Glen Powell Plans to Go Incognito as Chad Powers in the Real World
Glen Powell‘s prosthetics may be the standout star of his new series Chad Powers — and he’s not quite ready to retire the look.
In the show, which Powell leads as well as co-created, he plays a disgraced former college quarterback who tries to make a comeback by joining a struggling team — while donning a fake nose and wig to hide his true identity.
At the Los Angeles premiere on Thursday — which took over the Rose Bowl for a true football-forward experience — Powell told The Hollywood Reporter that “this is probably the first couple of weeks where I’m not working, and it’s the first time I’ve kind of exposed my face to real air. I think after these last couple of weeks I will call Kevin (Kirkpatrick) and Alexei (Dmitriew), my makeup and prosthetics people, and just see if I can borrow Chad for a little bit” to wear the disguise around town.
Calling the quarterback “the most fun character I’ve ever played, by far,” it’s no surprise Powell wants to keep Chad around, as he added, “I think this show is going to blow people away.”
Glen Powell in Chad Powers
Daniel Delgado/Disney
His Chad Powers look — and accompanying high-pitched, Southern voice — was the talk of the carpet, as showrunner Michael Waldron explained that they knew “we have to make Chad ugly, Chad can’t look good, but the Glen-ness comes out and you end up falling in love with Chad almost immediately.” Steve Zahn, who plays the head coach of struggling team the Catfish (wink, wink), added that he had a “real problem” keeping a straight face across from Powell: “There’s the shower scene and I couldn’t even look at him, you see me looking at the floor.”
The Chad Powers character is based on a viral skit from 2022, where Eli Manning donned prosthetics and the name to go uncover at Penn State and try out for their team. He and brother Peyton Manning serve as executive producers on the series, as Peyton admitted they “had no idea” if the short video would actually work as a larger, scripted story.
But, the former NFL star was quick to mock his little brother, as Peyton teased that Powell’s Powers is “way better looking than Eli. I think it was just a reminder that thank goodness it’s Glen Powell in this show and not Eli Manning. Watching Eli for eight minutes in that viral video, that’s one thing, but six episodes that’s a lot of Eli — I stare at Eli every Monday night (on the Manningcast), it’s hard. That’s why I’m here, to be sure that there’s no last minute change with Eli. He has a cameo in this show, but it’s limited. I’m just glad it’s Glen, Glen looks good no matter what he’s in.”
Chad Powers premieres Tuesday on Hulu.
