Glen Powell Says His Anyone But You Nude Scene Almost Killed Him
Shooting a nude scene is likely nerve-wracking under the best of circumstances. You're surrounded by a bunch of people with cameras; you might have to do the take multiple times, and you have to deliver a top-notch performance while your whole butt is hanging out. Glen Powell faced an additional challenge while filming his new romantic comedy "Anyone But You" alongside Sydney Sweeney — according to the actor, he almost fell off a cliff and died.
During the New York premiere of the film, the "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Set It Up" star told Variety that in a scene where his character frantically disrobes because he thinks there's a spider in his pants, he almost tripped and fell to his death. As Powell put it, "Taking your clothes off on the side of a cliff in a hurry is not safe [...] Nobody talks about that safety issue on set, where I almost died falling off a cliff taking my pants off too fast. But it's a really fun scene, so it was all worth it."
Powell also told the outlet that filming a nude scene isn't particularly sexy in practice, largely because you just feel really dumb in the moment. "You just have to grip it and rip it on a scene like that," he said. "You know you're not going to leave that filming day looking cool, so you just have to embrace it."
Sydney Sweeney said shooting the spider scene in Anyone But You was dangerous for her as well
Glen Powell wasn't the only one in very real danger while filming this specific scene in "Anyone But You" — a scene where Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sydney Sweeney) are hiking through a wild area in Australia and worry that a spider might be roaming underneath his clothes. As Sweeney revealed at the premiere, the arachnid that was used to shoot the scene took a bite out of her.
"There's the spider itself, which actually bit me, and that was a whole thing," Sweeney said, though she didn't elaborate on what "a whole thing" entailed or whether or not she needed any medical attention. "And then we have the part of Glen bending over and me checking to see if there are more spiders."
Even though Sweeney is engaged to restauranteur Jonathan Davino, the flirty vibe between her and Powell throughout the "Anyone But You" press tour hasn't gone unnoticed, though the pair insist they're just very good friends. Comments like this, where Sweeney basically says she spent a day staring at a naked Powell, won't help, as she recalled during the red carpet interview, "I'm very acquainted with Glen now."
What is Anyone But You about?
So what is Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney's new movie "Anyone But You" even about? A modern take on William Shakespeare's comedy "Much Ado About Nothing" — which is made apparent by the characters' names Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sweeney), a take on Benedick and Beatrice from the original play — the film is a smart, funny spin on the "enemies to lovers" trope that forces Ben and Bea to pretend they're a happy couple.
While attending a destination wedding in Australia, Ben and Bea — who once had a romantic entanglement that ended badly — realize they can simply fake a relationship to accomplish their individual goals. Not only is Ben hoping to win back his ex-girlfriend and make her jealous (she's also attending the nuptials), but Bea's family is trying to reunite her with her former fiancé, and as such, they decide they can lie through their teeth to get through the wedding. Predictably, this fake arrangement gets a little too real pretty quickly; it is a romantic comedy, after all.
"Anyone But You" hits theaters on December 22.