Glen Powell's Relatable Prank Story Falls Flat

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | June 7, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | June 7, 2024 |

School pranks can often go too far. Most kids don’t have a grasp on consequences. They think what they do won’t affect things in the long run. There’s more of a chance they won’t think about the damage they could cause, physically, structurally, and emotionally. Yes, what I’m describing sounds like the setup to a teen horror flick, but it applies to real life, too. Pranks can be dangerous, or they can be something silly that causes a school to insist students wear see-through backpacks.

Glen Powell is Hollywood’s current “It Guy” (until the gem in his palm starts flashing and he’s dragged away). Today marks the release of Hit Man, a film he made with Richard Linklater. He’ll be in Twisters, which releases this summer. A movie he starred in with Sidney Sweeney called Anyone But You was a massive success at a time when romcoms barely get released in theaters. He’s a star! But once upon a time, he was just a white privilege having lil scamp.

The Spy Kids 3-D actor recently appeared on the Jennifer Hudson Show for a chat. It was revealed that Powell made big changes to the Middle School he attended. Notably, it’s his fault that all current students must wear clear backpacks on school grounds. Powell was responsible for 3000 crickets plaguing the school halls in 2003. The funniest part is that Powell, in a Heath Ledger Joker-like move, was already in the Principal’s office for using a stink bomb when the crickets were released.

To be clear, it’s not the stink bomb I find funny. Stink bombs are horrendous, and the poor teacher who he used one on did not deserve that. A stink bomb is inherently a prank that goes too far. Powell apologizes for the two pranks in this interview, and it feels weird as hell. I like Powell, and I’m not going to blame him for being a little jerk when he was in the eighth grade, but watching him jokingly “apologize” for it now felt strange. I don’t know who in his team told him this would be a fun story to address, but it probably could have been left untouched.

There’s something so deeply unremorseful in his eyes when he’s talking about it. Here’s this handsome white guy, who didn’t face any real consequences for what he did, joking about it over 20 years later. It feels like looking at a high school bully who not only turned out fine but succeeded beyond everyone’s dreams. What feels like an attempt to make him seem relatable falls flat on his perfectly square face.