If the Atlanta Falcons were a English soccer team, they’d probably be described as a middling club on the brink of relegation with no trophies or historical accolades to speak of. All the Falcons and their supporters know is disappointment and heartbreak. The fictional EFL Championship side AFC Richmond from Ted Lasso might as well be the Falcons’ spirit animal — err, club.
So, it was only right for first-year head coach Arthur Smith to bring some of that Ted Lasso energy to Wednesday’s press conference.
Reporters noticed that Smith had a “Believe” sign straight from the show taped to the wall of the media room. And when Smith concluded his press conference, he double-tapped the sign just as Lasso would in the show.
I’m not sure if Falcons fans should love that and be thankful that relegation isn’t a thing in the NFL, but hey, the Falcons just won their first game of the season. There’s officially hope.
And as Ted Lasso would say, “I believe in hope. I believe in Believe.”
So … apparently, there’s a conspiracy theory going around that has blown my mind.
Specifically, it’s focused on Ted Lasso and actor/writer Brett Goldstein, who plays the lovably foul-mouthed but heart-of-gold Roy Kent.
Some fans of the Apple TV+ series were convinced that Goldstein wasn’t real and was actually just a CGI version of himself.
I’m serious. There’s a Reddit thread (of course) and everything that we’ll get into in a sec. But the best thing is that Goldstein responded to the talk by posting a hysterical Instagram video.
Let’s dive into the whole thing and finish up with his perfect response:
WARNING: This episode contains spoilers for Season Two, Episode 3 of Ted Lasso.
You’re going to want to stop and pay extra close attention to episode three when you’re watching the new season of Ted Lasso on Apple TV+.
It primarily focuses on the unique power of activism and protest in sports. While typically known as a lighthearted and easy-to-watch show, this episode wasn’t afraid to swing a little bit bigger on this one. The creators were inspired by the likes of Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling and Rio Ferdinand in the Premier League as well as folks like Colin Kaepernick in the NFL.
This particular episode was a one-off directed by Ezra Edelman, the Oscar-winning director of the documentary OJ: Made In America.
“He was the perfect director for this episode because he was able to help us find the nuance in what would be a valuable gesture and what would be performative allyship,” explained Brendan Hunt, a Ted Lasso writer and co-creator who also stars as Coach Beard. “We wanted to find a way that wasn’t forcing it that would reflect the current mood where athletes are using their voices more.”
Once they knew they wanted to do something in this arena, they had to decide who was protesting — and what they were upset about. They landed on a plot involving Sam Obisanya and their fictional jersey sponsor, Dubai Air.
Toheeb Jimoh, a young British actor who portrays Sam on the show and supports Manchester United in real life, was thrilled when Jason Sudeikis sent him a WhatsApp message telling him he would star in this episode.
“I’m a massive believer and a massive fan of people who use their platform to inspire change,” Jimoh said during a recent press junket for Ted Lasso. “I think political activism in sport, and in anything you do that’s public-facing, is massively important and I 100 percent stand by it.”
In the episode, Sam is given the opportunity to be the face of Dubai Air’s new ad campaign.
The showrunners settled on Dubai Air because it would have been harder to pull off making it a protest about a topic with a real-world nemesis. Ultimately, they thought it would be more powerful to have a less specific face as an antagonist while still drawing from all of the horrid, real-life consequences of corporate greed, oil spills and bribery.
Before Sam learns about any of this, though, he’s massively flattered and he wants to do the campaign. His teammates are enthusiastic about it, too, and offer him some gentle ribbing and a joke about defacing the ad with childish graffiti once it’s displayed at the tube station.
Excited as we’ve seen him on the floor, Sam shares the update with his family. But his father promptly tells him Dubai Air is owned by an oil company destroying the environment in Nigeria and making it impossible for people to live and survive there.
Apple TV+
The text from his father reads: “To see you choose to be a shill for a corporation that has ruined the lives of so many breaks my heart.”
It’s absolutely devastating to watch how quickly Sam’s energy turns from jubilant to crushed. However, it’s also what makes this episode so genuine. While the plot does tackle activism, it also keeps Sam’s arc and development at its core.
“It’s about a character dealing with new knowledge that puts him in a very uncomfortable position,” said Brett Goldstein, a writer on the show who also plays Roy Kent. “It’s a very relatable thing where — you can call it ignorance — but he didn’t know what he’d been a part of. Most people don’t. But once he has the knowledge, what do you do with that knowledge? That is a challenge we all face at some point in this life.”
The decision to have this episode focus on Sam is particularly fascinating because when we meet him in the first season, we were given little inklings of his potential leanings towards political activism.
Started watching TED LASSO. Ted gives out Army toy soldiers as inspirations to his team. The young Nigerian player Sam declines with a smile, saying, The American military doesn't inspire the same feeling in me.
In the second episode of the series Ted offers Sam a little green toy soldier as a birthday gift to keep him safe. Sam declines, however, offering a polite but very stern declaration that he doesn’t have the same appreciation for the U.S. Army or, specifically, symbols of American imperialism.
Flash forward to the second season and Sam has to make a decision on whether he can promote a company like Dubai Air — can he take their money, have their name on his chest or even play for a team that does?
Fortunately, he plays for a team with an incredibly empathetic coach. Time and time again, we’ve seen Lasso’s leadership reflected as someone who stands with the team and its goals rather than dictating what those goals should be. That allows for more nuance and acceptance than he would be afforded on most real-life pro sports teams.
“Because of the nourishment that he has gotten from Ted and the support that he’s gotten, he feels comfortable enough to make a stand,” Jimoh said. “I just think that’s great. It’s a testament to the work Ted has done with his team.”
Apple TV+
Ultimately, in a powerful moment, Sam decides to grab some black tape and cover the Dubai Air logo. He tells his teammates the horrors of the company, which turned his home into a “hellish, fiery swamp” and he will never wear their name on his chest again.
The central question of the episode then becomes whether the team would stand by him while he goes on this protest.
First, his teammates of Nigerian descent grab the tape and decide to join him. Sam tells the rest of his team they don’t have to join him but — in a charge led by, of all people, Jamie Tartt — every single player opts to participate as well.
“That’s just an important message about allyship. That’s what you need. That’s how you stand by somebody. That’s how you pull up,” Jimoh said. “I think that’s why people don’t make those big stands. They’re afraid of the backlash. They’re afraid that they’ll be shunned because there is a version of this where Sam could have done that and the team could have axed him.”
After the game, Ted allows Sam to take the mic at the press conference to address the decision.
Sam tells the media he wasn’t there to talk about the game but rather to make a desperate plea to the Nigerian government: Put an end to the decades of environmental destruction caused by the oil company that owns Dubai Air.
As they walk back to the locker room, Ted tells Sam something that summarizes the episode fairly well: “Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing.”
Overall, this episode is about Sam as a character, and Jimoh as an actor, having the courage to find their voice. When reflecting on the episode with For The Win, Jimoh couldn’t help but get emotional. He emphasized how grateful he was toward Sudeikis and the other showrunners for trusting him to handle the storyline.
“They decided it was important for them to show this and to have a young black man take on that responsibility, especially in the time we’re at now.
In Season 2’s first episode, Ted (played by Emmy winner Jason Sudeikis) walks into the office of owner Rebecca Welton (played by the incredible Hannah Waddingham) and is offered a cocktail after his team ties again.
“What would you say to a cocktail,” Welton asks.
“The same thing I’d say to Diane Sawyer if she ever asked me out on a date: yes, please,” he responded.
Yes, you can BELIEVE it: Ted Lasso, the Apple TV+ series that shocked the world and became a beloved hit in 2020 is coming back later this week with its Season 2 premiere.
Now our Ted Lasso Week concludes with some of the best lines that came out of Ted Lasso’s mouth, lines and moment that had us either laughing really hard or thinking really deep about life (or about if ghosts believe in themselves).
Roy Kent! Roy Kent! He’s here, he’s there! He’s everywhere!
Yes, you can BELIEVE it: Ted Lasso, the Apple TV+ series that shocked the world and became a beloved hit in 2020 is coming back later this week with its Season 2 premiere.
Have you ever interacted with a piece of fiction and, as you dig deeper and deeper into it, every fiber of your being begins to identify with one of the characters? Especially when the work is particularly good, this should be a familiar feeling.
That happened to Brett Goldstein the first time that he really digested the story of Apple TV’s Ted Lasso. But it felt less like he was casually taking a BuzzFeed-style personality quiz to find out which character he was most aligned with and more like something nearly cosmic.
Goldstein, a British actor and comedian, was actually working on the show when that overwhelming sensation struck him — and it hit him hard.
Apple TV+
“I was a writer. I wrote on the show,” Goldstein, who is anxiously awaiting the release of the second season of the series, recently told For The Win. “We were in the writer’s room and by about episode five, I started to think: ‘I really understand Roy Kent. I really understand Roy Kent. I think Roy Kent is within me.’”
This identification process is fairly common when someone is consuming film or literature.
But as he helped develop Roy Kent, the brutish and beloved football legend who is well past his prime by the time he gets to AFC Richmond, it kept striking closer and closer to home.
Kent is a captain on the squad during the first season of the show, though he has one foot out the door as he also thinks about his own retirement. He isn’t afraid to curse at his teammates or in front of a group of school children. While he is mostly seen as stern and stoic, he is also an extremely affable character who can be warm — especially to his young niece.
Apple TV+
As Goldstein kept writing for Kent, he knew that this draw to the character was much stronger than just a passing feeling. But he ran the risk of stepping on someone’s toes if he suggested himself for the part.
“I was so grateful to be writing on the show. It’s so special,” explained Goldstein. “I didn’t want to jeopardize that. I didn’t want to make people uncomfortable by going: ‘Hey, I reckon I could play Roy!’ It would suddenly be, like, I don’t think so man. Then everyone would still have to look at me every day.”
Although reluctant, Goldstein’s previous experience as an actor as a regular on shows like Derek with Ricky Gervais or as a guest star on Drunk History UK and Doctor Who made him qualified for the role.
Goldstein is also known in the UK for his indie superhero comedy SuperBob (2015) and he also was awarded Best Supporting Actor at the 2016 British Independent Film Award for his role in Rachel Tunnard’s Adult Life Skills (2016).
Finally, however, he worked up the courage to explain to not only Jason Sudeikis but the entire production team why it was imperative that he be at least in consideration once casting rolled around.
Apple TV+
“I saved it until the very end of the writer’s room,” said Goldstein. “I didn’t tell anyone but I made a self-tape. I did five scenes as Roy. I emailed it when I left. I said: ‘Look, I’ve had a wonderful time. I’ve been thinking that I think I can play Roy. I think I really get it.
“But if this makes you at all uncomfortable or if this video is shit and if you’re at all embarrassed for me, then just pretend you never got it. I will never ask if you got it. We can still be friends.”
The decision was left up to Sudeikis and the team on the show but Goldstein didn’t have to wait long. No one else ever auditioned for the role.
“Thankfully, they couldn’t be bothered to look any harder,” said Goldstein, with a sardonic dry tone that mirrored Roy’s. “So I got the part.”
Goldstein has taken the opportunity and run with it and has since received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
As a testament to the fact that he knew Kent was within him all along, when he accepted the nomination, he sent an email that read nearly exactly the way it would if Kent himself had sent it:
“Holy f***ing s***. What an incredible honor. Proper dream come true s***.
Every part of this show has felt like magic to me. To have the privilege to work on it, to get to make something with this incredible team and now for us to be nominated as a team is just too lovely. Extra special tahnks to Jason and Bill for inviting me to be part of this. What a thing…
As a cynical English guy I’m struggling to deal with all this wonderfulness. I’m not crying, you’re crying. F*** off! You’re crying. You ****.”
Experts including Lynn Elber from the Associated Press as well as Libby Hill and Ben Travers from IndieWire all believe that Goldstein will take home the trophy, per GoldDerby.com.
“It was truly a magical thing for me. In hindsight, I cannot express to you how passionately I felt that I had to be Roy. It was like a calling. It really was.”
Learning from what Rebecca Welton went through in Season 1.
Yes, you can BELIEVE it: Ted Lasso, the Apple TV+ series that shocked the world and became a beloved hit in 2020 is coming back later this week with its Season 2 premiere.
There’s more than one moment in the fourth episode of Ted Lasso when I fall to pieces inside (and sometimes outside) no matter how many times I watch it.
It’s the night of AFC Richmond’s annual charity auction and the team’s owner, Rebecca Welton (played by the incomparable Hannah Waddingham), is running the show alone for the first time following a painfully public split from her ex-husband, Rupert. We already know Rebecca’s broader motivations at this point: She’s dead-set on burning her ex’s beloved football club to the ground after years of Rupert’s infidelity and the public humiliation that followed. What we don’t know is just how traumatizing her marriage really was or how it shaped Rebecca into someone fiercely determined to get revenge, regardless of how many innocent people she has to hurt to get it.
Rebecca is clearly at her breaking point by the time the auction begins. After finalizing preparations and wrestling with herself over whether a stunning black gown is something she can still “pull off”, she finds out the gala’s musical guest, Robbie Williams, has canceled at the last minute. To make matters worse, Rupert (Anthony Head) shows up at the gala — because of course he does — though he had RSVP’d “no” — because of course he did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMuzpgji7XU
We already knew Rupert was a lying, cheating liar, but it isn’t until a subtle comment to Rebecca that we start to realize the extent of the damage she’s recovering from in the aftermath of their marriage.
“Not too much champagne now, dear,” he tells her after she sips from her glass. “You’ve got to stay sharp for the auction.” It’s in this uncomfortable scene with Rebecca, Rupert and Ted (Jason Sudeikis) that we see her transform from a confident, commanding team owner to someone who suddenly can’t trust herself. She tells Rupert he should run the auction instead of her —”We both know they’d rather see you,” she says with no argument from him — and immediately leaves to collect herself.
There are many ways to emotionally abuse a person. Some do it with swift, painful blows to their target’s confidence. Some carefully gaslight their way into a position of dominance by reinforcing self-doubt at every opportunity. And some, like Rupert, do it with a dull knife, relying on years of tiny cuts of cruelty to slowly injure the other person until they no longer recognize who they are or how they’ve been so brutally wounded.
The show’s writers didn’t have to give us years of backstory about Rebecca and Rupert’s marriage for us to understand what she had gone through. Waddingham serves it up brilliantly during a tearful scene with Ted later in the episode:
“That man, he knows me. I used to think his blunt honesty was noble rather than what it really is, which is just the cruelest way of hiding his own insecurities.
“He’d say wear this, eat that. And I listened. But now I’m alone. I’m alone, Ted. Just like he said I would be if I left. I don’t want to be alone.”
And that’s when I break. Every. Damn. Time. Because Ted Lasso, in all its beauty and award-winning brilliance, isn’t always an easy watch if you’ve been abused by a partner and left to clean up their mess. While I, like so many others, fell in love with this show for all of its warmth and goodness, I can’t ignore how drawn I was to Rebecca’s character because so many of us have lived through her experience, and more importantly, lived to tell about it.
That’s why I wasn’t surprised when Waddingham recently said she drew on her own experiences in a past abusive relationship when performing the role. For those of us who’ve endured abuse only to further damage ourselves by seeking vengeance over healing, Rebecca represents the complex ugliness of recovery, how hurt people can hurt people in pursuit of peace.
For as much as this show does to deliver a model of kindness, optimism and forgiveness, it’s also explores human relationships in a way that shows you don’t need a clear-cut hero and villain to tell a compelling story about people — particularly a character like Rebecca who spends most of the first season driven by revenge. It’s why she hires Ted in the first place, despite his complete lack of experience. It’s why she’s initially able to resist his disarming personality and growing connection with the team despite their poor performance on the pitch.
It’s only late in the season, when Rupert cruelly shows up unannounced to tell her he and his new partner are expecting a child, that she realizes she’s never going to win at a game that requires hurting people, even if Rupert deserves to be on the receiving end of what he did to her.
Rebecca ultimately shows us there’s nothing pretty about processing relationship trauma and public humiliation — no magic scoreboard that can erase years of abuse if you have the upper hand. Even if she managed to destroy AFC Richmond, the thing Rupert (allegedly) loves most, it wouldn’t change what he did to her during their marriage or the damage he caused. And it certainly won’t absolve her of the responsibility to make amends with those she hurt when she was married or the people she’s hurting now by deliberately sabotaging a community’s beloved football club.
The catch is you can’t fully heal that kind of abuse without exhibiting the same vulnerability that led to being hurt in the first place, and that’s what we see when she finally comes clean to Ted about her intentions and gives him the freedom to destroy her reputation as a result. It requires more strength to do that than to act out of anger and spite. Anyone can pursue revenge. Not everyone can choose to surrender and start over.
That’s the pain and promise of Ted Lasso, a show buoyed by the power of personal connection. If Ted is intended to show us our highest potential as human beings, Rebecca shows us what happens when we’re so afraid of not deserving that connection that we’ll do anything to save face. She wanted so badly for her ex-husband to shoulder the burden of her own suffering. And it took being loved by good people to make her realize payback was only stealing her peace.
The beauty of Rebecca’s character lies in the complexity of who we can become as a result of being hurt, for better or worse. In a world where most of us out here are scared to death of being seen for who we are, Ted Lasso is a show that simply won’t let us avoid the pain of the human experience.
Instead, it shows us why that pain is necessary, why it matters, and why we don’t have to endure it alone.
Yes, you can BELIEVE it: Ted Lasso, the Apple TV+ series that shocked the world and became a beloved hit in 2020 is coming back later this week with its Season 2 premiere.
So to celebrate, we’re doing a post a day until Friday about the Jason Sudeikis series that’s about more than a first-time soccer coach figuring out how to lead AFC Richmond. We started with the origins of how the series was born out of the NBC ads.
For post No. 2, we’ve got some truly important content: if you want to make the shortbread biscuits that Ted bakes for Rebecca that she loves so much, we’ve got a treat with the “real” recipe (you’ll see why it’s in quotes in a minute), along with some alternatives.
Yes, you can BELIEVE it: Ted Lasso, the Apple+ series that shocked the world and became a beloved hit in 2020 is coming back later this week with its Season 2 premiere.
So to celebrate, we’re doing a post a day until Friday about the Jason Sudeikis series that’s about more than a first-time soccer coach figuring out how to lead AFC Richmond.
First up: I’m not sure if this happened to everyone when hearing about Ted Lasso. But my response when I heard multiple recommendations was, “Wait, that show they made out of the NBC commercials? It’s good???”
So after watching Season 1, that question led me down a rabbit hole: how did one of the best shows of the year sprout out of what was basically an elaborate sketch that promoted soccer on NBC?
Saturday’s FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Leicester City at Wembley Stadium served as one of the first matches played in front of fans since the United Kingdom reinstated its COVID lockdown in the winter.
So, it was totally expected for reporters to catch up with fans leaving the Wembley grounds to get their post-match reactions. But for Chris Skudder on ITV News, he just happened to conduct his interview with the cast of Apple TV+’s hit show, Ted Lasso.
Skudder had no idea as the fictional AFC Richmond players remained in character for the interview and even broke out a chant for Dani Rojas (the character played by Cristo Fernández).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgaTykbyTXY
They at least temporarily convinced the reporter that Dani Rojas was a real soccer player, which was great. Fernández did play professionally in Mexico before pursuing a film career, though. So, they weren’t totally lying about his soccer talents.
But still, as if the actual show wasn’t delightful enough, it really was cool to see the cast members out at a soccer match and bonding like a real team.
