Tom Cruise’s Advice Helped Glen Powell With Role of a Lifetime

GQ recently spoke with Glen Powell about how Tom Cruise helped prepare him for his role in the upcoming film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man. Powell explained that his character, Ben Richards, is described in the book as a tank, which inspired him to train extensively for the part.

“I knew that based on the Stephen King book, Ben Richards was a tank,” Powell said.

“I was like, ‘Okay, I got to be a bit of a weapon.’ And so that’s why I trained the way I trained on this. I put on a lot of muscle. A lot of it was functional. A lot of it was so I could absorb hits. But a lot of it was also authentically for an audience.”

Powell credited Cruise with helping him approach the role like a high-performance athlete rather than just an actor. “I went from going, ‘Oh, I’m an actor on a movie’ to ‘I’m a high-performance athlete.’ And I’m just very lucky that I have someone like Tom who I could literally go, ‘Hey, what do I do to survive something?’”

The two actors first worked together on Top Gun: Maverick, where Powell played Lt. Jake “Hangman” Seresin. Powell initially turned down the role, hoping for a bigger part, but Cruise encouraged him to accept the opportunity.

Since then, Cruise has taken on a mentorship role, offering guidance on training, handling fame, and navigating the pressures of Hollywood.

Powell shared, “He basically said, ‘Hey, it’s going to get really, really loud. It’s your job to just turn the volume down. Just remember you have your hand on that switch. You have your hand on the ability to turn up that noise or turn it down.’ And really just turning down the noise and trusting your own gut has been a real godsend for me.”

Powell’s preparation and Cruise’s guidance show the younger actor’s commitment to his craft and his ambition to build a long-lasting career. While The Running Man may not capture every detail of King’s original depiction of Ben Richards, Powell is clearly determined to bring the character to life on screen with authenticity and intensity.

The Running Man is set to hit theaters on November 14.

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