‘Hidden Figures’ Co-Star Glen Powell Worried He Ruined The Film

Hopper Stone, ©Fox 2000 Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

Glen Powell has an aversion to rough cuts of his films.

Speaking on a recent episode of the Therapuss with Jake Shane podcast, Powell related watching a rough cut of 2016’s Hidden Figures for the first time. He wasn’t impressed and feared he ruined the film.

Powell portrayed astronaut John Glenn in the Oscar-nominated movie. The historical drama was led by Octavia Spencer, Taraji P Henson and Janelle Monáe,responsible for helping to launch Glenn into space, making him the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth.

The star said he struggled when watching the rough cut.

“It does get in your own head,” Powell said. “People forget that when you’re watching a rough cut of a movie, it’s probably like watching the footage of yourself that you’re having to edit. So you sit there and you’re like, ‘I hate myself.’

“I remember watching [Hidden Figures] for the first time on the Fox lot – and this was before all the effects were done, the music was in [and] the sound design – and I literally left the movie, and I puked in the bushes.”

He continued: “I thought I ruined this movie. I was like, ‘All these women put in these great performances and it’s like the legacy of these women – I was like, ‘I literally ruined this movie.’ It feels like the most atrocious thing you can do as an actor is just be terrible in a movie about real-life people that need a real-life story.”

That can change, though, when other elements are added.

“But once the music gets in there, it starts being polished a little bit,” he said. “We all want to be good… and nobody wants to be the weak point in a movie, especially when you’re talking about real-life stories.”

Powell currently stars in the action-comedy film Hit Man, currently playing in cinemas. It will be available to stream on Netflix from 7 June.