There are a few reasons why Ted Lasso is such a huge hit, and one of the main ones is the way Jason Sudeikis portrays the lovable, down-to-earth coach. What made Sudeikis decide to give Lasso that everyman charm? Turns out it was a response to Donald Trump and his divisive tactics.
Sudeikis sat down with The Observer recently and talked about how that came about. Sudeikis was having dinner with his then-fiancee Olivia Wilde and had a thought: Could he “revisit a character called Ted Lasso that he had created for a comedy skit two years earlier?”
The original Lasso was a little different than the one everyone’s used to seeing on the show. He was originally a “belligerent” character, but that reminded him a little too much of a certain yellow-haired blowhole who used to be president.
“It was the culture we were living in. I’m not terribly active online and it even affected me. Then you have Donald Trump coming down the escalator. I was like, ‘Okay, 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.”
The original commercials certainly had their charm, and there are still plenty of elements that pull through. The humor itself has also remained very similar, with the caught between two worlds schtick only becoming more interesting and realistic. But there is no doubt that the original Ted was more of the brash American stereotype, loudly talking in restaurants and complaining about how things are different, versus the Lasso we see who’s open, accomodating, and willing to learn (about everything but drinking tea, of course).
So instead of diving into the character’s darker personality traits, he leaned into the warmer ones. He made Lasso basically the opposite of Trump, and it was just what people needed to help them get through the pandemic. The character, he said, plays “wish fulfillment.”
“You know, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ Well, how about, ‘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. Not just getting to play the characters, but also, what do you want to put out there into the world?”
Sudeikis got to witness firsthand the kind of impact the show was having on the world when he was invited to the White House to promote mental health awareness. Someone even taped a yellow sign that said “Believe” above the door to the Oval Office.
“I haven’t even looked at the pictures of the White House yet because I want it to just live up there for a while,” he said, tapping his forehead.
Now, the character couldn’t be any further from the former president turned criminal. While Sudeikis has his own demons that seem to have manifested in some strange behavior towards Wilde, there’s no doubt the character and show continue to show a moral backbone that most series’ would be afraid to support. From tackling the very real issue of homophobia in top-flight English soccer with a bad analogy but great response to putting others ahead of himself for the sake of harmony, Lasso is everything the angry, hypocritical, letch Trump isn’t.
Ted Lasso season three is currently streaming on Apple TV Plus.
