Richard Linklater Says He ‘Can Act Every Role’ of ‘Goodfellas’

Richard Linklater and Glen Powell love movies. Making them and talking about them. In a recent promotional video posted by Netflix on X, formerly known as Twitter, the “Hit Man” screenwriting duo went through some of their favorite films for any given situation. When asked of his favorite Scorsese film, Linklater said, “‘Raging Bull’ was in that top slot for a couple decades before ‘Goodfellas’ kind of knocked it off.”

Later, when asked of films he can quote every line of, the director again referenced “Goodfellas,” saying he could recite “some version of it” and “can act every role.”

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When thinking of films they’re embarrassed they hadn’t seen, Powell referenced a recent screening of their film “Hit Man.” He said, “I feel like we discovered this the other night when people were asking inspirations for the movie and they say ‘This kind of feels like ‘Grosse Pointe Blank’ and I was like, ‘I’ve never seen that movie.’”

One movie Powell has seen is the animal adventure classic “Homeward Bound.” The rising star claimed it as his favorite movie to watch when he was home sick as a kid, to which Linklater chuckled and said, “I just like the idea of little sick Glen with a little thermometer in your mouth watching [‘Homeward Bound’].”

Later, Powell asked Linklater what movie was his entire personality in high school, which led the filmmaker on a reflective monologue similar to those found in his work. He said, “You’ve seen the movie ‘Last Picture Show,’ right? It was kind of like that. We had one theater and a movie we’d play every Friday night and there was like, you know, B-run studio releases. It just wasn’t, you know — movies weren’t our culture. I didn’t live in movieland then. I mean, I’d go see movies on dates. I remember seeing ‘Annie Hall’ when it came out and I really loved that. But it wasn’t my personality. The difference is, all the movies we saw — they were about adults. They were about people older. There weren’t really teenage movies for us, then. Or young. Back then, you had — you were being invited to an adult world. Now, the adult world, the movies are coming to you. Everything’s pitched to these little kids.”

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