Glen Powell Shuts Down Producer Shading Ryan Gosling’s Star Appeal

Glen Powell is not here for any shade being thrown at Ryan Gosling‘s star power. The “Twisters” and “Anyone But You” favorite recently took to X (formerly Twitter) to respond to a viral comment from an unnamed Hollywood producer who called Powell the biggest up-and-coming movie star in Hollywood and gave Gosling a back-handed compliment in the process.

Th unnamed producer spoke to The Wrap and said that Powell is officially a movie star “in the sense that audiences now go to movies to see him.” But the comment included some Gosling shade as the producer added: “Unlike an actor like Ryan Gosling whose appeal is mostly limited to female audiences, Glen appeals to both females and males.”

“Gosling is a legend. I’m just Glen,” Powell said in response as a riff on Gosling’s iconic “I’m just Ken” slogan from “Barbie.” The response quickly went viral on the social media platform with 100,000 likes and counting.

Powell has emerged as a movie star at a time when Hollywood has struggled to launch new A-listers. George Clooney recently told GQ magazine that changes at the major studios have lessened Hollywood’s power to create movie stars.

“They haven’t developed stars the way the studio system used to,” Clooney said of Hollywood. “[Brad Pitt and I] kind of were at the very end of that, where you could work at a studio and do three or four films, and there was some plan to it. And I don’t think that’s necessarily the case anymore. So it’s harder for you to sell somebody something on the back of a star.”

Analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations told Variety earlier this year that Powell and Timothee Chalamet are “ushering in a new talent base of bankable stars,” adding: “That’s wonderful for audiences, but even more so, a massive relief for the industry, which has been relying on aging talent for far too long.”

Powell has a handful of upcoming projects on the horizon, including Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man” and the Hulu comedy series “Chad Powers.”