Before Hit Man, Glen Powell Appeared in a $2.2 Million Richard Linklater Film Starring Ethan Hawke and Bruce Willis That had the Smelliest Plot of all Time
Movies like Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone but You have undoubtedly cemented Glen Powell’s place as one of the rising stars in Hollywood. If playing the role of the navy pilot student Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin had failed to win any hearts, Ben’s romance with Bea certainly got the job done.
Powell’s breakthrough might have been with the blockbuster Tom Cruise-led movie, but he has been in the entertainment industry since he was 13. It is only now that many people are starting to acknowledge his appearance in some of the projects he did when he was younger and one of them is the Richard Linklater mockumentary film Fast Food Nation.
Glen Powell Starred in This Richard Linklater Black Comedy
Glen Powell has worked alongside Hollywood heavyweights like Antonio Banderas and Sylvester Stallone in the 2007 movie Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. The Great Debaters was also a movie he starred in and it was not any less of a deal as it was directed by and starred Denzel Washington.
Powell had even appeared in smaller roles in other projects before these movies. One of those projects was Richard Linklater’s political satire Fast Food Nation, in which The Blue Angels executive producer portrayed a guy named Steve.
Fast Food Nation is loosely based on American journalist and author Eric Schlosser’s bestselling eponymous 2001 non-fiction book. The movie explores the dark side of the fast-food industry as a marketing executive discovers disturbing truths about the production of his company Mickey’s best-selling Burger when he learns that independent research has found a considerable presence of fecal matter in the meat.
The movie is an international co-production between the US and the UK and had Ethan Hawke and Bruce Willis in the star cast. Upon release, it not only received critical appreciation but also earned $2.2 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo). Linklater was even nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
Glen Powell Has Collaborated With Richard Linklater Several Times
Fast Food Nation marked Powell’s first collaboration with Linklater. Over the years, they went on to work on numerous other projects such as the 2016 comedy teen film Everybody Wants Some!! and the 2019 coming-of-age comedy Dazed & Confused.
Half a decade later, they joined hands together for another movie Hit Man, released earlier this year. This film is a romantic action comedy, for which Powell co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater. It follows an undercover New Orleans police contractor who acts as a reliable hitman so that he can help a woman in need. It premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.
Fast Food Nation is available for renting and buying on Apple TV. Hit Man is available for streaming on Netflix.
