Glen Powell Explains Juggling His College Degree With Next Movie ‘The Running Man’

Glen Powell may be on a roll with his film career, but that hasn’t stopped him from completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Austin. While promoting his new movie, Twisters, the 35-year-old actor spoke with IndieWire on how he will balance work with school.

“I’m not going to be sitting in a class with other students on the regular,” Glen clarified while discussing his next movie The Running Man. “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.”

Noting that he’ll be “going to be in London” at that point, the Top Gun: Maverick star added that he is “going to be going back [to class] for proctored exams.”

“So, they’re letting me figure it out [with] distance learning,” he explained. “And I’m obviously going to be coming in, Zooming in for classes and whatnot, but I have to be back for the proctored exams. So, we’re figuring that out for two or three times a semester, I’ll come back for all my stuff.”

Before the Top Gun sequel catapulted the actor to stardom, Glen attended UT for one year. He left and moved to Los Angeles in order to pursue acting.

This isn’t the first time that the Hitman star has talked about his education. In May, he sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and pointed out that finishing college is “really important to [his] mom, and it’s more of an emotional thing for [him].”

“Plus, I’m so close, I can taste it,” Glen added, before sharing more about his struggle to find continuous work in the entertainment industry. “I’ve worked really hard for a long time, putting things together and just trying to get them in shape enough for people to give a s**t,” he said.

Now that he has several successful films under his belt, including the highly publicized Netflix rom-com Anyone But You, Glen decided to leave L.A. and return to his home state of Texas. While crediting fellow Texan Matthew McConaughey, Glen shared the advice that the Dallas Buyers Club star gave him.

“He’s like, ‘Hollywood is the Matrix, man. You plug in and it’s all fake world,'” Glen recalled Matthew saying. “He’s like, ‘Then I go to Austin, and I unplug. It’s all real. Those are my friends, that’s my family, my actions matter there.’ And he’s right. If you’re here, you live in the Matrix all the time, there’s no separation of those worlds. And for me, especially as my parents get older and my niece and nephew are growing up, I want a separation of those worlds.”