Glen Powell has recalled watching a rough cut of 2016’s Hidden Figures for the first time, admitting he was terrified his performance “ruined” the movie.
Powell, 35, portrayed real-life astronaut John Glenn in director Theodore Melfi’s Oscar-nominated movie. The historical drama was led by Octavia Spencer, Taraji P Henson and Janelle Monáe, who played the three African-American women – Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson – at NASA responsible for launching Glenn into space, making him the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962.
While speaking to internet personality Jake Shane on a recent episode of his Therapuss with Jake Shane podcast, Powell confessed to having seen Top Gun: Maverick (in which he played the arrogant pilot Hangman) four times.
Shane responded in shock that Powell was able to watch himself on screen. “I can’t even watch my TikToks back,” the influencer said.
“It does get in your own head,” Powell agreed, saying: “People forget that when you’re watching a rough cut of a movie, it’s probably like watching the footage of yourself that you’re having to edit. So you sit there and you’re like, ‘I hate myself.’
“I remember watching [Hidden Figures] for the first time on the Fox lot – and this was before all the effects were done, the music was in [and] the sound design – and I literally left the movie, and I puked in the bushes.”
He continued: “I thought I ruined this movie. I was like, ‘All these women put in these great performances and it’s like the legacy of these women – I was like, I literally ruined this movie.’
“It feels like the most atrocious thing you can do as an actor is just be terrible in a movie about real-life people that need a real-life story,” he said.
“But once the music gets in there, it starts being polished a little bit,” he added. “We all want to be good... and nobody wants to be the weak point in a movie, especially when you’re talking about real-life stories.”
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Powell currently stars in the action-comedy film Hit Man as professional killer Gary Johnson, who breaks protocol to help a woman trying to escape her abusive husband.
“Richard Linklater’s latest film works as proof of Powell’s versatility: he’s goofy and sweet one minute, tough the next,” The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey praised in her four-star review.
Hit Man is currently playing in cinemas. It will be available to stream on Netflix from 7 June.
