Glen Powell risked it all filming Anyone But You, the upcoming rom-com in which he stars alongside Sydney Sweeney. While shooting a nude scene on top of a cliff, the actor revealed that he “almost died” when he took his pants off a little “too fast.”
In the scene, Sweeney pulls a big spider out of Powell’s pants, prompting him to quickly strip down to nothing in front of the Euphoria star.
“You just have to grip it and rip it on a scene like that,” Powell told Variety at the movie’s premiere in New York City on Monday night (Dec. 11). “You know you’re not going to leave that filming day looking cool, so you just have to embrace it.”
According to the Top Gun: Maverick star, the scene nearly went horribly wrong.
“Taking your clothes off on the side of a cliff in a hurry is not safe either,” he said. “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.”
Powell wasn’t the only one who faced safety issues amid the scene, which took half a day to film. In fact, Sweeney was even bitten by a spider that she took out of her co-star’s pants.
“There’s the spider itself, which actually bit me, and that was a whole thing. And then we have the part of Glen bending over and me checking to see if there are more spiders,” she said, before joking, “I’m very acquainted with Glen now.”
While promoting the film on The Today Show earlier this week, Sweeney opened up to Hoda Kotb about the terrifying moment the spider bit her mid-scene. The White Lotus star explained that she freaked out in the film because the insect had laid its fangs into her.
“Nobody called cut because they thought I was making a very dramatic, interesting choice,” she said. “Glen was the only one who finally caught on. They thought I was acting, but it actually bit me.”
The duo’s steamy new romantic comedy follows Bea (Sweeney) and Ben (Powell), both of whom despise one another. When they unexpectedly find themselves at the same destination wedding in Australia, however, they pretend to be a couple.
Anyone But You hits theaters on Friday, Dec. 22.