‘Chad Powers’ Co-Creator Michael Waldron Breaks Down The Season 1 Finale’s Biggest Scenes: “We Want To Really Beat Our Hero Up And Make It Hard For Him”

As Hulu‘s new football comedy, Chad Powers, sees Glen Powell play former star quarterback Russ Holliday, then use facial prosthetics, a wig, and an over-the-top fake voice to disguise himself as aspiring pro QB, Chad Powers, it’s hard not to laugh. But when Russ’ secret is finally revealed in Season 1’s eventful finale, Chad Powers unexpectedly levels up, delivering its most emotional, dramatic scenes yet.

“Hopefully, like any good story, we want to really beat our hero up and make it hard for him,” Michael Waldron, who co-created, wrote, and executive produced the series with Powell, told Decider over Zoom. “These moments are why I wanted to do this show, where — unlike Mrs. Doubtfire or Tootsie — on this one, it’s kind of like nobody gets out alive.”

Episode 6 of Chad Powers, “6TH QUARTER,” shows the aftermath of Coach Hudson’s (Steve Zahn) heart attack, sees Ricky (Perry Mattfeld) process harsh truths and decide what’s best for the South Georgia Catfish, and lets Russ — as both himself and Chad — engage in some serious soul-searching.

On top of perfectly teeing up a potential Season 2, the Chad Powers Season 1 finale also served as Waldron’s directorial debut, so the co-creator spoke with Decider about tackling the new challenge, bringing the episode’s most emotional scenes to life, his hopes for a second season, and more.

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DECIDER: The Chad Powers finale serves as your directorial debut. What was that fresh experience like as a creative who’s worn so many other hats, especially on this series?

MICHAEL WALDRON: It was so much fun. I’ve described it as easier than not directing. We had a script that we were really excited about, and I’ve been around a lot of great filmmakers and really got to work closely with Sam Raimi when I was doing Doctor Strange 2, and I learned so much from him. I just felt like I was ready and confident, and my job is really just to get out of the way and let those great actors do do their thing. So I hope to do more and more of it. 

Hopefully we’ll see you direct again in Season 2! You had so many emotional scenes in this episode, and I loved how so many of them played in more intimate spaces — the Cybertruck, the trailer, the bus. Was there one you found most rewarding to shoot?

Certainly the scene on the bus is something we’re all especially proud of. Glen and Perry’s performance in there are tremendous. And I knew we were building the season toward this confrontation between those two characters. As we were writing the script, it was like, ‘Well, where do we want to set this?’ We’d just shot on the bus in Episode 4, and it’s fairly limited. It’s a small space. But I think that was why I felt myself drawn back to it. The idea of when he when he shuts that bus door, they’re almost closing an airlock, and you’re locked in together and you’ve got to have it out felt really exciting. It was great. And we got to rehearse that with them. And our camera team, Mark Schwartzbard my DP, and everybody did an amazing job. That one was really fun. 

Perry gives such a superb performance on that bus. It’s raw. It’s reactive. And at one point Ricky says, “I wish after the Rose Bowl you just killed yourself.” Talk about the intention behind those harsh words and the impact they’ll have on Russ and his redemption journey, especially after he heard coach call him “a cancer” in the previous episode.

Hopefully, like any good story, we want to really beat our hero up and make it hard for him. These moments are why I really wanted to do the show, where — unlike Mrs. Doubtfire or Tootsie — on this one, it’s kind of like nobody gets out alive. [I wanted to] really explore what people’s actual reaction might be to this sort of thing. I think it hurts Russ very deeply, as you see in Glen’s great performance, because I think she’s speaking to something that it’s fair to assume this character probably struggled with in some way. You think about these athletes who fail on the biggest stage, and if you search their names on Twitter after those moments, it’s overcome with people saying, ‘Kill yourself.’ That’s part of our online culture. So she feels incredibly hurt, and this is how she can hurt him. But a fun thing worth thinking about with Season 2 is how, if ever, could they come back from that.

Before things take that dark turn, Russ does make this iconic speech and confesses his feelings for Ricky. You’ve been asked a lot about sports movies that inspired the series, but you’ve said you categorize Chad Powers, first and foremost, as a romantic comedy. So what rom-coms inspired you when crafting the show or Chad and Ricky’s dynamic? 

Totally. I know I was thinking about Jerry Maguire, and there’s a lot of sort of similarities there. Any stories where a self-absorbed guy has to figure out how to how to get the girl, and, of course, trips over himself doing it. And then When Harry Met Sally. Notting Hill. I was watching all the great final speeches, and was really excited about the idea of getting to do that speech and have it then turn into something where they don’t get their happy ending there. 

Totally. The writing version of caressing and slapping the face. Before you bring Chad and Ricky back together, they go their separate ways and have these touching, back-to-back dad scenes that harken back to Russ’ elevator advice. Before we dive into those, was Toby Huss excited to get his big prosthetics moment?

Dude, he was so game. I think I pitched him the idea when we first met with him about doing the show. I was like, “I’ve got in my head that we’re going to get him in a fat suit at some point.” And he was like, “I want to do that!” And then I was like, “How am I going to make that work? Can we do that?” And it perfectly encapsulates at least what I love about our show. You have Glen Powell doing this beautiful, cathartic speech, getting emotional, and delivering an undeniably amazing performance. And then reversing onto Toby Huss in a ridiculous, prosthetic Fat Bastard-esque fat suit, but also giving a dramatic performance. We would just look around and be like,”I can’t believe we’re getting away with this.”

All thanks to Michael Bay!

[Laughs] Oh, yeah. Michael Bay’s guiding hand over all of us.

What do you remember about filming that big father/son/Chad monologue with Glen?

He does such incredible work throughout the season, what he’s doing physically and emotionally playing these two characters, and comedically. I was really excited in this finale to get to have him click into that amazing dramatic gear that I know he has and finally tap into some real honesty from Russ, that even then, he can only do by speaking as Chad. Even though he looks like Russ, he can he can only say it as Chad. That’s how stunted he is emotionally. Glen and I, we’re close, and we’ve collaborated closely for a long time, and I think we knew this was a major point on this character’s arc. So we were just excited. When I think about that day, most of what’s in the in cut is a lot of our very first take. He knocked it out of the park, and seeing him go to that place that very first time was so special.

We also learn from that exchange that Chad’s mom died and his dad hasn’t seen him smile the same since. Is that something you intend to dive deeper into down the line, either through conversations or flashbacks?

We wanted to be really deliberate about how we deployed that piece of information. It was always a piece of the character that Glen and I knew, but we didn’t want this to just be a show about past off-screen trauma. It’s not. His trauma is the Rose Bowl, in large part, and those mistakes he made, and the fallout from that, and this is one more puzzle piece of what made him who he is. So I’m not a big flashback, but never say never. I do think it’d be interesting to learn more about her. And we don’t know anything about Ricky’s mom, Coach Hudson’s ex-wife, or whoever she might have been. So maybe that’s a piece of connective tissue for him and Ricky down the line. 

Speaking of Coach and Ricky, Steve Zahn flexes his dramatic chops in that hospital scene with Perry, which I loved. Why was that father/daughter dynamic so important for you to explore?

The scene with with Perry and Steve in the hospital is, sneakily, maybe my favorite scene in the show. The themes are really a departure. There’s almost no comedy there. It’s just real. I had my daughter — she was two months old when we started filming. And so when I first wrote the show, I wasn’t a dad. I didn’t know I was going to be the dad of a daughter yet. And as I found that out and became a father, I think that very vivid emotion that I was living every day got poured into that relationship. And that scene in the hospital is just another case, like all of these, of just getting out of the way. These actors are incredible, and they’re going to do something amazing, so I just have to not mess it up.

Amazing job writing that from a Girl Dad’s perspective. Season 1 goes out with such an authentic energy, so of course have to ask about filming in Sanford Stadium and watching that final edit.

It was a dream come true. I went to UGA, but even more than that, it was the preparation that went into it with our crew, knowing that we’d have six or seven minutes. We just rehearsed any time we had downtime on our practice field, or on the actual field in Atlanta, where we shot. Kris Krengel, our amazing AD, would set up rehearsals for us with our camera team and all the extras, so we could really choreograph how we wanted to do these camera moves. And it was kind of a late idea that instead of handing him the ball, Ricky should come up and toss him the ball. We were like, ‘That’s a little cooler. But she’s got to toss it right, and he’s got to catch it.’” We were really creating a new a new variable there. But everybody did amazing. The footage is incredible. And Natalie Holt, my composer who I did Loki with, has a score there that matches, or exceeds, however epic the visuals are meant to feel. It’s just everybody in the show working at the absolute height of their talents. 

For fans who are screaming over that cliffhanger ending, was that always your Season 1 endgame? You never considered showing the results of the game?

This was kind of always the the endgame. We knew we had six episodes. We were really excited to have Ricky find out early in the episode, and I think that was a big revelation to me and our writing staff of, “Don’t hold off on that fun. Let’s go there, and let’s see what that does for us.” So we always intended a cliffhanger. And we’re working on trying to make sure that everything that happens next is is good and fulfilling. 

I know we don’t have an official renewal yet, but what can you tease about Season 2?

If we’re lucky enough to get to make a Season 2, what’s clear is that whether she likes it or not, Ricky has been pulled into this conspiracy. So it’s not just Russ and Danny pulling off Chad Powers. It’s going to be Russ, Danny, and Ricky. That’s a whole new, really fun dynamic that’s gonna be a blast.

With Glen’s busy schedule, will this be a situation where fans could potentially be wait years for six more episodes, or we’re actively trying to speed things up?

No, no. We want to we want to make it on time. On schedule. I don’t want this to be one of the shows that that people have to wait forever for. There are only six half-hour episodes. And now that it’s feeling like people are really starting to respond to it and a lot of the characters, we don’t want to withhold any longer than we have to. 

Chad and Ricky are obviously be central romance of Season 1. But is there any hope for my other ship, Coach Hudson and Tricia? I loved their hospital scene. She loves football, which I feel like his current wife is lacking. And Wynn and Steve have such a fun dynamic. 

They are amazing. They’re such great pals in real life and it shows. I could write anything. I could just put them in a room, and turn the camera on, and you’re going to be dying laughing. Coach Hudson is on the market now, obviously. Although we hint in Episode 5 that maybe there’s a little something going on with her and Coach Dobbs, played by Clayne Crawford. So we’ll have to see. But I want to see who ships who. 

I know there was quite a bit of improv on the Chad Powers set. Anything you or an actor added in the finale or the season that stands out as having absolutely made a scene?

[Laughs] The best piece of improv in the whole show was in Episode 5 when Glen says, “Is this wood?”

Oh, iconic improv. And he kept it going so long.

“It’s all so woody!” I mean, I just can’t believe how funny that is.

Before we wrap, is there anything else you want to share with fans now that the season is over?

When I think about Episode 5 and 6, I’m like, “That’s the show.” We’re very farcical up until that point. So I just hope people keep giving it a chance and hopefully letting themselves be surprised, because one thing I know, is the show is probably not what you think based on whatever you’ve seen. 

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Chad Powers Season 1 is now streaming on Hulu.