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Running Man Glen Powell reveals the secret Tom Cruise told him about movie running, man
"You don't look as cool as you think you do," Cruise told his Top Gun: Maverick co-star about running on film

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If you’re going to take advice on how to film an action movie, Tom Cruise is probably one of the best people to listen to. The man has made it his impossible mission (see what we did there?) to film himself doing every type of outrageous stunt imaginable. What advice did Cruise give Glen Powell ahead of filming The Running Man? Check how he looks while he’s actually, you know, running.
One of the enduring memes of Tom Cruise’s career is that he will find any excuse to sprint in a movie, but there is a reason for it – Cruise is one of the few people on the planet who doesn’t look ridiculous when he’s running on film. The act of running is not a photogenic one, so the Mission: Impossible actor urged Powell to fix that. Glen Powell has revealed in the most recent issue of Empire Magazine that Tom Cruise told his Top Gun: Maverick co-star to “Film yourself running on camera as soon as possible. You don’t look as cool as you think you do.”
The advice Cruise gave Powell didn’t end there. “When you get hit on screen, you are getting hit,” Powell recalls Cruise telling him, which may have influenced the actor to do many of his own stunts in The Running Man. However, that comes with a cost, taking a toll on his body. “It’s been a lot of learning how to heal on the go when you’re shooting… We’ve definitely taken some hits on this one.”
The Running Man, or The Bleeding Man, as Glen Powell jokingly calls it in the interview, is out in cinemas on November 14, 2025.
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