Glen Powell apparently had his work cut out for him ahead of his new Hulu series, Chad Powers.
Joined by two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Eli Manning, Powell spoke to Linsey Davis on ABC News Live Prime’s The Sitdown to discuss what it took to bring Chad Powers to life. An exclusive clip shared with Decider ahead of the interview reveals Manning was pretty “concerned” about Powell’s football skills after getting a sneak peek of what the actor was capable of in Top Gun: Maverick.
“I thought he got better,” Manning said in the interview. “We all saw him in Top Gun throwing, not his best performance I thought on the football. I was a little concerned when I saw that. I’m like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna have to spend so much money on football that this thing’s never gonna be successful.'”
Chad Powers stars Powell as disgraced quarterback Russ Holliday whose football career got cut short just before making it to the NFL due to an unforgivable mistake. Eight years later, Holliday finds a new way to resurrect his football career: By donning a disguise and joining the struggling South Georgia Catfish.
Manning also said that he and his brother Peyton Manning, who both serve as executive producers on the series, worked with Powell on his cadence.
But even Eli had to admit that Powell eventually “nailed” it.
Powell noted in the ABC News Live interview that the topic of his football skills “always” came up when he and Eli were pitching the show. “The pitch always took a detour of us just giving each other shit about my throwing style,” he said. “[Eli’s] like, ‘Hey, you guys are gonna have to put in some more money for football training.'”
He added that it was “fun” to see Eli and Peyton give “super specific” advice about certain aspects of training, including creating a football superstition that felt “very unique” to Powers.
Powell also got the chance to weigh in on Eli’s acting skills, since the former Giants quarterback makes an appearance on the show alongside Powell’s parents.
The new interview, which airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET, is part of a new series of 30-minute interview shows airing Monday nights as part of ABC News Live Prime.
ABC News Live Prime can be streamed on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.
The first two episodes of Chad Powers are currently available to stream on Hulu, and new episodes arrive on Tuesdays.
If you’re new to Hulu, you can get started with a 30-day free trial on the streamer’s basic (with ads) plan. After the trial period, you’ll pay $9.99/month. If you want to upgrade to Hulu ad-free, it costs $18.99/month.
If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the Disney+ Bundles, all of which include Hulu. These bundles start at $10.99/month for ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu and goes up to $29.99/month for Disney+, Hulu, and Max, all ad-free.