Glen Powell, known for starring alongside Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick, has returned to the action genre in Edgar Wright’s action thriller The Running Man.
Now, in a recent sit-down with The Hollywood Reporter, Glen Powell shares that before filming began, Cruise shared his experience on staying safe during physically demanding sequences, giving Powell what he jokingly called a crash course in “how not to die” while performing action scenes at night.
Glen Powell reveals the advice Tom Cruise gave him for filming The Running Man
Powell recently opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about how much Tom Cruise’s advice helped him handle the movie’s intense stunts. “Most of the advice I got [from Cruise] was really just about how not to die on this movie.”
Powell went on to explain that Cruise’s years of action movie experience made him the perfect go-to for safety advice, especially for tricky night shoots and running sequences. Powell added he’s grateful Cruise is always “one call away” whenever he needs guidance.
“Most of the advice I got [from Cruise] was really just about how not to die on this movie,” Powell said. “The reality is there’s probably only one person on the planet that can give this type of advice, and it’s him. So the fact that he’s one call away and he’s always willing to pick up, it’s unbelievable.”
Powell shared that Cruise repeatedly warned him about the risks of doing stunts when exhausted. Cruise advised him not to do a few stunts at night when tired, and also stressed that early-morning or late-night shoots make injuries more likely.
“He was just always telling me, ‘Don’t do some of these stunts late at night when you’re tired.’ He was asking me questions about what the movie was like, and what it looked like, and how it spanned. And I was like, ‘Yeah, a lot of it is at night,'” Powell explained.
“And he was like, ‘That’s going to be a problem. Your body is extremely tired at night. People get hurt more often when shooting at five in the morning [because] you’re rushing to make it before sunrise.’”
The Running Man is out now in theaters.
