Actor Glen Powell was forced to reevaluate his entire existence upon discovering that a cannibalism anecdote he'd been relaying for quite some time turned out to be an urban legend.
Last month, the Anyone But You actor appeared as a guest on Jake Shane's podcast Therapuss and asked the host if he wanted to hear a "crazy story."
"Yes please," replied Shane, unprepared for the horrific subject.
"Little sister was friends with a girl who went on a date with a guy," began Powell, describing the man as "super charming."
Powell was slightly apprehensive and admitted that he should get all the facts straight and confirm the validity of his sister's retelling before commencing with the story.
"I hope I'm telling it correctly," said Powell, and continued:
"Basically, she goes on a date with this guyâŠThey have a great night."
According to Powell's sister, this man brought her friend back to his place and offered a massage, which she agreed to but felt something was off about him and immediately bailed after listening to her gut.
The next day, she found that her skin was "itching like crazy" and subsequently consulted a doctor about it.
The doctor conducted some tests on her skin before revealing the shocking diagnosis.
"It turns out that it's like a black market lotion that breaks down skin...for human consumption," Powell said dramatically.
You can see the segment from the podcast here.
Powell added:
"This man was rubbing lotion on her body to eat her."
"The doctor is like 'you have to give me this personâs address and you should call the police.'"
"They go to this guyâs house, and he had several bodies in the house.â
Since the story went viral, fact-checking site Snopes debunked it as a myth that was a variation on a "salacious mortuary rumor" where a worker had sexual intercourse with corpses.
When Powell learned of the fake story that stemmed from the all-too-familiar "friend of a friend" premise, he took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote:
"Props to my little sisterâs friend who told her this dating storyâŠIâve been telling this for years. Iâm questioning my whole life now⊠False alarm."
He then joked:
"Back rubs are back."
There was a collective sigh of relief.
Others ribbed the actor for being so gullible.
Oh, Glen.
At least there's this.
Maybe we got it all wrong.
Powell can currently be seen in Netflix's romantic action flick Hit Man as a psychology professor recruited to portray fake hitmen to solicit murder-for-hire confessions.
