We’ve been wagging our tails over up-and-coming star of the moment, Brisket, as he’s escorted by his person Glen Powell from film set to movie premiere to magazine photoshoot. Like many of you shared in the comments, I have been of the camp of folks who found Glen rather bland. Judging by looks only — I haven’t seen anything he’s been in yet, though you better believe I’ll be going to see Twisters… to scout for a Brisket cameo. Brisket has indeed changed everything, and as I’m trying to engineer a match between him and My Girl (two rescues destined to be together!), I suppose I ought to start paying attention to Glen. And this just in: Glen revealed that he will be finishing his college degree at the University of Texas this fall, remotely while he’s on location in London filming an Edgar Wright movie. I’m paw-sitive Brisket will be his study buddy!
The Twisters actor shared he’s headed back to the University of Texas at Austin and is now only a few units away from graduating. But don’t expect to find him walking around campus all that much.
“I’m not going to be sitting in a class with other students on the regular,” Glen told Indiewire in an interview published July 16. “I’m basically going to be coming back because I have to finish up, but I’m going to be shooting The Running Man in the fall. So I’m going to be in London, but I am going to be going back for proctored exams.”
The 35-year-old explained he would be mostly doing “distance learning” and will Zoom in for some online classes. And luckily, The Running Man director Edgar Wright is very cool with him heading back to the Austin campus “two or three times a semester” for exams.
Glen joked, “Edgar has been very nice about letting me finish my degree in the middle of his massive movie.”
The Hit Man star’s desire to finally finish university follows his recent decision to move back to his hometown of Austin, which he’s chosen to do because that’s his “home base.”
“I have nothing against Hollywood,” he said. “I just realized, in terms of filling up the pieces of me that need to be refueled between projects and doing stuff like that, that’s all Austin for me.”
And that’s why, as he told The Hollywood Reporter in May that he’s gotten “to this point in Hollywood is that I can now leave Hollywood. It’s like I’ve earned the ability to go back to my family.”
As for his decision to go back to school, the Anyone But You actor — who told THR he was double majoring in Spanish and early American History — explained that part of it has to do with his mom, Cyndy Powell.
“I think it’s really important to my mom and it’s more of an emotional thing for me,” he noted. “Plus, I’m so close, I can taste it.”
I like this! Look, Glen is 35 and hitting a real career stride. If ever he were settled enough to know the acting thing was gonna work out, it’s now. My point is, there’s no real need for him to go back to finish up his degree, but there’s something endearing about the fact that he’s doing it for himself, and also his mother. His own education edification, if you will. And he’s a show off to boot, doing a double major. So I’m down with this choice. The questions I have are all logistical: how’s he gonna balance a filming schedule with Zooming into class across a six-hour time difference? What are the odds he shows up on set and starts reciting his lines in Spanish? And most importantly: where will Brisket be during all this?! I know he was on location for Twisters in Oklahoma, but now we’re talking international travel! And if Brisket will be in the UK for a full semester, I need to start managing My Girl’s expectations now. Long distance relationships take work!
photos credit: Darla Khazei/INSTARimages, James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon, IMAGO/Jeffery Mayer / Avalon
Good for him! My husband also stopped short of his degree and I’ve encouraged him to finish, too. He had decades of work experience and doesn’t “need” a degree, but I think that he would like both that sense of accomplishment and doing something for himself just because it feels good.
Good for him!
Aw look.at Brisket’s PA.
Saw an advanced screening of Twisters last night, and I have a feeling a lot of people who don’t “get the Glen Powell thing” are about to get the Glen Powell thing
It opened last Thursday where I’m at and saw in on the weekend. I liked it, a lot.
I also like him and I find his movies entertaining.
Good for him. Although I find it interesting, where he says his career has gotten to the point where he doesn’t need to be in Hollywood anymore. I never heard of the guy! I’m vaguely aware of some previous movie that he did with Sydney Sweeney, I think, which I read about here. Good luck, dude! As for time zones & online learning–eh, I teach an online class & I’ve had students from other countries & as well as states. It’s doable.
I like this guy. He’s handsome and charming and seems like a good man. The folks at UT who run the Online Learning office should already have a remote-testing platform in place. Going to campus for exams shouldn’t be necessary (although I see how it would give him a chance to go home for a couple of days, so there’s that). It’s cool that he’s going to finish that degree.
College professor here chiming in to say that was the weird part of this for me: why would he need to take proctored exams in person (and if they really need to be taken in person, offline, with a proctor – which would be odd for a course one takes online – surely Glen and UT Austin can work out a proctor situation in London? Seems like a lot of carbon footprint wasting, especially if he flies private, for a few exams).
As for the question in the post about logistics, I’m sure he would be registering for asynchronous online courses only, not ones in which he needs to Zoom in live each week. Though we’ve certainly had students do that from many time zones away for synchronous courses, especially during the pandemic, they typically had more regular school/work schedules around which they could plan course attendance. I suspect movie filming call times can be at any time of day/night, depending on the scenes and locations, so my guess is synchronous online courses would be very challenging or GP will just miss a lot of classes.
Hook ’em! My husband is a UT grad. Good for Glen for finishing his degree.
The Hit Man was fun. Recommend.
Good for him! If this is something he wants to do he should.
I wish I got the Glen Powell thing, he’s ok looking and not a bad actor so I don’t mind him blowing up, plus he’s worked hard. But I really don’t get it.
That being said excited for twister, but I doubt it holds up to the 90s I loved that movie.
Finishing a degree while on a job several time zones away is commendable.
Even more so when the degree is not needed to get ahead in the current job.
*still firmly anchored in the ‘GP is nothing special’ camp*
I just came here to look at his photos and say he’s so damn cute and handsome and seems like a kind guy!
Il be honest I’ve definitely been on the Team Bland but he’s growing on me. Good for him on finishing his degree.
Damn it, me too! I have mad respect for the double major, and neither is one I consider particularly easy, especially with a very full-time job. It’s not physics or engineering, but it’s no business administration or journalism. Sorry if those two have revamped their images since I was in college in the 90s, they were the bullsh*t degrees at my university.
Fine, I think I like you, but I will only ever call you Brisket’s dad. This is unbelievable, UT is my university’s biggest rival! I think I am supposed to dislike him on principle. We have more national football championship wins, so I will let it slide.
OK Glen, you win you’re a movie star as long as Brisket is around.
He’s being pushed so hard it becomes off-putting. Ok, we get it, dude. You’re Hollywood’s new wholesome conservative white boy. Movies were getting a bit too brown for some people’s taste, so it’s time to brew a Chris Pratt that actually knows how to act.
I think he’s unattractive, with little charisma that doesn’t feel factory made, and nothing to write home about as an actor, but if white middle America wants him, then I guess that’s his demo and he’s doing it for them.
Do we know his politics?
He’s excellent in Hit Man, which he co-wrote with Richard Linklater!
He gives republican vibes.
That’s not the same thing as being a republican.