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Glen Powell is one of Hollywood’s It Guys right now with many projects in the works, including co-creating a Captain Planet TV series that Leonardo DiCaprio is producing, and Netflix’s Hitman arriving in June. That wasn’t always the case for the actor and budding producer as he talked about his past roles that almost were.
Talking to GQ, Powell talked about how he missed out on almost landing Josh Hartnett’s role in Oppenheimer “by a slim margin,” but it’s the roles in big blockbuster franchises that he missed out on that he felt he blew the most: Captain America and Han Solo.
“I can joke about it now,” the actor said, “[but] I blew that final audition.” The role of Solo went to Alden Ehrenreich, and Captain America famously went to Chris Evans, who is now synonymous with the role. He told another story about how researching for a role didn’t exactly work out.
“I auditioned for Cowboys & Aliens, to play Harrison Ford’s son,” Powell continued. He said he looked at Ben Foster’s work in the 3:10 To Yuma remake for a “bad cowboy” archetype. “I was like, I’ve gotta be Ben Foster. Then I get to the audition the next day and I look at the sign-in sheet. The guy before me is Ben Foster,” he laughed. The role eventually went to Paul Dano.
Powell talked about his early Hollywood career, he would sometimes see many of the same actors also waiting to be called for auditions: Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler, and Taylor Kitsch, all in-demand players.
“The weird duality of the business,” Powell said, “is that you have to be ultra-competitive but at the same time it’s not in your power. I have to be comfortable with saying, ‘I did my best, it wasn’t meant to be.'”
