Actor Glen Powell left his co-stars stunned in a recent interview when he revealed that he’s currently enrolled in university, with plans to graduate in 2027.
Powell, 37, was sat with his The Running Man co-stars Lee Pace and Josh Brolin for an interview with Variety, when he extended an invite to his fellow actors to attend his graduation from the University of Texas in Austin in Spring 2027, where he is studying a course in Radio-Television-Film.
“Are you serious? Are you serious? Do you have enough credits, or are they honouring you …?” asked Brolin, intimating that Powell was taking the easier famous person route of receiving an honorary degree.
“No, no, no, I’m finishing properly. I’m not doing an honorary degree. I’m taking six credits a semester, so I will finish in Spring ’27,” Powell explained. According to IMDB, the actor has five more film projects in the works after The Running Man’s release.
Co-star Lee Pace couldn’t hide his surprise at the news that bonafide film star Powell was a uni student on the side.
“You’re doing it now? How many hours are you getting out of a day? Because I’m only getting 24 …” he said. “You are the busiest person I know.”
“I don’t even know how to react to that,” said Brolin.
Powell first announced his plans to return to university in an interview with Indiewirein July 2024, but explained that he would mostly be learning remotely to fit his studies into his busy schedule as a Hollywood leading man.
“I’m not going to be sitting in a class with other students on the regular. I’m basically going to be coming back because I’ve to finish up but I’m going to be shooting The Running Man in the fall,” he said at the time.
“So I’m going to be in London, but I am going to be going back for proctored exams. So, they’re letting me figure it out with distance learning.
“And I am obviously going to be coming in, Zooming in for classes and whatnot, but I have to be back for the proctored exams.”
In the same interview, he said that The Running Man director Edgar Wright had been “very nice about letting me finish my degree in the middle of his massive movie”.
While the Twisters and Anyone But You star is one of Hollywood’s most in-demand leading men, he revealed in a 2024 interview that he was leaving Tinseltown to return to his home state of Texas.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published last May, Powell met with a journalist just as he’d turned over the keys to his house in the Hollywood Hills, preparing to move back to Texas to be closer to his family.
He told the outlet he felt he’d reached a stage “in Hollywood … that I can now leave Hollywood”.
“It’s like I’ve earned the ability to go back to my family.”
He revealed that advice from seasoned Hollywood actor — and fellow Texan — Matthew McConaughey helped him decide to relocate back to his hometown of Austin.
McConaughey had told him Hollywood was “the Matrix, man. You plug in and it’s all fake world”.
McConaughey, who also lives in Austin, had told him the Texas city was by comparison “all real. Those are my friends, that’s my family, my actions matter there”.
“And he’s right. And for me, especially as my parents get older and my niece and nephew are growing up, I want a separation of those worlds,” Powell said.
The actor’s latest film The Running Man will be in Australian cinemas from November 13.
