Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Retta, Sanjay Rao and iconic director Richard Linklater sit down with CinemaBlend’s Jeff McCobb to talk about their bonkers and brilliant new film ‘Hit Man.’ Watch as we discuss Glen Powell’s impressive range in the film, compare it to ‘Anyone But You,’ get the cast’s reactions to seeing Powell in makeup for the first time and, of course, pet his dog, Brisket.
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00:00Hearing you do all those different voices made me just think like, when are you gonna host SNL?
00:04I keep saying that too. I really would love to see you do that.
00:08You know, if you got Lorne's number, man, you call him. You call him. You let him know.
00:12I'm gonna work on this.
00:13Yeah, yeah. This is, put Audre to the task.
00:15When he sees this, he's gonna be like, oh wait, that guy's got voices. We gotta, we gotta get a lot.
00:20I am in service business.
00:21Well, I was, I was wondering if you got involved with writing this specifically because you were eager to showcase your range in that regard.
00:36None of these, none of these characters were cooked up before we, we created this script.
00:41Like the real Gary Johnson, you know, in the Texas Monthly article is this really fascinating guy.
00:47You know, he's a, he's a psychology professor who moonlights with the police department.
00:52He's, he's, he, you know, ends up becoming sort of the, what they called the Lawrence Olivier fake hitman,
00:58where he looked across the table from whoever was trying to hire someone to murder their husband or their wife or their business partner and would become that fantasy.
01:05And that was such a, like a compelling idea.
01:08So that's where it started off.
01:09So I had, it's not like I had any of these characters in my arsenal until like a couple of weeks before shooting.
01:14This was, this was all sort of how Gary did it, which is on the fly.
01:17But it was always a joy because, because we were also running so short on time that I was never really able to show Rick these characters before we were able to shoot them.
01:24So it was all very last minute, but a blast.
01:27Because I had to go to Andor right after filming, you know, I was kind of shot out of this and we shot our part fairly quickly.
01:36And then I went straight to London to start Andor.
01:38So I didn't see any of them, nor was I around, really.
01:43All I saw was teeth laying around in his house when we would go in for rehearsal, because that's where we would rehearse, the three of us.
01:50And it would just be like random teeth or like random little objects.
01:54And he would hide them from me.
01:56He really didn't want me to see anybody or he didn't want to ruin the illusion of Ron that he was creating for me.
02:03This is serious.
02:04So, yeah.
02:04So when I watched it, I was so surprised, but also so impressed of his ability as an actor and his range.
02:15And I was, I was just kind of blown away by, by him.
02:19And it felt like a very different movie than, than I had been a part of for sure.
02:24Did you see him performing all these various personas or did you see it for the first time when you screened it?
02:31First time when we screened it.
02:33Was that a trip?
02:34I was, yeah, because I didn't, you know, I thought, you know, Glenn's a good actor, but I just thought he was, I was the handsome guy.
02:41And it was like, no, he's going to play the guy with the terrible teeth.
02:44He's going to play the guy with the terrible hair.
02:46He's going to play the guy who's, you know, kind of a jackass and, and full on.
02:51So I would, I really enjoyed seeing that.
02:55Yeah.
02:55Also the main character, Gary, that's not Glenn.
02:59Right.
02:59It's really not.
03:00So even that is a departure from the real Glenn Powell.
03:04The real Glenn Powell is much cooler.
03:07Almost like an actor playing an actor and that whole meta thing, you know.
03:10There's levels of performances going on in here, you know.
03:13I'm the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude.
03:17We're sort of deconstructing the hitman genre, you know, or, or debunking maybe is the word.
03:24Just, you know, it's a, it's a pop culture myth.
03:28Basically this notion of a retail hitman, you know, it's a comment on consumerism.
03:33Maybe that you could just buy someone's life, you know, it's ridiculous.
03:37You know, this whole thing, there's a certain, you know, artifice to so much of this as there
03:44are the genres we're operating in.
03:46So it was kind of an interesting headspace to be in.
03:49Remember the lady came and trying to have her husband killed that we let go.
03:52Yeah.
03:52Her husband was just found dead.
03:56I'm so what happened?
03:57You know, you just got done with a very successful rom-com that comparatively is a little more
04:09wholesome, but were you like my next on-screen romance, there's going to be murder.
04:14Like we got to get it darker.
04:15We shot this before.
04:16We shot this before anyone but you.
04:18Oh yeah, that's right.
04:19Yeah.
04:20Yeah.
04:21Yeah.
04:21So we should actually write before really.
04:23Yeah.
04:24Yeah.
04:24You, um, yeah.
04:26Cause that, yeah, that, that was the next movie up.
04:28I think, um, no, I mean like the, the, the crazy part about those two movies is they really
04:34just exist in completely separate universes.
04:37Like they really couldn't be more different.
04:39And I think what you take away from them, those movies are very, very different at the
04:44end of the day.
04:44Like, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm obviously, you know, blessed to share the screen with, with,
04:49with two wonderful co-stars.
04:51I will say that, that this movie in particular is, is really interesting because, you know,
04:58that was a, that was a Shakespeare adaptation.
05:00Our entry point into this movie was very, very different because it was really taking
05:07the premise of, you know, it was a really contemplation of identity and passion.
05:10You know, there's, there's a much more Linklater cerebral aspect to this one that, that, that
05:17was just, it's just different, you know, it's just, it's just a different beast completely.
05:20And just, and just, I would just say the, the nature of how Rick works, you know, is,
05:25is, um, he's, he's just his own beast.
05:27It's his own ecosystem and how, how you bring people together and, and bake it up.
05:31So, um, again, I'm, I'm proud, I'm proud of both, both movies in their, in their own
05:36right.
05:37But yeah, if we had murder in anyone, but you, I think it would have really, uh, changed the
05:41whole vibe.
05:42How did you see him change as an actor since everybody wants some, that feels like it was
05:49yesterday, but it was eight years ago.
05:51You know what I mean?
05:51Yeah.
05:51We shot it coming up on 10 years ago.
05:54Um, you know, it just deepened.
05:58He hasn't changed.
05:59He was always the smart, funny, you know, hardworking, charismatic guy, you know, same guy, but,
06:07uh, I don't know, a little experience.
06:10You know, you, you, you learn from everybody.
06:12Glenn's a, an absorber, a learner.
06:15So, you know, that much more experience, that much, you would say tools in the toolkit,
06:19you know, in a good way.
06:20Some actors get worse because they, they protect themselves in weird ways.
06:24They're, they're less open for things where Glenn was more open.
06:28He was really pushing himself and not afraid.
06:31So I don't know.
06:32It was cool, um, to work with him, you know, as always.
06:37Do you think this movie has a villain?
06:40Yeah.
06:42Jasper.
06:43Yeah.
06:44Yeah.
06:44Jasper's not a nice guy.
06:46Cop or no cop.
06:47He's still a jackass.
06:48I thought you guys are going to be like, no, that's a good question.
06:50Isn't it?
06:51Oh, no, we, I think we took on what our characters felt.
06:58We, you knew they did not like Jasper.
07:01So he is the villain, you know?
07:04He's that guy at work that you just, you, you don't want to be stuck at lunch with him,
07:08you know?
07:08By the end of the movie, Gary has become something he couldn't have fathomed at the beginning.
07:14You know, he, he even said it in the dialogue and he's incapable of being that guy.
07:19But by the end, you know, mix in some passion, some sex, some romance, take him on this ride.
07:24It's like, oh, okay.
07:26Don't be so sure what you're capable of or not capable of.
07:28I think we all are.
07:29We're all contradictions and you can't really say what you're capable of.
07:34I like the idea that you could consciously dial up something that you want in your life that you think is there.
07:43You're just not, you know, the as if principle that's stated in the movie.
07:46So that, that's interesting to me.
07:49My name is Gary Johnson.
07:50And my simple question for you is,
07:52who is your hit man?
08:03We'll see.
08:10Who knew that a meet cute, uh,
08:13could be so romantic when the premise of it is plotting a murder.
08:17You know what I mean?
08:18What's meet cute?
08:19A meet cute.
08:19So it's like in a rom-com.
08:20It's like how the two people that you want to fall in love,
08:23like meet for the first time.
08:24Oh, okay.
08:25On my first dates,
08:26we talk about who we're going to murder,
08:28but you know,
08:28it's just weird to see it in a movie.
08:30Yeah, man.
08:30You got to get off those apps, man.
08:31That's, that's, that's, that's what's going on.