself happy.”