‘He’s very proud that he plucked me early’: Glen Powell reflects on his cameo role in a superhero movie you definitely forgot he was in

You probably caught him being a total heartthrob in Hit Man, Twisters, or Anyone But You, but Glen Powell has reflected on his lesser-known role in a superhero movie, one you probably forgot he was even in. 

To shed light on this obscure role, I invite you to cast your mind back to 2012 when a younger (yet equally good-looking) Powell made an appearance in The Dark Knight Rises. If that revelation came as a shock, that’s probably because Powell’s role in the Batman film — the finale of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy — was brief, to the point where his character doesn’t even have a name and is simply credited as “Trader #1.” You can see him getting his head bonked against a desk by Bane at 1.33 in this video:

This pre-fame appearance saw Powell play a stock exchange trader who gets knocked out by Dark Knight Rises villain Bane, who is portrayed by Tom Hardy. Between Powell, Hardy, Christian Bale, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it seems Nolan has a penchant for casting anyone who has contributed to my gay awakening in the past couple of years. In any case, Powell looked back on his small yet impactful role in the Batman threequel in a recent profile for Vanity Fair. 

The actor said that despite it being a minor role, he still “remember[s] everything” about his experience while filming. “I remember on Dark Knight Rises the feeling of being able to walk onto a set and you knew everybody in the world wanted to be on that set,” Powell said. The actor went on to reveal that even though it was an unnamed character, he still “auditioned several times” for Trader #1 role. “I was getting to work with the greatest director on the planet, Christopher Nolan,” Powell said. 

Naturally, having not yet reached the level of acclaim as his colleagues at the time, Powell’s experience on The Dark Knight Rises left him star-struck. “You’re sitting there and all of a sudden Tom Hardy walks in as Bane,” he said, describing his castmate’s presence as “electric” and “out-of-body.” The ever-humble superstar that he is, Powell went on to express gratitude for the role, which he said came at a time “when nothing was going on” in his life. 

“I was just fighting for every inch,” Powell said, “and when Christopher Nolan casts you in his movie, it’s a validation that’s hard to explain.” Now, years later and at the height of his own success, Powell said he had since discussed the chance Nolan took on him with the director himself. “I’ve talked to Chris about this, we’ve run into each other at different things. I saw him during his amazing Oppenheimer run,” the actor recalled. 

What did Nolan have to say all these years later and with a slew of blockbusters under Powell’s belt? “He’s very proud that he plucked me early,” Powell said, “I’m just very grateful that he took a shot.” As an interesting little aside, Powell isn’t the only star whose role in a superhero movie you may have forgotten, with Modern Family’s Ty Burrell, Bridesmaids’ Chris O’Dowd, and Olivia Munn taking on small roles in The Incredible Hulk, Thor: The Dark World and Iron Man 2, respectively.   

Anyway, I’m off to watch Powell’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role in The Dark Knight Rises, since no amount of screentime is too short for him.