Jason Sudeikis says ‘Ted Lasso’ changed after Donald Trump decided to run for president

Christopher Rosen
·3 min read
2
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

When Jason Sudeikis first played Ted Lasso as part of an NBC Sports promo in 2013, the character was designed as a satire of an obtuse, loud-mouthed American clashing with English sensibilities. 

But when Sudeikis was encouraged by his then-partner Olivia Wilde to explore the idea of turning the commercials into what would become “Ted Lasso,” the co-creator and star decided the character should be a little softer to better respond to an increasingly polarized society.

More from GoldDerby

“It was the culture we were living in,” Sudeikis told The Guardian in an interview published this weekend about the character tweaks. “I’m not terribly active online and it even affected me.”

In the interview, Sudeikis specifically cited Donald Trump announcing his presidential run in 2015 as an inciting incident. “I was like, ‘OK, this is silly,’ and then what he unlocked in people… I hated how people weren’t listening to one another,” Sudeikis said of the former president. “Things became very binary and I don’t think that’s the way the world works. And, as a new parent – we had our son Otis in 2014 – it was like, ‘Boy, I don’t want to add to this.’ Yeah, I just didn’t want to portray it.”

“Ted Lasso” debuted on Apple TV+ in 2020 and was hailed as an antidote to the cycle of outrage, fear, and uncertainty perpetrated, in part, by cable news, the former president, and the coronavirus pandemic. But even at the time, Sudeikis suggested the show had a three-season arc for Coach Lasso, meaning the third season currently streaming on Apple TV+ could be the Emmy Award-winning show’s last. Or at least the last with Lasso as the main focus.

“That was one thing we spoke about on our final day of filming,” Sudeikis said when asked about the current iteration of the show perhaps coming to a stopping point. “The show may be over, but what we learned here… It’s not like Vegas: what happened here, stays here. No, what happened here, take it, take it to your village, take it to your family, take it to your next project. For real. Aren’t funerals not always to celebrate the dead, but also to remember you’re alive?”

Three episodes remain in the third season of “Ted Lasso” and how it ends is anyone’s guess. But while Sudeikis didn’t spoil anything in this new interview with The Guardian, he did suggest the theme of the show is ultimately to leave things in a better place than where they started.

“So if Ted Lasso is the American Mary Poppins, he wants to leave the Banks kids, and probably most importantly Mr. Banks, with the appreciation of flying a kite,” he said. “And what I would wish for anyone involved with the show is: don’t cry that it’s over, but smile that it happened.”

“Ted Lasso” streams weekly on Apple TV+.

PREDICT the 2023 Emmy nominees through July 12

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.