Glen Powell is looking back at his small role in Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises.
In his Vanity Fair profile for the Hollywood Issue, the Twisters actor reflected on scoring the small role in the Batman film that starred Christian Bale and Tom Hardy.
“I remember everything. You never forget the feeling. It’s something I carry to every set I walk on now, which is just the reverence for being on a set in general. But I remember on Dark Knight Rises the feeling of being able to walk onto a set and you knew everybody in the world wanted to be on that set, right?”
He went on to explain that despite his role as a stock trader being minor, he “auditioned several times for it.”
“I was getting to work with the greatest director on the planet, Christopher Nolan. And you’re sitting there and all of a sudden Tom Hardy walks in as Bane. It’s electric. It’s sort of out-of-body,” he said. “That was one of those movies when nothing was going on in my life. I was just fighting for every inch. And when Christopher Nolan casts you in his movie, it’s a validation that’s hard to explain.”
Powell has been cast in myriad projects since his breakout role in Top Gun: Maverick. Amid his success, Powell said he’s since run into Nolan, who feels “proud” to have spotted his talent early on.
“I’ve talked to Chris about this. We’ve run into each other at different things. I saw him during his amazing Oppenheimer run, and he’s very proud that he plucked me early. I’m just very grateful that he took a shot,” Powell said.
The role in the 2012 film came in a time when Powell was a struggling actor, of which he noted, “There’s no harder place to live than being in Hollywood with nothing going on. The currency of that town is how relevant you are and what your last job is. It makes you oppressively self-aware. Where people can get caught in a rut is where they just want to continue spinning the roulette wheel without any thought of why. They just stay at the table for no reason other than to stay at the table.”
At the time when he didn’t have any projects booked, he said he had to lie to himself and “act like this is that chapter of the story where things just aren’t going right.”
He explained, “You have to believe in the Hollywood legends of those people that you admire, the people that you’re chasing, that had those long stretches of famine as well. … In L.A., you are really just hustling to just try to be a part of the experiment at all. People are like, ‘Oh man, auditioning must be tough.’ And I’m like, ‘No, auditioning is a luxury.’
“Auditioning feels like you’re at the party. You’ve gotten past the velvet rope. You may not be able to afford a drink at the party, but you’re in it, you can taste it. But so often in Hollywood, most of the time, you are outside that velvet rope. Most of the time the bouncer is not even allowing you anywhere in the vicinity.”
Powell is set to next lead The Running Man remake from Edgar Wright. He will also star in the new J.J. Abrams movie for Warner Bros., with Jenna Ortega in talks to join. Powell’s Twisters grossed more than $270 million at the global box office.
