Glen Powell is the latest Hollywood heavyweight to express his disinterest in talking politics during press interviews. The “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Chad Powers” star is featured on the latest cover of Esquire magazine and recalls growing up with parents who never brought up the news at the dinner table, to which Powell said “thank God” for that. “Politics interests him even less now,” writes the magazine.
“As time went on, I realized that politics divided people,” Powell said. “People trying to prove their point, to me, that’s the worst version of a conversation. I really don’t like that talk. It’s not as healthy as it used to be. (Getting involved in politics) is not possible right now. I applaud people who get into these things and fight for what they believe in. If I was a political person, I would talk about it. For me, my calling is elsewhere.”
Powell’s comments are similar to those of Dwayne Johnson, who in his own Esquire magazine cover story earlier this year said he would no longer speak publicly about politics. Johnson previously told Fox News in 2024 that he regretted supporting Joe Biden for president in 2020 because it caused divisions among his fans. He later told Esquire that he wanted to focus solely on his art.
“Politics is omnipresent and eternal. I don’t like it. I hate it sometimes. I hate the insults. I hate all the bullshit that comes with it,” Johnson added at the time.
A few months before Johnson’s quotes, Jennifer Lawrence spoke to the New York Times about her newfound resistance to talking to the press about politics. It’s a dramatic change of pace for Lawrence, who notably spoke out against Donald Trump during his first administration as U.S. president and wrote an opinion piece after Election Day in which she said Trump’s victory meant “the only people who feel safe (in America) are white men.”
Asked by the Times for her thoughts on speaking out now about Trump and politics, Lawrence responded, “I don’t really know if I should. The first Trump administration was so wild and how can we let that stay? I felt like I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. But as we’ve learned, in election after election, celebrities don’t make a difference in who people choose. So what do I do? I’m just sharing my opinion on something that’s okay fueling a fire that is tearing the country apart. We are so divided.
Lawrence added that she doesn’t “want to start turning people away from films and arts that could change consciences or change the world because they don’t like my political views.” She said she can still express her political beliefs through her work, such as the films she makes at her production company like “Bread and Roses,” which follows three women in Afghanistan amid the effects of the 2021 Taliban offensive, and the abortion documentary “Zurawski v Texas.”
Although Powell avoided any political talk in his Esquire cover story, he briefly talked about some of his early box office failures after a string of hits that included “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Anyone But You” and “Twisters.” His fall 2025 tentpole, “The Running Man,” grossed less than $70 million worldwide on a production budget in the $110 million range. According to Powell, the dramas at Paramount Pictures did not allow the film directed by Edgar Wright to achieve financial success.
“They abandoned an entire marketing department a month before our movie came out, in the middle of a merger,” Powell said, referring to Paramount’s massive layoffs that took place in late October 2025, just weeks before “The Running Man” hit theaters.
After “The Running Man,” this winter came “How to Make a Killing,” a black crime comedy supported by A24 which collected $21 million worldwide.
“There were a lot of problems with that,” Powell told the magazine. “There just wasn’t enough time to do it properly. I look back on that one as an example of, ‘You know what, there’s no rush.’
Head to Esquire’s website to read Powell’s cover story in full.
Gn entert
