Glen Powell shares he hated himself after seeing 'Hidden Figures' rough cut and 'puked in the bushes'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Glen Powell is recalling the time when he threw up when he thought he ruined his 2016 movie ‘Hidden Figures’ after watching the unedited cut.

The ‘Hit Man’ star recently appeared on the ‘Therapuss with Jake Shane’ podcast, where he opened up about worrying he ruined the Oscar-nominated biopic.

Glen Powell recalls his reaction after watching ‘Hidden Figures’

Powell, who essayed the role of real-life astronaut John Glenn in the film, recalled his experience of watching the rough version of the movie for the first time, per The Hollywood Reporter.

The 35-year-old star shared, “It does get in your own head,” before explaining, “People forget that when you’re watching a rough cut of a movie, it’s probably like watching the footage of yourself that you’re having to edit. So you sit there and you’re like, ‘I hate myself'.”

Sharing his experience, the ‘Anyone But You’ star continued, “I remember watching [Hidden Figures] for the first time on the Fox lot — and this was before all the effects were done, the music was in [and] the sound design — and I literally left the movie, and I puked in the bushes.”

Powell noted that he felt a sense of gloom when he thought he “literally ruined” the Theodore Melfi directorial which ultimately went on to win three Oscar nominations. 

Apart from Powell, the movie starred female stars including, Octavia Spencer, Taraji P Henson, and Janelle Monae.

The Texas native continued, “I was like, ‘All these women put in these great performances', and it’s like the legacy of these women. I was like, ‘I literally ruined this movie'.” 

He continued with his self-bashing, as he said, “It feels like the most atrocious thing you can do as an actor is just be terrible in a movie about real-life people that need a real-life story.”

Nevertheless, his outlook changed finally when he watched the final product. Powell explained, “Once the music gets in there, it starts being polished a little bit.”

After all the sound effects and music were added, Powell felt the film looked appealing to him. 

He shared, “We all want to be good … and nobody wants to be the weak point in a movie, especially when you’re talking about real-life stories.”

Glenn Powell explained why he thought he ruined the movie

This is, however, not the first time that Powell has opened up about feeling he “ruined” ‘Hidden Figures’, per Cinemablend.

Earlier during an appearance on Variety’s 'Actors on Actors' in 2022, the ‘Set It Up’ star shared that he started questioning whether he perfected the role of John Glenn after watching the rough cut. 

He shared, “I saw an early cut of Hidden Figures and everybody in that movie just kills it, but then I’m playing John Glenn in the movie, so [in] my section, I’m in a space shuttle, a little capsule, things like that. And they have a guy that’s puppeteering things floating on wires.”

He explained, “But that was all in the cut that I saw, so I could literally see a man puppeteering floating things, and it was like green screen, there was a grip holding [something] to be the Sun. And I just remember being like, ‘I ruined this beautiful movie, the legacy of these amazing women'. I was like, ‘You ruined it'.”