Glen Powell is the latest Hollywood heavyweight to express a disinterest in talking about politics in press interviews. The “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Chad Powers” is on the last cover of Esquire magazine and remembered growing up with parents who never brought up current events at the dinner table, to which Powell said “thank God” for that. “Politics interests him even less now,” the magazine writes.
“Over time, I realized that politics divide people,” Powell said. “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. [Engaging in politics] is not presently possible. 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.”
Powell’s comments are similar to that of Dwayne Johnson, who in his own Esquire magazine cover story earlier this year said he will no longer speak publicly about politics. Johnson had already told Fox News in 2024 that he regretted endorsing Joe Biden for president in 2020 because it caused division amongst his fans. He then told Esquire that he wants to keep the focus solely on his art.
“Politics is omnipresent and it’s forever. I don’t like it. I hate it at times. I hate the slinging. 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 own newfound resistance to talking to the press about politics. This was 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 op-ed after Election Day in which she declared that Trump’s victory meant “the only people that feel safe [in America] are white men.”
When asked by The Times about her thoughts on speaking out now regarding Trump and politics, Lawrence answered: “I don’t really know if I should. The first Trump administration was so wild and just how can we let this stand? 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.”
Lawrence added that she does not “want to start turning people off to films and to art that could change consciousness or change the world because they don’t like my political opinions.” She maintained that she can still get across her political beliefs via her work, such as the movies she’s making 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.”
While Powell steered clear of political talk in his Esquire cover story, he did briefly open up about experiencing some of his first box office flops after a string of hits that included “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Anyone But You” and “Twisters.” His fall 2025 tentpole “The Running Man” bombed with under $70 million worldwide on a production budget in the $110 million range. According to Powell, drama at Paramount Pictures did not set the Edgar Wright-directed movie up for financial success.
“They let go of an entire marketing department a month before our movie came out in the middle of a merger,” said Powell, referring to mass Paramount layoffs that hit in late October 2025 just weeks before “The Running Man” opened in theaters.
After “The Running Man” came this winter’s “How to Make a Killing,” an A24-backed dark crime comedy that tapped out with $21 million worldwide.
“There were a lot of issues with that,” Powell told the magazine. “There just was not enough time to do it properly. I look back on that one as an example of going, You know what, there’s no rush.”
Head over to Esquire’s website to read Powell’s cover story in its entirety.
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