From the Magazine
June 2021 Issue

How Ted Lasso Conquered the World

The Apple TV+ series about the power of kindness won over cynics and soccer skeptics alike. Will the Emmys be next?
Image may contain Brett Goldstein Advertisement Collage Poster Human Person and Hannah Waddingham
FEVER PITCH
Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) is unfailingly kind, even when met with a locker room full of players who initially want nothing to do with him.
Courtesy of Apple TV+

Some might call Ted Lasso naive, but look, that kind of talk is not appreciated around here. Of all the shows that hit big this year, the Apple TV+ comedy about the unflappable soccer coach brought the greatest and giddiest blast of optimism to an overwhelmingly grim year. As Ted, Jason Sudeikis was the friend that many of us needed. He became a word-of-mouth sensation because we just had to share.

CLOSE TALKER
Juno Temple’s Keeley, the model girlfriend of one of the team’s star players, is one of many characters who reveals new depths as the season continues.


Courtesy of Apple TV+

“We certainly couldn’t have predicted the dumpster fire that the year was going to be,” says showrunner Bill Lawrence (Scrubs) who cocreated Ted Lasso with Sudeikis. “The whole writing staff talked about how the world, specifically social media and politics, had gotten to such a cynical, dark place that it was just pervasively gross. If I was to meet someone like Ted Lasso in real life, my first assumption would be: ‘I can’t wait for a week from now when this person reveals himself to be an asshole like everybody else.’ ”

IN THE TANK
Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) is one of the first AFC Richmond players to buy in on Ted’s ethos of kindness—and convinces the rest of the team to get on board.
Courtesy of Apple TV+

In the series, which returns for a second season on July 23, Ted proved that instinct wrong again and again—just think of the biscuits he’s secretly baking for team owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham, pictured left), letting her think at first that they come from a store. “When that person turns out to be actually kind and forgiving and empathetic and lovely,” Lawrence says, “then you’ve got to look at yourself.”

Courtesy of Apple TV+

Ted Lasso was precisely who he appeared to be, but curiously, he was the only one. “By the end of the show, you saw each character very differently from how you initially saw them,” says Juno Temple, who plays Keeley, a model and the girlfriend of AFC Richmond’s narcissistic star player. Such a character might have been written as shallow and conniving in another program, Temple acknowledged, but the coach’s sincerity brings out the hidden depths in everyone. The friendship that springs up between Temple and Waddingham’s characters was a particularly central part of the show—and a welcome surprise in a story largely about sweaty men. “That was a really precious thing to put on film,” Temple says, but also one that happened off-camera, “Hannah Waddingham just being an extraordinary female goddess in my life.”

Ted Lasso was the real deal, even if he was fictional. The fantasy of the series was aspirational: Maybe there really are good people out there. Maybe we could be one of them.

Where to Watch Ted Lasso:

All products featured on Vanity Fair are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair

— A First Look at Leonardo DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon
— 15 Summer Movies Worth Returning to Theaters For
— Why Evan Peters Needed a Hug After His Big Mare of Easttown Scene
Shadow and Bone Creators Break Down Those Big Book Changes
— The Particular Bravery of Elliot Page’s Oprah Interview
— Inside the Collapse of the Golden Globes
Watch Justin Theroux Break Down His Career
— For the Love of Real Housewives: An Obsession That Never Quits
From the Archive: The Sky’s the Limit for Leonardo DiCaprio
— Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.