How the Ted Lasso Kindness Vibe Boosted Creativity on the Set

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house among the full cast and crew on the last day of filming Ted Lasso‘s season three. The shot was in the fictional Richmond FC locker room before its championship game against rival West Ham — and before beloved coach Ted Lasso, played by Jason Sudeikis (who’s nominated for lead actor and writing in addition to comedy series), was scheduled to return to the U.S. Instead of his usual pep talk, Lasso introduces a video, looking back at the team’s growth. “The tears are real,” says Declan Lowney, who directed this episode and eight others during the three seasons of the 11-time Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series. (Its 10 noms this year include nods to most of the talent mentioned in this story.) Famously based on a 2013 NBC Sports promo, Sudeikis’ depiction of an American college football coach who moves to England to manage a Premier League soccer team became an instant hit and provided a much-needed jolt of kindness when the series — created by Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt (who plays Coach Beard), Bill Lawrence and Joe Kelly — debuted in August 2020 during the pandemic.

On that final day of filming, Lowney also shot the locker room scene in which the team members piece back together the coach’s familiar but torn “Believe” sign. “That was a very emotionally charged day for everybody, cast and crew,” Lowney remembers, adding that hundreds flooded the locker set after wrapping. “Jason gave the most amazing speech … he talked about the magic of Ted Lasso and how maybe we could take some of that with us when we left, to our homes, our families or our next job, to the future.”

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Back in L.A., Melissa McCoy, who edited the final episode, sat in tears watching the day’s dailies. “It embodied everything I’d been through. Jason’s somebody who believes in the people around him,” she says. “Everybody talks about the Jason factor, where he comes in and makes you better. He does that as Ted and he does that as Jason behind the scenes.”

The crew is quick to talk about the collaboration among the Ted Lasso team, along with the mentorship and growth many experienced along the way. McCoy, for instance, was upped to associate producer during season three, while she and editor A.J. Catoline promoted their assistants to editors. Production designer Paul Cripps admits he was feeling jaded about the industry and had taken a break to teach when he got the call. “When I read that first script, I could see that it was more than a show about football. It was about people and their relationships,” he says. “There were shows that were really important to me [as a child], and it just shows that that kind of show can have an effect on people, for the good.”

The team is deeply moved by the show’s impact on audiences. “People have the ‘Believe’ sign up in their treatment rooms for cancer. I’ve seen posts of teachers having the sign up in their schools,” says McCoy. “To work on something where people are lovely to one another and to forgive freely is a gift.”

Hair and makeup designer Nicky Austin reflects, “It was always collaborative with Jason and all the cast.” For Ted’s look, she explains that they didn’t want him to become “too London-looking,” so they kept a scissor haircut. “I imagined that he’d gone to the same barber for the last 20 years. And although he wasn’t necessarily brilliant, [Ted’s] just such a loyal person.”

Of putting together the cast around Sudeikis, casting director Theo Park notes that for Roy Kent, the star player influenced by Irish footballer Roy Keane, they looked at Irish actors and comedians. But Brett Goldstein, who was a writer on the series, wanted to put his hat in the ring. “He came back with his tape and created this amazing character that is so unlike how he is as a person, but he nailed it and continued to nail it season to season,” says Park.

The casting of Hannah Waddingham as Richmond boss Rebecca Welton was also crucial. “She had to have a lot of range, many different facets. Originally, there was some hope from the studio perhaps that we might cast someone known to an international audience,” she says. “We did a lot of work going through names on lists of starry people, but no one quite worked out. And then Hannah Waddingham walked in finally and it all made sense.”

Austin recalls working with the actress on her look, which starts off as rigid in season one, when she hires Ted in the hope that his inexperience will harm ex-hubby’s beloved Richmond FC. “If you’ve just been through a nasty breakup, and especially if you’ve got to face the world and the Premier League, you want your war paint on,” says Austin. “We wanted her to look perfect because she was in the public eye and she didn’t want to be seen to be breaking down publicly.”

Rebecca’s look changes with her story arc. Austin remembers the season three scene when she falls into the river in Amsterdam and ends up meeting her future love, who offers his houseboat so she can clean up. “[Hannah] said, ‘After I’ve fallen in the river, let’s just take my hair out, have it wet. I don’t want to look perfect.’ She was really up for just breaking herself down,” Austin recalls. “When we took the makeup off and her hair was down and loose and damp, it was the most beautiful she’s ever looked. It was a lovely opportunity to show a softer side of Rebecca.”

In that scene, Cripps gave the houseboat set a feel of gezelligheid, a Dutch word for coziness and warmth. “We put wood on the walls to make it feel warmer and dressed it with furniture, some of it vintage, some of it modern. It had a quite eclectic feel.”

For Cripps, the overall goal of the series was to make Richmond FC and its world feel real. Crystal Palace and Leicester City were among the influences. “Ted’s office was an important space to Jason in that he wanted to be able to see into the locker room, and I also gave him the opportunity to see into the other coach’s office, the boot room and the gym,” Cripps explains, saying that it was a way for Ted to say, “My office door is always open.”

Though the interior was a set, Richmond pub The Crown & Anchor continues to attract fans of the series. “I live near the pub, and I went in one day and the people behind the bar were saying that people had booked dinner to watch the last episode of season one in the pub, which was quite sweet,” Cripps says. “It still gets a lot of visitors.”

Looking back on the final episode, Lowney fondly recalls a heart-to-heart between Ted and Rebecca, mostly a two-shot of them talking in the Richmond stands. “We had a long day at the stadium and about 40 minutes left to shoot that. It was a nighttime scene and we had to wait for it to get dark,” he says. “They did it six or seven times and nailed it every time. It’s such a beautiful scene, it’s so moving.”

For Catoline, a favorite moment between Roy and his foe turned friend, Richmond striker Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster), occurs in the penultimate episode of season three. In “Mom City,” the moms of Ted and Jamie are introduced, and Jamie breaks down before an important match. “Roy’s like, ‘We need you to be the biggest prick you’ve ever been in your little prick life,’ and then [Jamie] breaks down,” Catoline says. “It was a callback to season two, when Roy approaches Jamie for a hug. And this time it’s Jamie who approaches Roy. But just the way they came up with that thing where Jamie is putting his hands all over Roy’s face — and that was done in one or two takes.

“It’s very difficult for Brett Goldstein to play this character because the second he has the hint of a crack of a smile, you know the take is blown,” the editor continues. “So he gave it all he could before he could just explode with laughter.”

Catoline adds that Sudeikis is “very specific” with music — “the needle drops, the score that Tom Howe, our composer, writes with Marcus Mumford, that music gets very intentional to themes the characters are feeling.” For example, the finale concludes with a montage set to Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son.” Says McCoy, “Jason always knew that was going to be the end song. A.J. tried to use the song in season two. Jason said, ‘That’s spoken for.’ “

For that montage, which wraps up various characters’ journeys, McCoy explains that some beats had to be cut. “There was one: Sam [Toheeb Jimoh] in the restaurant gets his happy ending with his cook. That was one [cut] that was heartbreaking. [But] we saw Sam with the Nigerian team, so we knew that was his happy ending.”

The ending was left somewhat ambiguous to fans as to whether this is truly the series finale, though more than a couple of members of the Ted Lasso team point to Rebecca and Keeley reacting to their idea for a women’s team as a promising premise. “Jason always said it was going to be a three-season arc, so in the back of my head, I always assumed this was our end for now,” says McCoy. “But I think none of us expected everybody to love the show so much, so I know we’re all like, ‘Maybe. Maybe there’s room for more.’ “

This feature was produced and curated by THR editors and is presented by Apple TV+.

This story first appeared in the Aug. 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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