Richard Linklater is not interested in just telling a story. He’s here to test the durability of identity, realism, and, if the budget allows, the soundtrack. His latest trick, Hit Man — streaming now on Netflix — is a genre-bending, New Orleans-soaked noir-romcom-thriller co-written with certified thirst trap Glenn Powell, who also stars as roughly 47 different people… all technically the same person.
“Who doesn’t fantasize about being someone else?” Linklater says, like a guy who’s spent the last thirty years making movies about exactly that. “It’s passionless to passion. Introvert to extrovert. All those little knobs you tweak until you're someone you wouldn’t even recognize.”
The film is “inspired by a true story,” which in Linklater-speak means “we found a wild article from Skip Hollandsworth again.” The Texas Monthly journalist was also the source material for Bernie. “Skip’s got a real nose for crazy, true crime characters,” Linklater says. “I’d read that Hit Man article when it came out, revisited it over the years, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that Glenn called me up and said, ‘We should do this.’”
To be clear: Glenn Powell didn’t just sign on to act — he co-wrote the damn thing. “We pushed each other, made each other laugh,” Linklater says. “Once we opened the floodgates and leapt off from where Skip’s story ends, it became a thrill ride.”
A thrill ride with Glenn Powell in various wigs, facial hair styles, accents, and what appear to be bootleg versions of his own personality. “The real Gary Johnson would alter his appearance based on what the client thought a hit man should be,” Linklater says. “We just turned that dial to eleven.”
Costume mockups aside, Linklater insists it wasn’t until Powell stepped out of the makeup trailer that the crew truly understood the absurdity of what they were making. “Every day it was freak of the week,” he laughs. “He’d get out of the van and we’d all go, ‘What the hell is that?’”
But underneath the disguises, Hit Man still manages to be a classic Linklater movie — existential tangents, philosophical asides, and a whole subplot that’s essentially a psych lecture on Carl Jung. “We cheated a little,” he admits. “Made the character a college professor. That way he can get up there and say smart-sounding stuff that actually drives the theme.”
If you think that sounds familiar, that’s because it is. “We were literally talking about fixed personality versus willful change in Before Sunset 20 years ago,” he says. “Back then I thought, nah, we can’t really change. Now? I’ve read more, lived more. I’m more intrigued by the idea that we can.”
Even the soundtrack has Linklater DNA, though this one trades the stoner rock of Dazed and Confused for Louisiana soul and Crescent City grease. “New Orleans just worked,” he says. “Danger, make-believe, lawlessness. If you’re going to jump into a location, jump all the way. Use the Dr. John. Use the Allen Toussaint.”
Of course, this is the same guy who spent an unholy amount of his budget on the Dazed soundtrack and once filmed a movie (Boyhood) over 12 years. Merrily We Roll Along, his next “why not?” project, is already underway and will take two decades to complete. “The characters age backwards,” he shrugs. “Hard to fake that.”
So why do it? “Because what the hell,” he says. “You’ve got to trust the future a little. You put yourself out there every project anyway. This one just leaves you a little more vulnerable. But you move forward with a little belief.”
And if that’s not the most Linklater answer possible, I don’t know what is.
For an in-depth look at Hit Man, Linklater's storytelling philosophy, and more, tune in to the full interview above and then check out the trailer below.
