Glen Powell’s new sports comedy series, Chad Powers, is out on Tuesday, Sept. 30. It’s based on a 2022 prank that Eli Manning pulled in which he disguised himself as a man named Chad Powers and then tried out as a walk-on quarterback for Penn State. It’s similar to how Ted Lasso came about. Glen plays a disgraced former college quarterback named Russ Holliday who disguises himself as the title character in order to get a second chance. He’s described it as “Mrs. Doubtfire, but with football.”
Glen’s been doing promo for this series and his upcoming movie, The Running Man. He recently stopped by the Therapuss podcast. While he and host Jake Shane were talking about Russ/Chad’s personal growth over the course of the first season, Glen related it to real-life cancel culture. Then he dropped an interesting little blind item about meeting a problematic actor at a Hollywood party and refusing to take a picture with him.
“I showed up to the party and there was somebody that had basically been on the ropes in terms of sort of getting cancelled,” Powell began.
Powell shared that the event was “one of those Hollywood parties where there are cameras and press and all that stuff.”
Without naming the “recently canceled” celebrity, the Top Gun: Maverick star revealed that “this person had made a lot of some of my favorite movies.”
“He came up and he said nice to meet you, and I was like, ‘Oh, dude, big fan.’ And then a photographer said, ‘Hey, can we take a picture of the two of you guys?’ And this person was recently cancelled and was, as of late, not good,” Powell said.
“I was a fan of their work but not a fan of their choices, right? So I was just kind of being nice, but then when they want to take a picture with you, I realized very quickly how I was like I don’t know if this is a good idea. He clearly clocked that I was like ‘this is probably not a good idea,'” the actor said.
“This guy, his face is toxic,” Powell went on to say. “You know, like going out into the world, like people are having a visceral reaction to this person in terms of the bad choices they’ve made.”
He connected the awkward interaction to his character in the upcoming series Chad Powers, a disgraced college football star who returns to the field in disguise and under a new alias. “The character that I play in Chad, it’s like Russ Holiday is a guy that just made a mistake, right? He’s not a bad guy,” Powell said.
He concluded that some reputations, however, are earned. “Some of these other people that get canceled, they should lie where they’re shot,” Powell said.
“Some of these other people that get canceled, they should lie where they’re shot.” I’ve watched that part of the clip five times now, and I can’t figure out if Glen is talking about the person from his story or if he’s saying that the actor in question made bad choices and should be given the opportunity to apologize and work their way back into the public’s good graces in a similar manner as Russ/Chad is trying to do. I feel like that’s a huge clue into figuring out who he’s talking about.
So, thoughts on who this canceled celebrity could be? The biggest guesses online are Kevin Spacey or Armie Hammer. I can see why people are going to Spacey, but he got outed as a terrible person in 2017 and it feels like Glen’s exchange happened more recently. It could be Armie. His own house of cards didn’t really start crumbling until 2021. I think there’s also an outside chance that it was James Franco, or maybe even Jonathan Majors, depending on how recent this party was. This story got me thinking though. It sort of pulls back the curtain that these problematic, toxic actors are still accepted into those spaces as long as their peers aren’t photographed with them.
Here’s the clip of Glen telling the story:
Photos credit: Sadou Faye/Avalon, Faye’s Vision/Cover Images
Is Jonathan Majors famous enough for this conversation? Because it doesn’t feel like it.
I don’t think Armie Hammer is either, frankly, nor are people even attempting to support his rehabilitation, unlike with Jonathan Majors and his influential celebrity friends. I thought perhaps Brad Pitt, based on him making a lot of films people could feasibly say are their favourites, but I doubt Glen Powell would hesitate to be photographed with him. Maybe Jared Leto, since he did Dallas Buyers Club and Blade Runner 2049 and his problems are very fresh, or Shia LeBeouf, since he is still around in the Hollywood scene? It’s someone that Glen Powell doesn’t need to worry about pissing off, so not someone super powerful and influential.
My guess is Jared Leto or Johnny Depp. I wish it were Justin Baldoni or Brad Pitt, but I don’t think they are likely to actually be cancelled. I guess it all depends on what Glen means by “on the verge of” cancelled. Both are still very much working (Leto is promoting a new movie as we speak) and seemingly still accepted, despite their history. It could be LeBeouf, but I don’t know that he’s getting invited to things anymore.
Brad and Jared haven’t been cancelled so I not them. I feel like it’s an older actor because of the favorite films comment. Shia and Army seem too contemporary. Is Kevin Spacey in the US? I think he’s making low budget films in Europe but still on the outside in Hollywood. I think Johnny Depp since he’s in the middle – partially cancelled. Like Glen said, good enough to talk to but socially undesirable if made public.
It can’t be Armie Hammer because there’s that famous Twitter post turned Meme that says “only reason Glen Powell has a career right now is because Armie Hammer ate people or something”. So…….,.. I think it’s one of those MAGA guys like Dean Cain or ?? Scandals are all over h.wood only maga / trump love gets you canceled
My guess was James Franco.
Franco makes sense. He’s a few years older than me (40s) and was popular in my teens and 20s.
Will Smith or Ryan Reynolds.
Ryan Reynolds
In a way this says a lot about GP – he’s okay with being sociable with a problematic guy, but wants to hide any association with him, doesn’t want to have pics of them together out in the world. Rosie is spot on in that last sentence. And his focus seems to be on the “verge of being cancelled” public image side of things ie what other people are saying vs his own judgement about the “choices” the guy made.
Totally consistent with a guy who was comfortable with a showmance, even as it hurt his partner and damaged their relationship.
Great take… this story is “cringe,” but not for the reason that Glen Powell seems to think it is.
He is a tool.
Exactly what I was thinking. Is he patting himself on the back for being a swell guy? Or a discerning guy? He was cool with chatting up someone he was a big fan of but kept his eye on his own career & didn’t want to be photographed with him. And ‘choices he made’? That minimizes whatever the person did to get canceled or almost canceled or whatever.
His honesty and lack of self-awareness (or preservation?) is astonishing (not a compliment). Yes, he’s happy enough to be invited to a party that has this “cancelled” person, happy enough to interact with them on a social level, just doesn’t want people to get a photo of them together in case this person gets “actual” cancelled and he has to explain himself! I guess if this person had managed to keep any allegations hidden well enough, Glen wouldn’t have any problems with him!
I read yesterday on some website, can’t remember which one because I was day drinking. Kevin Spacey was the popular guess.
I love everything you just said and your screen name.
Thanks Tuesday! I retired when the company I worked for 26 years abruptly closed, 2 years Oct 1st. I had some mobility and pain issues and when I’d get back from PT I’d take a pain pill and pour a glass of wine. With so much time on my hands I quickly learned to switch to white wine over ice, with lemon seltzer , a splash of lime juice and a lemon & orange slice. I have a door mat outside my apartment that say “It’s wine o’clock somewhere”. I get my chores done, once I’m in for day let the day drinking and internet browsing begin!
Kevin Spacey, hands down. The other guys mentioned are having more PR problems vs cancellation and with Armie Hammer, not really widely known and moving into obscurity already. Spacey? His problems are widely known, salacious, and legal in nature. He has films that are high quality and admired. Even though his troubles are a few years past, he is still pretty toxic.
I definitely think it was Spacey because he’s also someone that you could say made some amazing movies. I feel like every white male of a certain age is going to list The Usual Suspects or American beauty (or both) as a favorite movie.
The only other one that seems likely to me is Johnny depp.
Fellow Texan here. I think “they should lie where they’re shot” means they should accept the consequences of their actions and not attempt a come-back or be allowed that grace by the public. Don’t try to help them up or save them, they brought it on themselves.
Yep. It’s basically you made your bed now lie in it. So he’s not giving folks a pass.
That’s exactly how I interpreted it. Its not about giving a second chance, its almost the opposite. he’s not saying that for everyone who is cancelled, just that for some they should basically just stay cancelled and not try to rehabilitate themselves. That’s why I think Spacey or Depp makes the most sense here.
They filmed at one of our (UGA) games last year. People were cracking up over his disguise until we found out his team was supposed to beat ours in the CFP semi-finals. The boos were legit! As for this story, he’s always been conscious about his image. Don’t know if he learned that from Denzel or Tom Cruise.
He’s definitely talked about Cruise being a mentor, so that would track. For what it’s worth, though, I think both Cruise and Washington would be smart enough not to tell this story.
It’s just weird to me that he’s talking about taking a photo with someone who is “cancelled” with the same energy that you and I might talk about joining or not joining a fashion trend. Presumably, this is a suspected predator/abuser we are discussing, not a pair of wide leg jeans. And why bring it up? Is he hoping for credit for identifying and being able to avoid photo evidence of a social no-no but still mentions that he’s a big fan of this person and still talked to them. It’s a very weird choice, and I’ll bet his publicist is pulling their hair out.
He is beyond cringe at this point.
This juicy, in his mind, little tid bit is not as compelling as he thinks it is. It actually further reveals his thirsty mind set.
For some reason I thought Mel Gibson. He has the lethal weapon movies, and Braveheart, which are considered classic. It’s also been long enough since his misbehavior caused public outrage that folks could be comfortable having him around. He’s made movies and tv since then, so he definitely still has connections and friends in the industry. I’m going to guess him, and if it was an older industry person hosting, they don’t care about him being anti semitic or abusive to his second baby momma.
Mel Gibson was the first name that came to my mind, as well.
Mine, too.
I don’t know why I had to scroll down until down here to find his name.
Mel Gibson is in a few movies on Amazon and he’s in Hollywood (Kevin Spacey definitely isn’t) so that would fit the description given by Powell.
My guess is Ryan Reynolds. He’s getting bad press concerning his behavior towards Eugene Levy and he keeps changing his story and joke about how he sent an actor who had trouble with alcohol a box of champagne. Why would anyone be shocked that he would center his marketing plan for a DV movie around alcohol when he jokes about sending alcohol to a recovering alcoholic.
I don’t know who the celeb is but the series sounds very tedious.
My first thought was Alec Baldwin. He’s a pretty poisonous person to be seen with.
They should lie where they’re shot would be pretty uncool thing to say if it were Baldwin, so no,not him.
It’s crazy that there are so many men this almost cancelled person could be, isn’t it?!
He comes across like Henry Cavil discussing the #metoo movement. He just seemed dense about it and let the big points fly over his head. He was so brave to say he would stop something if he saw it. Like some producer was going to grope an actress in front of him. That’s not how it works.
But then started whining about how he couldn’t ask a woman out now for fear of being ‘metooed’. Which was so dismissive of it all.
But even more so for Glenn he seems rather obsessed with just towing the line and being a Hollywood company man to keep working. Trying to make all the right moves and is a tool about it to the media.
He dumped his long term girlfriend on orders to sell the fantasy of him and Sydney so Anyone But You would be a hit.
He seems like he wants to follow in the footsteps of Tom Cruise keeping a very sterile and well controlled image. While doing God knows what behind the scenes. So he can always be protected and by the ‘good guy’ movie star.
I wouldn’t be surprised the next thing we hear is that Glen is a Scientologist.
Also, my first thought was James Franco his brother Dave and his wife Alison Brie are still invited to A List parties. Maybe James was tagging along. I don’t see Kevin or Armie being invited to big Hollywood parties. They are more on the fringe now.