What you need to know
- Collider sat down with Jason Sudeikis to talk Ted Lasso.
- Sudeikis talks about how Lasso went from commercial to full series.
- He also talks about how it was important to make Ted Lasso a good guy.
In an interview with Collider, Jason Sudekis sat down to talk Ted Lasso and why a show about a nice guy was something everyone needed right now. Ted Lasso has become one of if not the most popular series on Apple TV+ so far, and has already been renewed for a second and third season.
When asked about how Ted Lasso went from being just a commercial on NBC to a full series, Sudeikis said that almost all of what we saw on screen was actually already created back in 2015.
"We sat down one week and just tried to outline and flesh out an idea for a pilot script, a first script. And then that happened really quick. We were able to figure out that story. I would say 80 percent of what we came up with back in the spring and summer of 2015 is what you see on the show. We even outlined six to 10 episodes."
Sudekis went on to say that the idea sat dormant for awhile until he got hooked up with Bill Lawrence, the creator of Scrubs. Lawrence got behind the project and Apple turned out to be the one who understood what they were going for.
"I told him how we were going to take it from the four-minute format to a half-hour. He really got behind that, which gave us the wind beneath our wings and made us feel like maybe we do have something here ... And then that process took a while. We went around and pitched it to a bunch of places. Apple really sparked to the tone that we were going for and understood what we were going for. And so we had to write a pilot, and then it was like, okay.
When asked why it was important for for the show to be centered around Ted Lasso's decency, Sudeikis said that, for him, it was an exercise in proving that "it's possible to be a good person and still be interesting."
"Because really, I think we're at a time right now where a lot of us are seeing an example of the worst version of a man, someone who's ignorant and arrogant, and having to deal with their foibles on a giant level. For me, ignorance is A-OK, but you pair arrogance… Excuse me, but you pair ignorance with curiosity and I think that brings with it a great deal of humility and empathy. And that's who Ted is. He's as ignorant as anyone that might be in charge of something, but he doesn't think he has it all figured out. He has heroes and he has friends. He wants people to think highly of him, the same way he thinks of them."
Season one of Ted Lasso is streaming now on Apple TV+. The series has already been renewed for a second and third season. You can read the full interview at Collider.
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