The Big Picture

In the Audible original series ‘The Best Man’s Ghostwriter,’ the character of Nate helps write best man speeches, avoiding exes, inappropriateness, and downer vibes for great results.
Glen Powell produces the fun Audible series with comedic inspiration from ‘Hitch,’ focusing on audience imagination.
Powell reflects on his career success, upcoming projects, and what drew him to the title role in ‘Chad Powers.’

In the Audible original audio series The Best Man’s Ghostwriter, Nate (brought to life by star and producer Glen Powell) is a speechwriter-for-hire who helps keep the best man at weddings from ruining it all with an embarrassing speech. While making sure to never mention the exes, not be inappropriate, and avoid bringing the room down, Nate’s surefire system never fails him. But then, he meets Dan (Nicholas Braun) and tries to help him with his speech, at a time when he’s questioning how to deal with the best man situation for his own wedding. The series also features Ashley Park, D’Arcy Carden, Lance Bass, Lukas Gage, Alex Wolff and Debra Messing, among others.

Collider recently got the opportunity to chat one-on-one with Powell about this Audible series, what he enjoys about working in this medium, why he connected to this story, taking inspiration from the movie Hitch, and trusting your own instincts when it comes to finding the comedy. He also discussed this incredible moment in his career, why he’s excited to work with director Edgar Wright on his remake of The Running Man, how honored he is that fans are asking for sequels to a number of his recent films, and what made him want to tell the story of Chad Powers.

Collider: Since we last spoke for Devotion, which coincided with the huge success of Top Gun: Maverick, you’ve had Anyone But You, Hitman and Twisters. How does it feel to be you right now? As an actor, what does this time in your career feel like?

GLEN POWELL: It feels incredible. Obviously, I’ve been wanting to do this my entire life. It’s been really surreal. The crazy part is that nothing really in my life feels like it’s changed, in a weird way. My family is the same. I get to do the same job. I just feel like I’m getting to work with really exciting filmmakers and actors and crews that I’ve always wanted to work with. When I beg to work with people, the fact that they’re saying yes is the part that’s shocking me. But beyond that, nothing else has really changed all that much.

When this project came your way, what did you think about doing a series like this for Audible? Do you find yourself thinking much more about your voice and bringing a character to life in that way, when that’s the one tool you get to use?

POWELL: Yeah. It’s fun. I did one for Audible, called 10 Days, and really had such a great experience, but it really taught me how an audience actually tunes into a performance in different ways. I’m always obsessed with every way you can entertain audiences. I don’t want to just always work in one medium. It’s really fun to play around with a ton of different things. This is a medium where I wondered, “Okay, what are the limitations here and how do people consume it?” I was actually shocked with the sound design, in addition to the performance, dropping into these scenes and how challenging that would be, moving from scene to scene quickly. I was like, “This is a crazy acting exercise.” But also, how an audience tunes in and listens, you can be really, incredibly subtle when you’re in someone’s head. It was cool. It’s been a very cool experience, and I’ve really enjoyed it.

It’s essentially like doing a radio play, we just have all these different devices and ways we can listen to things like that now.

POWELL: It’s interesting because it weaponizes an audience’s imagination in a really fun way. I get to complete the entertainment, to a degree, and then the audience gets to fill in the rest of it. In addition to having great departments that fulfill the sound design and the foley and all these different things to bring you into the world, I also have to match that energy. It’s fun because it’s true imagination on my end. I was going, “At what level am I talking? What’s this interaction?” And I was trying to put myself in the weddings that I’ve been to and the moments I’ve experienced with male friendship. I got to cast a lot of my friends in this, which was just a blast. It felt like playing pretend with a bunch of your friends, but at the highest level. This was very well written and very fun. It’s heartwarming. It just really works.

Glen Powell Went Down a Rabbit Hole of the Worst Best Man Speeches Ever for ‘The Best Man’s Ghostwriter’

What was it that attracted you to this story, specifically? Were there things that you found interesting about playing with this character? What made this stand out to you?

POWELL: I’m at a point in my life where I’m going to a lot of weddings, and what I find to be really fascinating about going to all these weddings is how stressful some of these moments end up being. There are these traditions that we end up having and the loaded pressure that we have, whether it’s the mother-son dance or the father-daughter dance, the best man speech or the maid of honor speech. All these speeches and all these moments are like dance steps that other people do, and it’s important to define them, but there’s so much loaded into them, and probably for good reason. This is the most defining moment of someone’s life, and yet it’s also a way that you can completely dismantle friendship in a very short amount of time. It’s something we explore in this thing. I don’t know if you’ve ever gone down the hole, but when we were developing this, I went down the hole of worst best man speeches ever. It’s a great, fun hole to go down. It’s this thing where you have to define a friendship and what someone means to you, which is not an easy thing to do. Constantly, we have people in our lives that we try to tell what they mean to us, and it’s sometimes hard to put into words. I think that’s why that speech is so important and so hard to write. It’s hard to tell people to their face why they’re the most important person in your life, and why they’re the person out in front of this audience of their friends and family on this day.

Even if you spend all the time to write a really great speech, you can still end up drunk and the speech goes out the window and the whole thing just becomes a disaster anyway.

POWELL: One hundred percent. There are all these dos and don’ts. I produced this as well, and that was one of the things that was super important to me. Hitch is another one of my favorite movies. Hitch starts with his dos and don’ts of romance and dating, and he’s a coach. I took inspiration from that movie because it’s one of the movies I really like. But that’s exactly it; don’t hit the open bar too much before that wedding, stay calm and present, and don’t talk about the exes. That all plays into it. There are a lot of ways to mess it up and there are very few ways to get it right. That why, if you have a guy like Nate, that could be the great fixer to all your problems and woes on that day, and to make sure you get it right and keep your friendship intact, what a wonderful thing that would be.

How do you gauge the humor to know when you were hitting the right funny spot? When you don’t have audience reaction and you’re not on set getting feedback in that way, how do you get that right?

POWELL: You can’t be begging for laughs when you’re alone in a booth. You’ve gotta trust your own instincts on that. But the material was just so good and the world was just so fun. Whether it’s comedy or drama, the best thing you can do is have pressure and tension, which leads to drama and comedy. Weddings are just loaded. That’s why they’re the eternal gift that’s this worldwide thing that we all go through, we all attend, we all experience, we all encounter, and it puts everybody in their head and on their back foot and causes all sorts of drama. I’ve gotten to see a lot of it up close.

Are you able to have more freedom with something like this? When you don’t have to worry about building sets or finding locations, how much can you play with things? Were you able to improvise in the moment when you don’t have to worry about that, or did you still just try to stay pretty close to the script?

POWELL: As we were developing it and talking to (writer/director) Matthew [Star], the wonderful brain behind all this, we got to talk about what was gonna be in the scene, what the sound design would be behind me, and what we had at our disposal. Sometimes when you’re acting, it’s a gift to have all this production value around you, guiding a performance and guiding how an audience is seeing it. In this, you really have to guide them in a different way. It’s a very tough acting exercise, but it was really, really fun. It felt like doing a play where you don’t have to project. You really get to be in someone’s head in a different way, so it’s almost like doing a play but with a different level of intimacy with the audience, which is cool.

It’s like taking a really loud song and making it acoustic.

POWELL: Yeah, that’s exactly it.

‘The Running Man’ Director Edgar Wright Was on the Top of Glen Powell’s List of Filmmakers He Wanted to Work With
Image via Netflix

You’re going to be doing The Running Man with Edgar Wright.

POWELL: Edgar is the greatest. I love that man. He’s been at the top of my bucket list of directors. It’s so funny, I searched Edgar’s name in my email recently. I found a wish list from very early on when I moved out to L.A., and he was at the top of my wish list of directors I wanted to work with. I think he’s brilliant. He’s a great guy and a great friend. I think we’re gonna make something really special.

Do you know when you’re shooting it, or is it still a ways off?

POWELL: I don’t have the exact date, but it’s probably a couple of months from now, or something.

What stands out to you about him, as a filmmaker?

POWELL: It’s a few things. The one thing that I personally really respond to with Edgar is that he’s a true auteur. The movies he makes are his voice. They’re of his voice and sensibility. And also, the way he moves a camera is so deliberate. As an actor, when someone guides an audience with that level of intent, and isn’t trying to find a movie, but really has a vision for a movie, it’s a really cool way to go to work. Obviously, I’m doing my stuff on my end, and to be a part of someone’s vision like that, it’s really fun and it’s inspiring. It’s really cool. I think Edgar just has a relationship with the audience that’s very unique. Every movie I’ve watched of his, in all these different genres, there’s a communication with the audience. There’s a sense of awareness to his movies that I think just makes him a lot more fun.

With the success of Twisters, obviously people are talking about a possible sequel. People have also talked about a possible sequel for Anyone But You. Which do you think we’d be more likely to see?

POWELL: I’m just honored by the fact that people are asking for more of anything. It really is a great feeling. I’ve had a few things in the last while that people want more of. They wanna return to those worlds. For me, growing up and wanting to be a part of this business, that was always a thing. I left the theater just wanting to go back into that world and consume another story and stay with those characters. I’m really proud of that. I’m proud of that with Top Gun. I’m proud of that with Anyone But You and Twisters and Hitman, and even Scream Queens. People wanna go back to the world of Scream Queens, and that’s been fun too. I’m feeling very grateful because I feel the same way. It’s why you do it. Hopefully, people leave the theater wanting more.

As a producer yourself now, what are you trying to get to the starting line? Are you focused on trying to get any one specific thing made, or are you juggling more than one thing that you’re trying to get into production?

POWELL: I’ve really been developing things for a very long time. Devotion was my first movie that I’d gotten produced, and that was a very ambitious movie that I’m really, really proud of. And we had a lot of success with the Blue Angels doc that came out this year. And Chad Powers is shooting now in Atlanta, and I’m really happy with that. I never liked being the guy that had his hand out waiting for a job. I always wanted to be making the call, and I feel like I have a pretty solid stable of things I’m pretty passionate about. Right now, it’s just about trying to sit back and take in where the world is, where the business is, where audiences are, and where I am, and try to see what intersects and what lights my fuse.

Glen Powell Says His ‘Chad Powers’ TV Series Will Really Surprise People
Image via Hulu

Especially since a TV series takes up more time than doing a movie, what was it about Chad Powers that excited you?

POWELL: I was a fan of Eli Manning’s initial sketch. Eli Manning is a legend, and he and Payton are just freaking hilarious. There was something really interesting about the way that the world responded to that sketch. I was so fascinated by why people loved this character, Chad Powers, that he played, as he went undercover as a walk-on for the Penn State football team. And the more I played around with this idea, the more it became an incredibly poignant show. It became a really wonderful contemplation of identity and vulnerability and the way we move through the world, win or lose. It ended up embodying some of my favorite characters that I’ve ever gotten a chance to watch and some of my favorite sports movies. It’s really found its way, in a way that I can’t even describe, but I think it’s really gonna surprise people. It’s been a fun character to play.

The Best Man’s Ghostwriter is available to stream on Audible. Check out this behind-the-scenes look at the series:

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