FX
What To Know
- Isaac Powell discusses his role as Eric, Anton’s rival love interest in Adults Season 2.
- He spoke with Swooon about the chemistry he shared with Owen Thiele and improvised moments.
- Powell discusses returning for a potential Season 3.
Few will argue that Anton (Owen Thiele) and Paul Baker (Jack Innanen) aren’t perfect for each other, but Adults Season 2 introduced a new love interest for Anton that some fans wish had stuck around longer. Isaac Powell, who plays said love interest, agrees that their club flirtation could’ve turned into something more.
“When I was watching it, I was also thinking these guys have great chemistry,” Powell told Swooon. “Like, I want to see what could happen. I want to see what happens when Anton is really evenly matched and in love.”
Powell’s Eric meets Anton at a club in Season 2’s Episode 2, “Fake ID,” and they instantly match each other’s energy. In fact, Eric outdoes Anton at “The Method” — rattling off fake names and places until you can skip the line or get a free drink. Anton and Eric’s instant chemistry was similar to how the actors felt meeting each other on set. They were already mutuals on social media, but didn’t actually meet or even do a chemistry read before filming their scenes.
“We have really great chemistry as friends anyway, so it was that that carried over onto screen, I thought, very well,” Powell explained. “As soon as we saw each other, it was just like quick friends. He felt like somebody that I’d known my entire life, but I think Owen has a way of being that for everyone. I mean, I don’t think Owen’s ever met a stranger.”
Powell arrived for the two-day shoot with his luggage, having come straight from the Sundance Film Festival. “We landed and went straight into a costume fitting, and then they ended up just putting me in what I wore to my fitting from the plane,” he said. “It was very chill. I just walked on the set in my own clothes, and we just started shooting.”
FX
Similarly, the casting process was quick. “I got a text from Nick Kroll, who I had worked with on The Franchise a few years ago, and he asked if I would come and do this, and it was the fastest yes I’ve ever said,” Powell explained. “It was so exciting to get that offer.”
Going into the experience, Powell was tuned into how popular the Anton and Paul Baker ship was after Season 1, though he jokes now that he’s an “Erton” shipper. “Yeah, I mean, as a gay guy on the internet, I was very much aware of what was going on with the Paul Baker of it all,” he said. “It was kind of intriguing, I guess, to jump into the middle of that dynamic and see what that might stir up. I was really excited to do it.”
From there, it was “smooth sailing,” aside from himself and Thiele occasionally getting lost in each other’s eyes, which was caught on Season 2’s blooper reel. “That happened a few times with us on set that day,” he said. “Yeah, we kept getting lost in each other’s eyes. It was mutual.”
Powell gelled with the entire group right off the bat, too, though most of his scenes were just with Thiele. “It felt like being dropped right into the middle of that actual friend group,” he explained. “It was really fun. It’s a really chill set to be on. Everybody’s so good at what they do, and so it was really fun to just get plugged into something that’s already such a well-oiled machine.”
Most of the names used during The Method, including “Georgia Tralala,” were scripted, barring a few. “They definitely let us play a lot,” Powell noted. “I threw in ‘Southeast’ because that was the actual high school that I went to, or middle school or something. We threw in lots of little stuff. ‘Any more questions, officer?’ I think that was me. A lot of our improvs made it into the final cut.”
After Eric flusters Anton using The Method, he quips, “Never let them see you sweat, cutie.” Powell added the “cutie” at the end himself. “You got to throw a little sauce on there sometimes,” he joked. “The writing is genuinely incredible, though. That’s one thing that I really loved about the scripts. As soon as they came in, it was like they feel so… The dialogue is already so lived in, and it’s so quick, and it just feels so fleshed out.”
FX
Though he points out they might be a little too similar, Powell would be interested in seeing Anton and Eric interact again romantically in a potential third season. “I think it could be kind of cute to see what a… I don’t know, what a maybe a three-way romance between Anton and Eric and Paul Baker would look like,” the actor added. “It’s unexplored territory.”
He added, “It’s hard when you don’t have too much real estate when there’s only a certain amount of episodes. Who knows what could happen in the future, but you know if they ever called and asked me to come back, I would be there in a heartbeat.”
Adults, Season 2, Streaming Now, Hulu