'Basically like roommates': Glen Powell on the collaborative magic of 'Hit Man'

PARK CITY, Utah (KTVX) — Glen Powell and Richard Linklater arrived in Park City early this week for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where they screened their Netflix collaboration film Hit Man to a sold-out audience.

Hit Man, which is co-written by Glen Powell and directed by Richard Linklater, follows Gary Johnson (Glen Powell), a teacher who becomes an informant to the police disguising himself as a for-hire “hit man.” However, the real turn of events comes when he finds love.

NewsNation’s affiliate KTVX Film Critic Patrick Beatty spoke with both Powell and Linklater about their film prior to the screening. taking on many faces, and the inception of this film based on a true story.

When asked about how he managed to play multiple characters in the film, Powell said:

“You kind of just go from your instinct. I think the best thing that you can do in any sort of performance is just jump in with both feet. And there’s just, I don’t know, on a Richard Linklater set, you just don’t feel like you can fail. And I feel like Rick makes me feel so comfortable that I think the worst thing could happen is you get in your own head about how to play these characters, making them perfect. And you’re like, I’m a guy playing a guy who’s disguised as a guy. It’s like there’s all these different layers to it. So there’s all these different opportunities to kind of show the cracks, cracks in the performance, so to speak.”

Glen Powell had originally come to the School of Rock director with the idea for Hit Man through a bizarre article he’d read. Linklater knew of the story, which he said he probably read in junior high, as it was based on an article written by a friend of his. He said they both were fascinated with the character in the article.

“We were kind of off to the races because we loved that character and the whole weird setup to this movie. So, yeah, we’ve had a great collaboration,” Linklater said.

Powell echoed the director’s statement on their collaboration, saying he learned from Linklater to be hungry for the work.

“You know, Rick is really a Renaissance man, you know? He’s interested in all sorts of things. He consumes culture, and he consumes literature, and he consumes music. And he’s such a student of not only film and the audience, but he just cares so much,” Powell said. “I mean, the hours that we pulled on this movie, we were basically like roommates on this movie. I mean, we’d write in the morning, we’d shoot at night. You know, during the day we eat dinner together and go over the next day’s stuff. I mean, his work ethic is relentless after all these years.”

Richard Linklater is no stranger to Sundance, where he first premiered his classic film “Before Sunrise” during the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. He is also known for directing Boyhood, Dazed and Confused, and the ‘Before’ trilogy.

Powell, who has had an extensive acting career over the last two decades, has most recently starred in Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone but You.

Hit Man will be available to stream on Netflix on June 7th, 2024. You can check out additional exclusive interviews with cast Evan Holtzman, Austin Amelio and Sanjay Rao, as well as Glen Powell and Richard Linklater in the video above.

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