‘A real godsend for me’

As Glen Powell ascends as a Hollywood leading man, he has an A-list mentor to help him along the way — “Top Gun: Maverick” costar Tom Cruise.

Powell, 36, star of the upcoming remake of 1987’s “The Running Man,” opened up to GQ in a cover story published online Sept. 9 that one of the pieces of advice that he’s been leaning on recently was one Cruise shared with him.

“He basically said, ‘Hey, it’s going to get really, really loud. It’s your job to just turn the volume down. Just remember, you have your hand on that switch. You have your hand on the ability to turn up that noise or turn it down,'” Powell shared. “And really just turning down the noise and trusting your own gut has been a real godsend for me.”

One of those times when things got “loud” for him as his profile rose was the release of “Anyone But You,” the 2023 romantic comedy with Sydney Sweeney, whose success was propelled, in part, by rumors of a romance between the leads despite their involvement in separate romantic relationships.

Months after the film’s release, Powell admitted in a New York Times profile that the two had leaned into a showmance that “worked wonderfully” for marketing the movie. But in June, his former partner Gigi Paris said on the “Too Much” podcast that the marketing ploy damaged their three-year relationship.

When Paris first learned about the rumors online, she said she’d told Powell that “the whole world is watching” and to “proceed with caution, please.” He didn’t receive that well, she claimed, and the relationship continued to deteriorate when he allegedly told her she couldn’t visit the set due to a mutual decision between Powell and producers.

“I don’t know if there was a relationship there or not, but then they came out to say it was all a PR scheme at the expense of our relationship,” Paris said on the podcast.

Glen Powell responds to Gigi Paris’ claims about their breakup

In the GQ profile, Powell was described as not “exactly” agreeing with Paris’ recounting of the end of their relationship.

“I will always have nothing but love for her and respect for her,” he said. “Everybody’s always going to have their own narrative on things and all that. And she’s welcome to it.”

He continued: “Relationships are really hard. And when two people break up, they each go to their own brunch, and they will each tell their own narrative.”

Sweeney has also since ended the relationship she was in while making “Anyone But You” through her Fifty-Fifty production company, which she’d cofounded with her then-fiancé Jonathan Davino.

Contributing: Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Glen Powell reveals Tom Cruise’s advice for Hollywood success