Jason Sudeikis says if it weren’t for Trump, Ted Lasso would be much more “belligerent”
According to Sudeikis, a certain former President's inescapable persona made him rethink Ted's character after deciding: "Boy, I don't want to add to this."
Aux News Jason Sudeikis
Although Ted Lasso has been highlighted for the culture of amiability it promotes, Ted wasn’t always the mild-mannered, mustachioed man viewers are familiar with. In a new interview, Jason Sudeikis shares that he originally envisioned Ted—a character he debuted back in 2013 for a series of NBC Sports promotional videos—as “belligerent,” until former President Donald Trump came along and ruined the bit.
Speaking to The Guardian’s Tim Lewis, Sudeikis shares that he opted to lean into Ted’s cuddlier qualities around the same time Trump announced his first run for president in 2015. With Trump saturating the cultural market for gaffe-prone PR-nightmare children, Sudeikis felt a duty to do something different.
“It was the culture we were living in,” Sudeikis shares. “I’m not terribly active online and it even affected me. Then you have Donald Trump coming down the escalator. I was like, ‘OK, this is silly,’ and then what he unlocked in people… I hated how people weren’t listening to one another. 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.”
For Sudeikis—who would ultimately go on to bring Ted Lasso to President Joe Biden’s White House years later—half the fun of tackling Ted’s story on a larger scale was the opportunity to, as he puts it, “write the change you want to see in the world.”
“Part of the joy of getting to do this neat job I’ve got to do is the wish-fulfillment,” Sudeikis explains. “Not just getting to play the characters, but also, what do you want to put out there into the world?”
New episodes of Ted Lasso’s final season air Wednesday nights on Apple TV+.
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“New episodes of Ted Lasso’s final season air drop Wednesday nights mornings on Apple TV+.”
Fixed that for you, now pay me.
It was also a change that was necessitated by the format. Viewers can take the original Ted Lasso in commerical format—for 60 seconds at a time. That isn’t sustainable or enjoyable to watch in a longer format. I have appreciated the kinder, cuddlier Ted and the way the show explores the challenges of masculinity. At the same time, I remain perplexed that a show capable of pushing back against the trops of toxic masculinity for it’s male characters has failed pretty completely to do the same for the female characters. I would love to see someone do a deep dive on this. While Ted Lasso’s masculinity may be progressive, it’s treatment of gender with regard to women is far less enlightened. And it didn’t start out that way—in season one Keeley and Rebecca are both well-rounded characters with agency. The formed a genuine friendship that, for once, did not evolve into cattiness. But over the next two seasons…yikes. The representation of women on Ted Lasso has gone downhill. Rebecca spent season 2 looking for a man to fulfill her and engaging in an ethically problematic relationship with Sam. Then she has so far spent large chunks of season 3 either: being sad about not having a baby, thinking about when she’ll find a man, or serving as a flat/static character who helps prompt change in the male characters. They even send her to a fucking psychic to see what her romantic life holds. Would season 1 Rebecca have set foot in a psychic’s office? Hell fucking no. Keeley doesn’t fare much better. Her arc with Roy in season 2 shows her coming into her own as a businesswoman, and shows her relationship is a good partnership of equals. But then that has to be destroyed so Roy can grow, and season 3 shows Keeley being not a very competent businesswoman (when it shows her at all, her plot has been particularly thin).And then there’s all the other women who have entered the show: Bex is a golddigger. Jade started out as needlessly cruel before becoming Nate’s Manic Pixie Dream Hostess, so she exists just to make him better. And Jane (whose actual, full name is a little too on the nose: Jane Payne), who started out as Beard’s smart, slightly weird, chess-playing girlfriend in season 1 takes a hard pivot in season 2 when the show, for no discernible reason, recasts her as abusive and toxic for Beard. Jack is another woman engaging in an inappropriate relationship with below her in the power structure, and her whole arc is queer-baity. She’s gone before she can become a real person, and her exit is a particularly toxic one: when things get tough for Keeley, Jack cuts and runs. She exists only to turn Keeley back into the path of Roy or Jamie. Taken in total, the women of Ted Lasso in seasons 2 and 3 are poorly realized and motivated far too often by what they can do to drive development ahead in the men around them. They’ve become less involved in the life of the team, which they were integral parts of in season 1, and when that shifted, it seemed like all the writers room could come up with was BABIES AND MEN! BABIES AND MEN! (And sometimes, men that are babies! men that are babies!). tl;dr: Kudos to Ted Lasso for doing something different with masculinity. Boo Ted Lasso for at the same time not giving the female characters much agency or originality in their storylines in seasons 2 and 3.
Yeah now that I’m caught up I really want to see a Ron and Keeley show where Ron curses creatively about the things in his life and Keeley is highly competent but has to deal with crazy ass situations.
I do think Roy and Keeley are the best characters, so if there was a spinoff, which I’m not sure is necessary, that would have obvious appeal
No not necessary at all but I would absolutely spend 20 minutes a week watching Roy be gruff and another 20 watching Keeley be awesome.
Agree with you on how the show has kinda tanked its women characters as the series has gone on. Honestly, way too much of the show has leaned into the romantic comedy aspect instead of just comedy, and everything just seems to revolved around the love lives of the characters – especially the women. I miss the scenes of people just being friends and having good conversations that don’t revolve around sex and dating. I still adore the show and look forward to it every week, and it’ll be one I return to and rewatch often, but that’s certainly an area that’s lacking for me.
My main impression from season 3 so far has been the individual episodes and scenes can be great. But that it hasn’t hung together as a coherent narrative arc. That’s what is missing for me. I remember several interviews with Sudeikis and Hunt from season 1 where they stressed that Ted Lasso wasn’t a soccer show. It was a workplace comedy that just happened to take place within a soccer team. And you’re right, it has stepped away from that and into rom com far too often and to its great detriment.
They also Flanderised characters very quickly. Danny Rojas especially.
‘Football is life!’ is totally worth it though.
Ted is my least favorite character on the show, though he also makes the whole thing work as the driver of the show’s singular positivity. I am not the biggest fan of Sudeikis but I do think he is talented & he made the right choice with this decision
Kinda shocked you managed to write an entire article about Sudekis without mentioning his cheatin’ ex Olivia Wilde.
Trump Derangement Syndrome really has embedded itself into every aspect of our culture now, hasn’t it.
Maybe your culture, seeing as it’s the KKK.
I think more famous sitcom/series is better if the main character is a nice but clueless character rather than the “I YELL EVERYTHING” but actually good at their job type character.That character should just be supporting character as the frenemy of the main character.
I knew I’d seen Sudeikis do that “clueless soccer coach” bit before. As commercials-to-series go, I guess this is more successful than the Geico cavemen. But let’s see him do five feature films like your ol’ buddy Ernest!