‘Chad Powers’: Glen Powell Goes to ‘Such Daring Places’ in Hulu’s New Football Comedy (Exclusive)

Glen Powell wasn’t afraid to go for the touchdown in Hulu’s new football comedy Chad Powers.

As co-creator and executive producer alongside Michael Waldron, Powell was down to go to “such daring places” and get “incredibly weird” as he embraced a dual role as both disgraced former college football player Russ Holliday and his prosthetics-clad alter-ego Chad Powers.

Based on Eli Manning’s “Eli’s Places” sketch, Waldron told PopCulture.com ahead of Tuesday’s series premiere that Chad Powers started off with as “just this silly sketch that was really funny, and Glen and I thought it was hilarious.”

“To us initially, it was like, well, this is maybe an opportunity to do a show about college football [because] we’re both college football fans,” Waldron recalled. “I think it was only as we started talking more and more about it that we were like, ‘Well, is this actually a surprising opportunity for a show that can have a lot of heart and a lot of fun character stuff?’”

After blowing his shot at a professional football career with both on-field and off-field blunders, former superstar University of Oregon quarterback Holliday drums up a plan for a second chance when he sees the South Georgia University Catfish football team, coached by Steve Zahn‘s Jake Hudson, is conducting open tryouts. And thus, with a little latex and a questionable wig, Chad Powers is born.

Waldron explained, “Our approach was write ourselves into corners, you know, because we were inspired by certainly Mrs. Doubtfire, Tootsie, those great stories, great sports stuff like Bull Durham, Major League, The Replacements, even Jerry Maguire, but also stuff like Breaking Bad, you know, or Barry.”

“It is ultimately a story with a big lie at the center of it,” he continued. “And that kind of drives every moment of the show, and that’s what we had to really embrace in a way that was a fun challenge for the writers.”

Powell was an “amazing collaborator” along the way, with Waldron revealing that “so, so much” of Chad was improved by Powell.

“As a performer, you know, Glen is incredibly funny,” he said. “And he’s an incredibly weird actor when he wants to be. He can do such weird, crazy stuff. … He goes to such daring places in this show, and it was my job just to push him there. But I didn’t even really have to push him — he was he ran full stop at it.”

Bolstering Powell’s performance along the way is a cast of supporting characters, including Zahn, Perry Mattfeld as Ricky, Quentin Plair as Coach Byrd, Wynn Everett as Tricia Yeager, Frankie A. Rodriguez as Danny.

A former college football player himself, Plair said he jumped at the opportunity to mix his “two passions” while getting on the field as Coach Byrd.

Everett was similarly thrilled to use her upbringing as a Georgia native to create the bold and brash Tricia. “Every woman in my life growing up in the south, I pulled from for Tricia,” she told PopCulture.

Rodriguez, whose Catfish mascot character, Danny, aids in Russ’ scheme, noted that while football is a “huge aspect” of the show, it goes “so many different places” that even non-sports fans will enjoy.

“I think anybody who watches it will find someone to kind of latch on to and follow along with,” he said. “There really is something for everyone. So I would say even if you’re not a sports fan, you will find something to love about this show.”

The first two episodes of Chad Powers premiere Tuesday, Sept. 30, on Hulu.