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Glen Powell’s cannibal-date story was a secondhand anecdote, not an event he said he witnessed—and its plot resembles an urban legend that had circulated years earlier. Later, Powell called it a “false alarm.” The alleged lotion, medical finding and bodies have not been established as real events by the reporting available here.
What did Glen Powell say about the cannibal date story?
In May 2024, while promoting Hit Man, Powell told the story on Jake Shane’s Therapuss podcast, according to Gizmodo’s June 10, 2024 report. He framed it as something that happened to a friend of his sister, not something he had seen himself.
In the account, the woman went to a man’s apartment after a date. He offered her a massage, she became uncomfortable and left. The story then claimed that her skin itched, a doctor identified a lotion supposedly meant to break down skin for human consumption, and police found bodies at the man’s home. Gizmodo reproduced Powell’s line: “This man was rubbing lotion on her body to eat her.” These are details of the anecdote; the report does not independently verify them.
Why does the story sound like an urban legend?
Gizmodo connected the plot to a story that Snopes had traced to emails circulating in 2001. As Gizmodo described the earlier legend, it usually involved a romantic encounter with a necrophiliac. A cannibal version was reportedly circulating by around 2009. Those are different versions of a story, not documented accounts of verified crimes.
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How did Powell later respond?
In August 2024, USA Today reported that Powell described the story as a “false alarm” after it was recognized as an urban myth. USA Today’s follow-up and People’s contemporaneous report both covered his walk-back.
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How widely did the clip circulate?
Gizmodo reported that a popular excerpt of Powell’s story on X had received more than 8 million views by the time of its June 10, 2024 article. That is a historical figure reported at that time, not a current view count.
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