Turns Out, Glen Powell is a Reality Television Alum
“I’ve never talked about this publicly ever.”
Glen Powell may be Hollywood's latest "it" boy and certified movie star, but it turns out his entertainment origin story is a little, um, more low brow.
Apparently, the Twisters star once appeared on a reality television show when he was a teenager...and he didn't last longer than the first episode.
“It’s really pretty hard for me to talk about, to be honest,” Powell told The Late Show with Stephen Colbert host Stephen Colbert during a recent appearance and interview.
"I’ve never talked about this publicly ever," he added, seeming to be genuinely embarrassed by his reality television past.
At the time, Colbert revealed to the audience (i.e., the world) that Powell had made a brief appearance on the Discovery Kids series Endurance in 2002. The then 13-year-old only made it onto one episode, while the series itself lasted from 2002 to 2008, People reports.
"The fact they pulled this out is shocking, but here we go," Powell continued, willing to simply roll with it.
"I was 13, I was on a show called Endurance; it’s basically a kids' Survivor-type show," he went onto explain, adding that the show sent children to Mexico before pitting "them against each other."
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“I wanted to be on the show really bad, and I got kicked off in the first episode,” Powell admitted. "I thought I could do it for a long time, but my balance didn't think so. When I realized I was going home, it was the worst feeling."
Of course, things eventually panned out for Powell, who has made waves after starring in Top Gun: Maverick, Anyone But You, and Twisters as well as the Netflix hit, Hitman.
"I’ve probably been told, ‘You’ll never make it in this town’ more than any individual alive," the star said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair. "The odds are so slim that people hand that quote out like candy.”
Now, he's the bell of the proverbial ball, inundated with unending social media attention (to say the least) that first came as a shock but is now, according to Powell, just part of the gig.
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“At the end of the day, I don’t give a f*** anymore. At the time, I did give a f***. I gave a lot of f****. And it felt s***** and personal," he told the publication at the time. "I don’t think people realize that I am very sensitive because I am a guy that jokes about stuff.
"The gamification of this gig is that you basically have to...It’s almost like creating a wrestler alter ego. It’s like you’re Bruce Wayne and Batman," he continued. "Nobody has the full picture, so you have to be okay with them not having a full picture. It’s entertainment. I’m okay now with my personal life being part of the entertainment.”
Danielle Campoamor is Marie Claire's weekend editor covering all things news, celebrity, politics, culture, live events, and more. In addition, she is an award-winning freelance writer and former NBC journalist with over a decade of digital media experience covering mental health, reproductive justice, abortion access, maternal mortality, gun violence, climate change, politics, celebrity news, culture, online trends, wellness, gender-based violence and other feminist issues. You can find her work in The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, New York Magazine, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, TODAY, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, InStyle, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Glamour, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Prism, Newsweek, Slate, HuffPost and more. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and their two feral sons. When she is not writing, editing or doom scrolling she enjoys reading, cooking, debating current events and politics, traveling to Seattle to see her dear friends and losing Pokémon battles against her ruthless offspring. You can find her on X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and all the places.
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