Glen Powell Says He Doesn’t Want to Talk Politics, Blames Paramount Marketing Cuts for ‘The Running Man’ Box Office Performance

In a new Esquire cover story, The Running Man actor said that despite his mother Cyndy Powell’s work in the U. S. Treasury Department under the Reagan administration, current events never made its way into his family’s dinner-table conversations. “Thank God,” he said.

The actor said “over time” he has “realized that politics divide people. People trying to prove their point — for me, it’s the worst version of a conversation. I genuinely do not like the discourse. It’s not as healthy as it once was.”

Powell said that engaging in political conversations was “not presently possible.” He added, “I applaud people for jumping into those things and fighting for what they believe in. If I were a political person, I would be talking about it. For me, my calling is elsewhere.”

The Top Gun: Maverick is not the only celebrity asserting their disinterest in speaking about politics. Powell’s Anyone But You co-star Sydney Sweeney said she has “never been here to talk about politics” in a cover interview with Cosmopolitan in January following the fallout from her viral American Eagle jeans ad.

Sweeney also said she doesn’t anticipate she will confirm her political beliefs: “I’m not a political person. I’m in the arts. I’m not here to speak on politics. That’s not an area I’ve ever even imagined getting into. It’s not why I became who I am. I became an actor because I like to tell stories, but I don’t believe in hate in any form. I believe we should all love each other and have respect and understanding for one another.”

Last November, Jennifer Lawrence questioned if she should speak out against Trump after being vocal about her political stance during his first term.

“I don’t really know if I should,” Lawrence told The New York Times on its The Interview podcast about speaking out against Trump and politics. “During the first Trump administration, I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. But as we’ve learned, election after election, celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for. So then what am I doing? I’m just sharing my opinion on something that’s going to add fuel to a fire that’s ripping the country apart. We are so divided.”

Elsewhere in the profile, Powell addressed The Running Man‘s weak box office performance. “They let go of an entire marketing department a month before our movie came out in the middle of a merger,” he said of Paramount, the studio behind the film.

The Running Man released on Nov. 14, 2025; on Oct. 29, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Paramount began series of staff cuts, resulting in about 1,000 jobs being impacted.

THR reached out to Paramount for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.