Jason Sudeikis’ affable football coach in the Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” would have had a very different demeanor if it wasn’t for Donald Trump.
While speaking with The Guardian, Sudeikis dished on the early origins of Ted Lasso. He revealed that the character was initially conceptualized to be much more “belligerent,” but that observing the behavior of Trump forced a change.
“It was the culture we were living in,” Sudeikis said. “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.”
He continues by explaining that he “didn’t want to portray” Lasso in the way that he was originally conceived: “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.’”
Ahead of the premiere of the third season of “Ted Lasso,” Sudeikis and his fellow castmates visited the White House to discuss “the importance of mental health to promote overall wellbeing.”
“I’d been in a fake Oval Office a number of times,” Sudeikis said of his visit to the White House. “There’s a little bit of me that’s nonplussed by it and just holding my shit together. And I’d met the president when he was vice president and he’s a very warm guy. It’s like meeting your good friend’s father or your young friend’s grandfather. He just makes you feel at home and that home just happened to be the White House for that afternoon.”
Season 3 of “Ted Lasso” debuted on Apple TV+ on March 15, with no official announcement of a fourth season being revealed yet.
