Glen Powell on How Matthew McConaughey Convinced Him to Leave Hollywood for Texas

Top Gun: Maverick star Glen Powell revealed in a new interview the advice Matthew McConaughey gave him that convinced Powell to leave Hollywood and move back home to Austin, TX.

Powell told The Hollywood Reporter that ever since his Hollywood image has risen following roles in Maverick and the hit comedy Anyone But You, he finds it hard to trust people's intentions in the industry. He can’t quite reconcile “this idea that you’re a function here…Someone will go, ‘Hey, friend, want to come to this guy’s house? Yeah, come over.’ And then you show up, and suddenly you’re there for, like, someone’s tequila launch, and all of a sudden there’s a photographer and you’re like, ‘Wait, what are we doing here?’”

At a crossroads, Powell sought advice from fellow Texas native McConaughey, who recently moved from Hollywood back to his hometown in the Lone Star State.

“He’s like, ‘Hollywood is the Matrix, man. You plug in and it’s all fake world,’” Powell recalled McConaughey telling him. “He’s like, ‘Then I go to Austin, and I unplug. It’s all real. Those are my friends, that’s my family, my actions matter there.’”

The advice hit home for Powell, who’s navigated a swift ascent to fame in the last couple years. “He’s right,” Powell said of McConaughey. “If you’re here, you live in the Matrix all the time, there’s no separation of those worlds. And for me, especially as my parents get older and my niece and nephew are growing up, I want a separation of those worlds.”

Powell soon moved back to Austin, purchasing a home that rests just 30 minutes from that of his parents. He’s even taking classes at Austin’s University of Texas, and is just two courses away from graduating. His planned graduation this summer was waylaid in the wake of Anyone But You’s success, and Powell’s press commitments to his new movies Hit Man (out May 24 on Netflix) and Twisters (out July 19 in theaters).

Asked why he’s stepping back to his roots and getting a degree just as he’s being anointed one of the world’s biggest stars, Powell explained, “I think it’s really important to my mom and it’s more of an emotional thing for me,” he says. “Plus, I’m so close, I can taste it.”

According to Powell’s family, the star hasn’t sacrificed their remarkably close bond just because Hollywood is knocking. His parents and sisters visit him on every movie set he’s working on, whether it’s in the Midwest or Australia.

“I know we’re probably in his way sometimes,” Powell’s mother, Cyndy, told THR, “but you wouldn’t know it because he makes everyone feel loved and taken care of.”