Glen Powell shares near-death experience filming scene taking pants off

Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney attend Columbia Pictures' 'Anyone But You' New York premiere. The Hollywood stars open up about the trials and tribulations of creating the movie in Australia. Photo / John Lamparski, WireImage

High-profile American actor Glen Powell shared that he “almost died” while taking his pants off for a scene in the upcoming movie Anyone but You, in which he co-stars with A-lister Sydney Sweeney.

The actor made the revelations on the red carpet during the New York premiere of the film, which he attended with Sweeney on Tuesday, December 12.

The scene in question involves Powell’s character having a spider disappear up his shorts. Sweeney’s character has to help him take it out of his pants, and in doing so, Powell strips his clothes off.

Yet while the spider scene is meant to be reflective of the unsuspecting nature of Australia’s treacherous wildlife, it is Powell’s own actions that put the Hollywood star in critical danger.

“You just have to grip it and rip it on a scene like that. You know you’re not going to leave that filming day looking cool, so you just have to embrace it,” Powell explained at the red carpet premiere.

Talking to Variety, he noted that he had rushed into taking off his pants for the scene and lost his balance when they came off “too fast,” nearly causing Powell to fall over as he stood atop a cliff.

Glen Powell has gotten candid about his experiences on set with co-star Sydney Sweeney. Photo / Getty Images

“Taking your clothes off on the side of a cliff in a hurry is not safe,” Powell said on the carpet. “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.”

Despite Powell’s near-death experience during filming, it wasn’t the only threat the stars faced on set. Co-star Sweeney shared that dealing with the spider stuck in his shorts had also taken a turn for the worse.

“There’s the spider itself, which actually bit me, and that was a whole thing,” Sweeney revealed. “And then we have the part of Glen bending over and me checking to see if there are more spiders.”

Following swirling rumours that the pair have been engaged in a romance since filming the movie in Australia, Sweeney cryptically shared: “I’m very acquainted with Glen now.”

While the film was in production, Powell and Sweeney’s chemistry was picked up by onlookers, who noted that they seemed to be very close and affectionate. These rumours were exacerbated after Powell split with his girlfriend of four years, Gigi Paris, in the middle of filming for Anyone but You. Paris soon went on to post a mysterious Instagram post with the caption, “know your worth & onto the next.”

Anyone but You lands in cinemas on December 2022. It follows Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sweeney), two enemies who are reunited at a wedding in Australia. The two decide to pretend to be dating and portray themselves as the perfect couple, with some hiccups along the way.