Jason Sudeikis has revealed how former US President Donald Trump helped shape his Ted Lasso character.
The 47-year-old actor recalled a 2015 dinner date with his ex Olivia Wilde when he looked back at the Ted Lasso character he had crafted for a comedy skit.
In an interview with The Guardian, Sudeikis spoke about why he decided to make his character “warm and fuzzy” instead of “belligerent”.
“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… I hated how people weren’t listening to one another.
He added: “Things became very binary and I don’t think that’s the way the world works.”
Sudeikis also brought up how he and Wilde had just had their son Otis “and as a new parent, it was like, ‘Boy, I don’t want to add to this.’ Yeah, I just didn’t want to portray it.”
Ted Lasso is based on an American college football coach who is hired to coach AFC Richmond, an English soccer team.
He is frequently ridiculed for his folksy optimism and inexperience with the sport, but gradually wins people over through his kind, hopeful, and compassionate approach to coaching.
In March, Sudeikis spoke to Variety about the ending of Ted Lasso.
“This is the end of this story that we wanted to tell, that we were hoping to tell, that we loved to tell,” he told the outlet. “The fact that folks will want more and are curious beyond more than what they don’t even know yet – that being Season Three – it’s flattering.”
