Glen Powell knows he seems to be everywhere right now, but he makes no apologies for it.
“I think being hardworking is something that I really respect among my colleagues and other people,” Powell said on Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast. “The work ethic, especially on a movie set, when you have people invested in something. I love that quality. At the same time, I think everyone is worried about me, but I’m fine. I’m having a lot of fun.”
Powell spoke about his Hulu series “Chad Powers” on the Awards Circuit podcast. The series received critical acclaim for its story of a fallen former college football star who disguises himself and concocts a way to regain glory on the field of his new school. Given Powell’s successful career in theater, it may be surprising that he had time to star in and executive produce a television show, but “Chad Powers” inspired his passion.
“I got to co-create a show with one of my amazing friends and live in a world that I absolutely love,” he says. “The world of college football, as anyone who knows me knows, I’m a huge fan. I get to work with a very deep bench of some of the most talented actors in Hollywood, and I’m having a great time. So I’m not burnt out. I’m a big fan of it all. I don’t really feel like I’m missing out on anything because I’m able to have friends and family visit the set. I’m going to take some time off from now on. But it’s not a break because I’m burnt out, but I’m working for all the things that I really value.”
In this episode of the Awards Circuit Podcast, Powell talks about “Chad Powers,” his busy career and what’s next, and also reflects on the time he appeared on his first variety show and answered 10 Questions. Listen below!
“Chad Powers” of course started out as a gag on Eli Manning’s ESPN series “Eli’s Places.” In reimagining the character for the television series, Powell and co-creator Michael Waldron came up with a twist within the sports movie genre that was a combination of “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Breaking Bad.”
“How those storylines intersect is going to be inherently interesting,” he says. “For me as an actor, there was something exciting about changing so many things that are my favorite types of inspiration points.”
Powell and Waldron developed the idea for “Chad Powers” for three seasons. “There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end,” Powell said. “We know how we want this piece to go to the audience. Sometimes we don’t say, ‘We’re going to drag it out until we can’t go any further.’ We have a great mic drop of where this is going.”
He won’t say how “Chad Powers” will end. But at the very least, Powell says, given the big lie at the heart of the premise (Russ Holliday, played by Russ Holliday, sees his stunts as a prosthetic rookie quarterback getting out of control), the heat will continue to mount. He says he enjoyed the challenge of bringing his ideas to life. “How do you turn the dial to suit your audience, increasing the intensity, drama, and humor along the way, and how something that’s kind of ridiculous becomes something really rich and emotional and nuanced.”
Some of that comes from the very creation of the “Chad Powers” character, including the prosthetics and voice work.
Powell added that the tension will increase in season 2 as more people discover Russ Holliday’s deception. “In the second season, we wanted to kind of take a scalpel to the fact that this lie is actually ruining people’s lives,” he says. “It’s going to be even more of an ‘uncut gem.’ It’s going to be something much more wild, twisted, and dark, mixed in with all the fun comedy. That was always the intention. Waldron and I thought, ‘Okay, how do we take this silly, fun story and take it down the most twisted path for the audience?’
“This whole story is really a meditation on identity and how we label ourselves and how we allow others to label us,” Powell added. “Over the course of his journey, he’s come to label himself as a bit of a loser. He believes he’s cursed. He hasn’t taken any accountability. What happens in his effort to prove that theory wrong is that he ends up doubling down on his worst instincts and becoming his own curse on a team that has no idea that he’s doubled down on the biggest lie in the history of sports.”
The Variety Awards Circuit Podcast looks back at Guest’s first appearance on Variety and Daily Variety, and for Powell, it was July 20, 2012, when he had just landed the lead role in the film Red Wings and had just finished the feature film Writers (ultimately titled Stuck in Love) opposite Greg Kinnear and Lily Collins.
“I remember auditioning for that movie several times,” Powell said of “Red Wings.” “Being hired to do something seems like a really interesting thing to think about. Even the movie ‘Writers’ had a final title of ‘Stuck in Love.’ I worked with Lily Collins and he’s a great guy. ”
10 Questions for Glen Powell:
1. Childhood Nickname: “Bun-Bun” My sports team called me “Bun-Bun Powell.” Now my nieces and nephews call me “Uncle Bun-Bun.” ”
2. Something I loved as a kid and can’t believe I’m obsessed with now: Pokemon cards. “I recently got to be in the Super Mario movie, because I loved video games as a kid, and I got to play Star Fox. I was obsessed with Star Fox, and now I get to be Star Fox in this movie. So it’s funny how little things like this sneak back into the entertainment industry.”
3. Song you’d like to go to karaoke or sing in the shower: “I’m actually doing a movie starring Judd Apatow that’s set in the world of country music. So I’ve actually been dusting off a lot of country karaoke. So I guess I’ll probably say ‘I Should Have Been a Cowboy’ (Toby Keith).”
4. Please give me another title for your show: (This is not what I asked)
5. What is your secret talent?: “I can drink beer very quickly with a shotgun.”
6. Favorite ice cream flavor: Chocolate chip cookie dough.
7. The one item I can’t live without: “If I could call my dog brisket an item, I’d probably say brisket.”
8. What TV show of all time have you wanted to be a part of?: “When I moved to Los Angeles, I really wanted to be on a sitcom. I loved the mentality of the cast, I loved the live audience. When I first moved here, I went to see a lot of tapings. Obviously, ‘Friends’ was one of the great shows that I loved. Two: “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and “Two and a Half Men.” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” you know, “Sister, Sister.” That was my big dream when I moved to LA. If I could be in a sitcom, that would be the ultimate thing. Besides, I’ve never done it before! ”
9. Fictional character you most admire: “When I’m in a movie, I tend to binge on characters that are in the realm of what I’m going through right now. And I find that the movies I’m in reflect the idea of the pressure of failing publicly, and ‘Chad’ is no different.”
10. Is a hot dog a sandwich?: “I think you and I can agree on this. A psychopath would call a hot dog a sandwich. That doesn’t make sense.”
Also on this episode, Variety’s Joe Otterson and Jenny Mars stop by a special New York-based roundtable to recap the latest in TV, including the biggest trends, winners and losers.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tunkay, Emily Longeretta and Michael Schneider, who also serves as a producer, is your one-stop destination for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode’s “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talents and creators, discussions and debates about the awards race and industry headlines. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you download your podcasts.
