"Chad Powers" creators Glen Powell and Michael Waldron explain football reality and hard knocks in their new Hulu comedy series.Show Caption
Glen Powell and Michael Waldron created the Hulu comedy series "Chad Powers."Eli and Peyton Manning are executive producers, providing quarterback training and Powell "Top Gun" jokes.Powell plays dual roles as both the cocky college star Russ Holliday and his goofy-but-lethal alter ego, Chad Powers.Glen Powell accepted elite mentoring – and some Manning-brothers abuse – doing double quarterback duty in the Hulu sports comedy series "Chad Powers" (first episodes now streaming).Powell, 36, stars as both cocky college star Russ Holliday, who flames out on a nationally televised game, and as Holliday's goofy alter ego Chad Powers, who reboots the toxic career eight years later disguised with a wig and facial prosthetics.Two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning, who created the Chad Powers character for a 2022 "Eli's Places" sketch, and ex-NFL QB brother Peyton Manning, added quarterback training to their executive producing duties for the six-part series.But that expertise came with frequent mocking about Powell's football-throwing style seen in the famed dogfight football game in "Top Gun: Maverick.""Eli wanted to make sure Glen looked like an elite college, pro-caliber quarterback," says Michael Waldron, who created "Chad Powers" with Powell. "And that meant busting Glen about his football throwing in 'Top Gun' a lot, probably to create a sense of insecurity."Powell, who played high school football in Austin, accepted the Manning-ribbing. But he happily rattles off his slippery excuses about those shirtless "Top Gun" throws."First off, we were essentially throwing a Nerf football and it was covered in coconut oil," says Powell. "Because 'Top Gun' dogfight football was not about football, it was about flexing. Everyone knows that was not representative of my throw."Even with the jokes, the quarterback play and the realistic football action are the biggest surprises about "Chad Powers." Powell polished his throwing mechanics with NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes' off-season training coach Nic Shimonek while the Manning brothers went "granular" in their training."I didn't expect them to be making comments like telling me, 'You weren't looking at the safety in that play,'" Powell says. "Eli was adamant that I had to take these things in, even something as small as honing my signature superstition before snapping the ball. Is he licking his fingers? I always ask 'why?' when playing a character. It was fun that the 'why?' came from the Mannings."'Chad Powers' star Glen Powell scrambled from former NFL stars: 'Terrified'In the show's opening Rose Bowl game, featuring University of Oregon Ducks star Holliday's total implosion, the football action coordinated by Game Changing Films is realistic, with former NFL players pursuing."The guys rushing me used to play for the Baltimore Ravens and were the biggest humans I've ever seen up close. They were moving at me with unfathomable speed," Powell says. "I was legitimately terrified. But it's an all-immersive sequence. That was one of the foundational aspects of this show, that people buy into the premise."College football nut Waldron was "starstruck" working in Pasadena's Rose Bowl announcer booth for scenes with college football announcers Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler. The well-known duo calling Holliday's career-ending endzone fumble and ensuing on-camera meltdown add to the reality.Eli Manning's cameo in a later episode, as an opposing coach watching Chad Power's lethal game, features an unlikely expletive from the wholesome commentator."I don't think we got any takes where Eli wasn't swearing," says Waldron. "He was totally game and funny. The original Chad Powers sketch was built on Eli's comedic ability, improvising while playing football."Glen Powell does not miss Cybertruck: He will 'stick with my Ram truck'After his total TV collapse, the cocky Holliday becomes even more of a jerk, wearing a beanie hat at Hollywood clubs with sad hangers-ons and driving a Tesla Cybertruck."We thought it was a funny car. And the more we wrote the funnier it got," Waldron says. "It's the perfect Russ Holliday vehicle, pure flash that he probably can't afford."Powell was not impressed with the expensive electric ride."I'll say one thing about being in a Cybertruck for as long as I've been," says Powell. "I'm going to stick with my Ram truck."Will there be 'Chad Powers' Season 2?Holliday gets inspiration to change his identity to Chad Powers because his father Mike (Toby Huss) is a Hollywood prosthetics expert working on a Michael Bay version of the Davy Crockett story. With the ludicrous movie concept a running theme, director Bay gets lightly toasted in the series."I saw him a couple of nights ago, and he absolutely loves it," Powell says."The wheels are already in motion for a Michael Bay cameo should the world respond to 'Chad Powers,'" Waldron says. "We're setting our sites for cameos, it's Taylor Swift or bust for Season 2."While Hulu has not green-lit a Season 2, Powell is intent on working the TV comedy into one of Hollywood's busiest schedules (next stop is the November release of the "Running Man" movie reboot)."The 'Chad Powers' cameras are not rolling yet," Powell says. "But TV is a great democracy. If the people want it, we will serve it up."
