The “really sad” role that’s haunted Glen Powell for decades: “I would do that over”
To me, Glen Powell will always be Chad Radwell, the vapid Dickie Dollar Scholars frat boy with a unique taste for shagging (which even extends to dead bodies) in Ryan Murphy’s gloriously dark horror satire Scream Queens.
Powell played the character a little too well, if you ask me, cycling through flat caps, golf matches, and women with a plastic grin on his face. That was a decade ago, though, and since then, he has progressed his career beyond campy side characters to become a Hollywood star. He’s certainly got the smile for it.
With his role in Top Gun: Maverick, Powell established his place in the industry as an actor capable of appearing in massive blockbusters, and now it seems like he’s not going anywhere. In fact, Powell appears to be vying for Tom Cruise’s spot in Hollywood, and it makes sense – he considers his Top Gun co-star as somewhat of a mentor.
If he wants to reach those glittering heights which Cruise began to achieve way back in the 1980s, though, Powell is going to have to be OK with people uncovering embarrassing secrets about him. The thing is, every actor will have something humiliating unearthed at some point in their career, whether that be a terrible early performance or a run-in with the law that spoils their perfect reputation. No reputation can be perfect in Hollywood.
For Powell, there’s an early career mishap that haunts him, and he would like everyone to forget that it ever happened. Sadly, that’s not how Hollywood works, Glen. The first mistake is bringing up your old regrets in interviews – it’s like you’re asking for your embarrassing moments to be dug up.
Talking to People, Powell said, “If I were to get a do-over, there was a reality show I did when I was 15 years old called Endurance where I fell off the barn and I got kicked off on the first day. I would do that over. You can look it up. It’s really sad. There’s definitely a video. Everybody watched it. You’re the only person that doesn’t bother me about it.”
Airing in 2003, the teenage Powell competed in the Survivor-like show to disastrous results, clearly keen on getting himself in the spotlight, even if it meant making a fool of himself on television. To be fair, many actors got their start on reality television and competitions, from Jon Hamm appearing on a dating show in the ‘90s to Jennifer Hudson making it on American Idol. We all have to start somewhere.
Powell clearly isn’t proud of his early foray into showbiz, but it proved to be a way in, regardless. That same year, the actor appeared in the movie Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over by Robert Rodriguez, making his film debut as ‘Long-Fingered Boy’. Like I say, we all have to start somewhere.
In the years that have followed, Powell has come to prove that he’s more than a failed reality TV contestant, helping to bring back the rom-com with Anyone But You in 2023 and even having a go at screenwriting with Richard Linklater’s Hit Man. His life is now a far cry from the days of appearing on Endurance, so clearly you have to keep at it, even when you’re haunted by memories of trying to make it.
