Exclusive: Glen Powell Discuses New Film ‘Hit Man’
Netflix has a brand new romantic comedy coming our way, and it features someone who is no stranger to the genre. Starring Glen Powell, who also co-wrote the film, Hit Man finds Powell starring as Gary Johnson, a college professor who also moonlights as a pretend hit man for the police.
We got the chance to hear from Powell regarding his new film! During the chat, Powell talked bringing the story to life, the movie’s director, Richard Linklater, working with Adria Arjona, and so much more. Check out what he had to say below.
On what drew him to want to adapt the Texas Monthly article, “Hit Man” by Skip Hollingsworth: “It was early on in the pandemic and I stumbled upon this article in Texas Monthly called “Hit Man” by Skip Hollingsworth. Immediately, it was so clear there was such a compelling character there. If you look at the real life Gary Johnson, he was a psychology professor who actually moonlighted with the police department, did AV equipment, was a ornithologist, Zen Buddhist. It was such an incredible character piece, but I didn’t really know where it went. All I knew is that there was a fascinating guy here, and they called him a Laurence Olivier fake hitman because he approached the job differently. Instead of just becoming the hitman for hire across from someone who is trying to kill their husband or their wife or their business partner, he embodied their fantasy of what a fake hitman is because hitmen don’t exist. He took this skillset to a whole new level and started putting on these disguises and all these different things. And it was just a fascinating idea.”
On how he and director, Richard Linklater, expanded from the article: “There was this paragraph about this woman that the real life Gary Johnson sat down with. And instead of sending her to jail like he did with everybody else, he didn’t believe that she was sort of capable of this thing. He sort of believed in the best of her and talked her out of it. It was the first time that ever happened. And there was sort of a relationship that developed from that. Rick and I were like, “what’if we pull
at that thread?’ We have so many questions about what that relationship is and how they re-engaged with each other. So we started kind of pulling at that thread, and really that was a big breaking point because that was the thing when we started thinking about if he got stuck in this identity as this fake hitman, you sort of have this amazing character math where you have a guy who’s teaching humanity, but not experiencing humanity. Getting stuck in the mask in the body of someone who embodies all the dangerous, exciting elements of what humanity is, this sort of rollercoaster ride, and ends up finding that he can be a more three dimensional fun version on the other side of it.”
On how his costar, Adria Arjona, was integral to the writing of the film: “When we first started talking about Madison, we were sort of honoring and trying to subvert expectations on a lot of these things. But that character in particular is really a landmine for most actresses there. You could really play that straight and narrow and very expected. And when Adria came in, Rick and I kind of just looked at each other and we were like, ‘Wow, she’s really smart.’ She really brought so much nuance and mystery to this. So much humanity and authenticity to every single moment where I feel like this could have been, for a lesser actress, a very paint by number sort of thing. And this movie really cooks and cooks in a very unexpectedly vibrant way because Adria really, really came in with a lot of very cool ideas.”
On how working on his previous film, Everybody Wants Some, prepared him for this film: “When we were shooting Everybody Wants Some, I think it was so interesting because I really believe that that Hit Man is a very interesting, the two sort of hemispheres of our brain kind of coming together in a really effortless way. I feel like this process has been the easiest process. It hasn’t been like sort of development, pre-production to production, post-production. It’s been this like wonderful flow where nothing ever feels overthought.”
On working again with Linklater: “The wonderful thing about writing with Rick is its conversations become wonderful pages and our friendship and work blend together in this kind of effortless way. It’s kind of what I think makes him= magical as a filmmaker. He’s never attacking a story. He sort of lets the story reveal itself. And when he casts people, he really allows them to come into the process. And there’s sort of this wonderful room for life that he gives everything. And I think it makes that ecosystem very different and very fruitful.”
On the writing process for the text improve scene in the film: “The interesting part about when Rick and I were writing that scene, we knew that we had to put Gary in an impossible place. With any good thriller, you sort of write your character into a corner and really have to figure out a way to get him out. I think we had a lot of different iterations of how that could work. And that was really the team sport mentality here, is really just continuing to throw rocks at what’s the best version of this scene and what’s really gonna make it tick. And I think the great breakthrough that we had was really putting the ultimate pressure cooker around these two. And what we talked about is it’s a makeup scene. They just broke up. They’re coming back together, but they’re all on different pages. But this makeup scene is different because at the heart of it is their sort of love language, which is role play. And so the fun part about it is it’s really the wish fulfillment of the movie, in addition to all the layers of characters going on, which gamifies and makes it complicated. It also allows the audience to re-fall in love with the reason they fell in love with them in the first place.”
On filming that text improve scene with Adria Arjona: “It was so amazing to see her step up, and we really worked that scene. It’s not an easy scene”
On what he is most proud of from this film: “I think the beautiful part about this experience is that I remember writing this with Rick. We took this script out. We were so proud of it. We were so excited about what it said about identity and passion. We thought it was so universal and exciting. It was gonna be an audience movie, and then it was just crickets. And no one got it. Nobody responded to it because I don’t think it fits into one box, right? Or like, this is the antidote. We’ were trying to do something original. And I think the town always wanted it to be something else. And I think what I’m just really proud of is we got to make this movie independently, make the movie that we wanted to
make.”
On why audiences are now responding to it: “I think the reason it’s a really great audience movie, and the reason people are responding to it is you can’t get out in front of it. You can’t predict it because it’s all the things. We’ve infused all of our favorite movies and it really is baked with like this originality that for me.”
On how Rick and his Texas roots inspire him: “I think that’s one of the things that really defines Rick on a Texas level. Rick stayed out in Bastrop, Texas. He goes into Hollywood so sparingly that I really think it keeps him pure and it doesn’t pollute his brain or his artistic integrity. I think there is something to the idea of in Texas it’s like marching to the beat of your own drum and trusting your own instincts that I do think Rick has figured out. And eventually I’d love to have my own ranch where I can bring people to to rehearse and watch movies and do the thing. Because I think the more that you can kind of stay out on your own and cook things up with people that you believe in, with stories you believe in, I think that’s how you have a long run.”
Hit Man will be released in select theaters on May 24 and premieres on Netflix in select countries on June 7.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Photo Credit: Matt Lankes / Netflix