AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Actor Jason Sudeikis, the creator and star of Apple TV’s Ted Lasso spoke about how former President Donald Trump influenced the show.
The show, which follows an American football coach recruited to manage a British soccer team, is known for its optimistic message and heartwarming plot — but it wasn’t always this way.
In an interview with The Guardian, Sudeikis revealed how the political climate in 2015 shaped the character audiences have come to love.
Sudeikis told The Guardian’s Tim Lewis that the first iteration of the character of Ted Lasso, developed as part of a commercial campaign for NBC, was very “belligerent.”
When Sudeikis decided to revive the character for an Apple TV show, he knew audiences needed a more kind and caring main character to rally behind.
“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, ‘OK, this is silly,’ and then what he unlocked in people… I hated how people weren’t listening to one another,” Sudeikis said.
“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,” he added referencing his child with actress Olivia Wilde.
Ted Lasso’s third and final season is currently airing on Apple TV with possible spin-off shows to premiere in the future.
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