Austin Way Magazine - GreenGale Publishing - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/367813
photography by nick prendergast READY FO R ACTION AUSTIN N ATIVE GLEN POWELL HOLDS HIS OWN WITH THE GENRE'S BEST IN THE EXPENDABLES 3. BY JULIET IZON The old chestnut "You can take the boy out of Texas…" is certainly accurate in the case of actor Glen Powell, who costarred in the summer blockbuster The Expendables 3. In 2007, while still a senior at Westwood High, he shot his first major film as a cocky Harvard student in the Denzel Washington – directed The Great Debaters. Washington's agent, Ed Limato, advised him to move to LA, but Powell replied, "Thanks, but no thanks. I've got a good thing going in Austin." Limato, the legendary agent who died in 2010, persuaded Powell to attend the premiere of the film in LA, and the young actor did not arrive without his Texan accouter- ments. "I walked in wearing Wrangler's and a cowboy hat. Limato [looked at me and] said, 'Did you just get off a farm? We're going to have to get somebody to dress you,'" the actor recalls with a laugh. Although Powell's career ultimately necessitated a move to LA, the sixth-generation Texan and UT alumnus frequently returns to Austin as well as to his family's 3,000-acre ranch outside of Dallas. "Austin is all about margaritas on the water, grabbing breakfast tacos, jogging around [Lady Bird] Lake," Powell says. "It was so hard to leave, because that's the way life should be." Making the difficult leap to Hollywood was the right move, however. In The Expendables 3, Powell appears alongside action star gods like Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. His character, Thorn—a wild mix of intelligence and muscle—urges the other "young" Expendables (including boxer Victor Ortiz and MMA fighter Ronda Rousey) to "think before they shoot," he says. And while even seasoned thespians might have had the jitters around such an accom - plished group, Powell was nothing but grateful. "I felt like I won a sweepstakes where you get to shoot guns with all your favorite action stars," he says. "I thought, I definitely don't belong here, but this is pretty damn cool." Stallone thought otherwise. "Sly said, 'We searched the globe for [someone] who could be the young Expendable. There's nobody [right now] who's the young action star. You could be the next Stallone or Tom Cruise,'" Powell shares. But he hasn't forgotten his days as a struggling actor. "I remember walking into an audition, and they said, 'Here's the song you're going to sing; now pull down your pants.' I wasn't sure this town was for me. But it's worked out because now I don't have to pull my pants down in auditions anymore." AW Glen Powell on his family's 3,000-acre ranch outside of Dallas. INSIGHT: HIS TEX-MEX SPOT: "Cisco's in East Austin has the best migas you'll ever have, hands down." FAVORITE ESCAPE: Powell's family ranch near Dallas is "Disneyland for adults. There's a golf course, horses, a petting zoo. It's crazy." 74 AUSTINWAY.COM PEOPLE Talent Patrol