Glen Powell was given 'running lessons' by Tom Cruise
The Running Man star Glen Powell has revealed how Tom Cruise gave him a detailed guide to stunt work ahead of his role in the dystopian action remake.
Glen Powell got "running lessons" from Tom Cruise.
The 37-year-old actor plays the lead role in the remake of the 1987 dystopian action movie The Running Man and revealed that he got an in-depth guide to stunt work from his Top Gun: Maverick co-star.
Speaking on Friday's (07.11.25) episode of The Graham Norton Show, Glen said: "Tom rang me to give me the low down and, what I thought would be a 10 minute call, lasted two and half hours - he basically told me how not to die!
"He also gave me running lessons. He said, 'You should film yourself running because you don't look as cool as you think you do.' He was so right!"
Glen added that the reality of doing stunts is a long way removed from the glamorous image that people have in their minds about action heroes.
The Hit Man actor explained: "I had to abseil down eight storeys of a building in freezing conditions half naked and wearing a harness which cinched me - believe me nothing looked good!
"The crazy thing I found out after was that there was a guy whose only job was to stop me kicking a window - I wondered what he was seeing take after take."
Powell's character Ben Richards was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1987 version ofThe Running Man and he sought permission from the Terminator legend before taking on the role.
The Chad Powers star said: "I didn't want to tread on his legacy without speaking to him. He was lovely and gave me his blessing.
"He doesn't miss any of his action movies. He was like, 'It's a brutal way to go to work, I preferred Kindergarten Cop and Twins.'"
Glen recently lamented how audiences don't realise the amount of hard work that goes into making action sequences for the big screen.
He told Screen Rant: "It’s a process to really sell stunts. From an outsider’s perspective, when you’re watching a movie, you’re like, 'Okay, I’m sure they’re padded up or whatever,' but you’re delivering and taking a lot of hits over the course of a movie."
The Graham Norton Show airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Friday 7th November at 10.40pm.
