Glen Powell & Adria Arjona On Hit Man's Countless Characters And Plot Twists

Summary Hit Man is a wild ride of humor and romance, with Glen Powell showcasing his talent through a variety of eccentric characters.

Adria Arjona's character in Hit Man is a complex figure seeking reinvention and love, leading to unexpected twists in the story.

The film explores trust and deception in relationships, with Madison and Ron navigating a dangerous game of murder and love.

Hit Man follows Gary Johnson, a mild-mannered college professor with a side gig as tech support for the New Orleans Police Department. When the usual undercover officer who impersonates assassins on operations is unavailable, Gary is forced to take on the role, which he is surprisingly adept at. Gary becomes the new go-to undercover officer for contract killer sting operations, crafting new looks and personalities. However, when one of the subjects of an investigation, Madison Masters, gains his sympathy, he decides to advise her against her plans.

Hit Man is helmed by Richard Linklater, who not only directed the movie but co-wrote it with star Glen Powell. Based on real-life undercover investigator Gary Johnson and his illustrious career, Hit Man is an action romantic comedy that plays with other genres, including a lighter take on noir, with a phenomenally funny cast led by Powell and Arjona and an unexpected love story filled wth murder, love, and money.

Related The True Story Behind Hit Man, Glen Powell & Richard Linklater's Netflix Movie Richard Linklater's upcoming movie Hit Man is set to become one of his best works yet and is based on the life of a real undercover agent.

Screen Rant interviewed stars Glen Powell and Adria Arjona about their new movie, Hit Man. Powell discussed the different characters he plays, even briefly, in the movie. Arjona explained why she was drawn to the character of Madison and the similarities between this character and Bix, her character in Andor.

Glen Powell Surprised Linklater With Each New Character He Portrayed In Hit Man

"A Lot Of Those Characters Were Pretty Bizarre"

While Hit Man is brilliantly funny, it also shows off Powell's impressive acting abilities. He portrays countless characters in Hit Man, with each assassin vastly different, not just in their looks, but their personality as well. Interestingly, these characters weren't planned out thoroughly in rehearsal. Instead, it seems Powell had the freedom to craft them himself.

Glen Powell: I get to play a lot of different characters in this movie. It's obviously for an actor, it's the greatest joy to just show up and literally do what you do when you're a kid, which is just put on costumes and accents and big teeth and play pretend. I think the one that obviously is the wish fulfillment of the movie is Ron. When you get to act across from Adria Arjona every day, she seemed to be really into Ron. So when you can have that effect on her, it really makes it a better day. But a lot of those characters were pretty bizarre and it was always fun. I never got a chance to show it to Rick or the crew before I got to perform them. So it was always a fun day because that always felt like I was getting to do a show and tell day for the crew on all those characters.

Adria Arjona Compares The Relationships Between Maddison In Hit Man & Bix In Andor

Image via Netflix

Arjona broke down what excited her about the role of Madison in Hit Man. She explained how her desperate need to reinvent herself was an enticing aspect of Madison's arc. Arjona also teased a happy ending, which makes sense with Hit Man being a romantic comedy.

Adria Arjona: What is there not to like about that whole story? I think the unpredictability of her and the fact that she loves reinventing herself or is in desperate need to reinvent herself to sort of find a new version of herself and kind of escape her past relationship. I think when we first meet her, she's in a really dark place and she figures the only way to get out of it is sort of to reinvent herself and to find different perspectives. She finds a different perspective thanks to Ron. So I think she falls in love with the idea of sort of pleasing him and pleasing his fantasy. And by that she's also creating her own fantasy. Which was so much fun to play, to create, and to talk about with Glen and talk about with Rick. Slowly, Madison started shifting into this character that was intentional and precise. And then I love the fact that there is a happy ending to the story and that it is a love story. It's an interesting one, but there's a happy ending and I love that for these characters.

While they are vastly different, Arjona's character in Andor shares similarities with Bix, especially as twists and turns hugely impact the trust they have for the men in their lives. Arjona explained how Bix and Madison have certain similarities, but also differences in the basis of their relationships.

Adria Arjona: I think Cassian and Bix have an underlying trust that is from being from Ferrix and their survivalist at every given moment. I think they know each other since childhood, so there's this kind of familiarity that you have to trust each other. They also have no one else to trust. And in this case [in Hit Man], I think it's a decision. I think they find each other sort of interesting and engaging. And then, when Ron makes this decision of making it official and committing, you're in for life, you're going to trust this person until the day you die, and vice versa. I think they both have something on each other which connects them and binds them for life. Cassian and Bix are bounded by Ferrix and Ron and Madison are bonded by murder.

About Hit Man

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Inspired by an unbelievable true story, a strait-laced professor discovers his hidden talent as a fake hit man. He meets his match in a client who steals his heart and ignites a powder keg of deception, delight, and mixed-up identities.

Check back soon for our other Hit Man interviews with:

Richard Linklater

Retta & Sanjay Rao

Hit Man will have a limited theatrical release on May 24 before debuting on Netflix on June 7.

Source: Screen Rant Plus