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Glen Powell Shares His Side of Sydney Sweeney's Spider Bite Story

The Anyone But You star also revealed an easter egg in the movie: His mom and dad, in cameo roles. 

By Elizabeth Logan

During a recent visit to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Sydney Sweeney shared footage of a spider biting her while filming her new movie Anyone But You—during a scene when she was supposed to pretend to be bitten. Her co-star, Glen Powell, was the only one who noticed that her screaming had become too real.

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Now, Powell has told Jimmy Fallon his side of the story, and he revealed that it wasn't even the scariest moment of the shoot.

The actor admitted that when he realized what was going on, he was concerned for Sweeney...but Powell also backed away from her, and the spider. "I didn’t save her. It took me a while to get there," he told Fallon.

Even scarier, though, was Sweeney and Powell's swim in shark-infested waters.

"I did Top Gun and risked my life to do all sorts of stunts, but I think rom-coms are maybe more dangerous. We swam with sharks on this movie," he recalled. "We were shooting at the Sydney Opera house. I was telling all Australian folks, 'we’re getting to shoot at the Sydney Opera House. We’re actually shooting in the water outside of the Sydney Opera House.'"

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Glen Powell says filming Anyone But You was risky

In a perfect Australian accent, Powell recalled the locals telling him, "you’re not getting in that water, mate...[that's the] sharkiest waters in all of Australia."

Doing his due diligence, Powell asked the stunt team how they planned to handle the possibility of sharks. He said he was told, "we have a shark repellant monitor that keeps the sharks away." Then they handed him the device and, he noticed, "this is a Fitbit."

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The Fitbit-like gadgets apparently did work to keep the sharks away. But afterward, when Powell, Sweeney and their director were flown out by helicopter, the aircraft began to rattle, and they had to make an emergency landing. The best laid plans!

As the actor told Fallon, "Rom-coms are a dangerous sport."

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Mr. and Mrs. Powell take off

Powell also revealed that both of his parents make cameos in the film—look out for them during a plane scene!—and the two seem to have been bitten by the acting bug.

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"They’ve had a cameo on basically every single movie I’ve done at this point. At first they were really excited for me to get new roles and stuff, and now all they’re concerned about is what they are gonna do in the movie," he joked, adding that he's got a "nepo mommy." Star power must run in the family!