Ted Lasso fans may have a big reason to thank Olivia Wilde today.
As Jason Sudeikis prepares for a second season of his critically acclaimed comedy, viewers may be surprised to find out how the idea came about.
In Variety‘s latest installment of “Variety Studio: Actors on Actors” series, Kathryn Hahn asked Jason to confirm if Ted Lasso came from a commercial. While that’s certainly part of it, the support of ex-fiancée Olivia also had an influence.
“Me and two of my buddies—Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard on the show, and Joe Kelly, who’s one of the producers and writers on the show. And we’ve all been friends for 20 years,” Jason began. “NBC Sports was going to start showing Premier League soccer on their channel. How do we get Americans to watch it? They’re like, ‘We should have someone play an American football coach.’ I was like, ‘I know who that is. I know how I’d like to do it.'”
The actor continued, “I knew very little, and I still know very little. There is this very complex, beautiful game that’s been around for hundreds of years. Those commercials were received well, and it was Olivia [Wilde] who was like, ‘You should do it as a TV show or movie.’ 2015, we sat down to write the pilot, and it wasn’t until about 2018 that we came back.”
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