Jason Sudeikis on Becoming Ted Lasso: "I didn't want to snark out anymore"

hello everyone welcome to the great creators I'm guy Roz and this is where I have conversations about creativity with some of the most celebrated actors musicians and performers of our time and on the show today Jason Sudeikis on the meaning of Ted lasso so if I asked you to name the greatest Leading Men on television over the past say 20 years you might mention James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano or Brian Cranston as Walter White or Jon Hamm is Don Draper and all of them are anti-heroes right I me

an we watched these characters cave to their darkest impulses and sometimes we couldn't help wonder whether we had that kind of Darkness inside of us as well well Jason sudeikis's character Ted lasso is kind of the opposite the show of course is about an American football coach hired to lead an English Premier League soccer team despite knowing nothing about the sport and here's the thing about the show and the character Ted is earnest Ted is generous Ted is optimistic no matter what and above a

ll he's kind he's really kind he's a character who like any good coach challenges you and makes you ask yourself how good am I really how kind could I be if I just tried a little harder well today on the show Jason opens up about where Ted lasso came from and how he's able to be funny without being mean plus what he's learned about humility from his very famous TV star uncle and the story of his rise from basketball player to Comedy Sports improv to Second City to Saturday Night Live anyway befo

re we start this is what you need to know about Jason he grew up in a suburb just outside of Kansas City but his world was always a little bigger for one thing he had a close relative as I mentioned he was a very famous TV star as you are about to find out plus his mom was a travel agent which allowed Jason to get out a little bit and see new places I mean I've always joked that between my mom being a travel agent and my father having a subscription to Playboy that I had like early access to the

internet that was like you know uh and it also made me incredibly like um open to wherever we want to go but probably less of a self-starter you know because she would be like hey we're going here we're going there and and that's a trait that my father has but also whenever she would leave because I grew up in a house where the the mom was gone probably more often than the father you know in typical situations and she would leave an itinerary like detailed of like here's when the dance classes

are here's where the you know basketball practice ends here's here's what time they got to be at school even though it was the same every day you know it was it was written down this thing and she was you know brilliant still brilliant at it you grew up in uh mainly in Overland Park Kansas um suburb of Kansas City and I know that um your uncle is George Wendt and when you were probably in middle school high school I mean that was like the peak of his Fame I mean that was when cheers was the bigg

est show on TV did everyone know that he was your uncle yeah everyone knew his name connected to my name yeah um to to a certain degree it yes because because yeah I would say in third grade Miss erlinson's class remember him coming to speak to uh the school and that was that was like he came to speak to your school I just came here because he was in town you know like uh you know I I I've uh you know a few uncles and a few aunts um and yeah Kansas City you know smack dab in the middle only only

an hour flight away from Chicago where most resided although George and uh his wife Bernadette were here in LA or in L.A I'm in New York now but um yeah that that was like that was a a big deal but also it wasn't like uh a sports star coming or someone from like a a uh I just remember Miss Arlington being really excited you know because she was you know a grown-up and and cheers while you know incredibly you know funny and well written and well cast and all that was set in a bar and so most kid

s we didn't get the humor right but but I did have this sense of like the enthusiasm people had whenever he would come in and he had a built-in salutation like people calling him by his wrong name you know he walk in a room who will say Norm people are always really really excited to see them when we'd go out it was pre you know cell phone or smartphone so it wasn't picture picture a lot a lot of times it was you know people just wanted to buy a beer with them or just say hello you know people d

idn't truck around with cameras in their pocket so it's just about you know hey how are you and he had and he had gone to college in Kansas City so he had you know people there he went to rockers college for for you know a couple semesters so he knew that town well too and and the barbecue you know will get get anybody you know excited to come to Kansas City you were you were like an athlete as a as a kid as a teenager you played high school basketball was was there any I mean for for most of yo

ur time in high school and even you know when you went to to the local college to play basketball would anyone at that time of Penn have been like oh Jason he's gonna be an actor like that's the guy that's gonna go on TV and in movies or were you was was your self-image and kind of your the way people thought of you was as a jock as a basketball player I I would I'd be willing to Guess that people certainly coaches you know knew my high school coach I think it drove me crazy that I was so uh per

formative like my style of basketball player would have been would skew fancy hot dog-ish you know and when you sort of look back and you're like you're like wow how did I end up in this job like you know and two big influences were way my Uncle George you know navigated my aunt Bernadette and coming through Second City and my parents being enthusiastic go see stuff so being around it and then seeing the way George and Byrne kept their you know humanity and humility and and you know connection t

o the family and and where they came from and where where they're currently at uh playing sports and and having like a group of fellas who made each other laugh and joked around a bunch and and yet playing in that sort of style like never throwing the Easy Pass you know I mean I grew up loving you know Magic Johnson but also like Pistol Pete marovich and you know look passes yeah yeah I mean if I go through the legs you know just cause I would do it and you know it would drive some coaches crazy

but it I got to play a lot of Summer League bulk um where where the stakes weren't quite as high as like you know high school basketball where you know you're trying to advance into a state uh you know tournament type of thing and so and you just didn't have a coach usually yelling at you there's usually a guy that was about five years older than you you know like the sort of like and kind of loving it you know that's sort of what AAU Hoops was for for me was this opportunity to sort of um scre

w around in a in a in a fun way like that because it was just I mean I practiced like crazy throwing those passes it wasn't like I was only throwing them you know at those times I'd thrown more behind the back passes against the wall than you know to any human so you were I mean you were I mean kind of looking back you were already kind of a performer um as a basketball player but you actually started to do improv yeah in high school like you took a um like a drama class in your high school yeah

what what what was it about that that you thought that's what I want to do that like because well I knew I look you know a lot yeah I knew I liked it because I love going to see stuff you know and I'm I have two younger sisters so I didn't you know part of you know playing basketball and then eventually when making the transition to to like comedy if you will specifically it I always had and tried to play with guys older than me you know so that you were the worst one on the court you know you

had to play you don't keep up you had to catch up same thing with like you know my my friends that I end up doing this thing called Comedy Sports in Kansas City it was a cut in Comedy Sports is like a it's like a they're clubs all over the country it's like a competition of improv like kind of Whose Line Is It Anyways you know it's kind of like almost like uh you know professional wrestling in the sense that you know no one's trying to hurt anybody no one's getting mad you know hopefully not if

if you're if your improv game loses to the other team and yeah it was a red team versus the blue team we're the sharks and Jets you know like um but prior to that you know just loving to go see stuff I I feel very connected to the character I forget his name maybe Mike in A Chorus Line you know that's on I can do that you know I'm watching Cisco Pitt or Pat dun dun dun said I could do that now it wasn't dance for me but it was like golly that that Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit that have you I

wonder if I had the guts to get out there in this thing and I never did yeah not until much much you know later in life that being my you know early 20s but um but yeah it was a little bit that love of it that escapism that that that that that mentoring that you know people like you know whatever Gene Hackman Robin Williams Tom Hanks Bill Murray Chevy Chase Bugs Bunny like he watching these these you know usually you know like any situation with representation watching these these men you know

you know actual Foley the character you know uh Eddie Murphy like speaking truth to power like like being smart asses you know getting the girl any of those things that a generation before felt about Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart you know Etc so I knew I was drawn to that um what what I mean you still went to college to play basketball Community College sure sure but I mean you know just still playing basketball so that so but that didn't last long and you must have been kind of an oddball like

this jock on the team with these guys that you probably were friends with but you also had this other life like doing improv and going to improv classes and um she were it was probably kind of weird in a sense to a degree I know I know you know you know bless any of their hearts you know the people that have uh that hadn't had the experience with it both it being part of a a family you know situation that being something that yes I had family that worked in it but also a family that was supporti

ve of it and and you know my mom taking me to go see La Casa Falls like a touring company or fan of the Opera and stuff if you don't have access to the Arts or if you didn't grow up in a home that that accessed the Arts then yeah it would seem like an aberration it would seem unusual but for me it was all I ever knew and my friend group was tremendously supportive wonderfully funny clever young man I mean that's 100 baked into the DNA of the conversations that we write on behalf of the players a

nd I've become friends with athletes I've become friends with people in bands those guys and gals just ingest you know immediately film and television and music and really have strong creative thoughtful uh feelings and philosophies and opinions about them and you know that's all from me having the Good Fortune of growing up with the friends that I did at least gravitating towards them them gravitating towards me and yeah the The Ensemble Arts if you will improv sketch comedy making TVs and movi

es is is not too dissimilar for me than you know playing on a team you know it's funny I have a knee-jerk reaction to your use of the word jock because it's like it you know it has such a negative connotation as such like pushing kids down in the hallway or slamming around lockers and stuff and that's just not the way you know I ever remember being uh and certainly not not my friend group we were like you know good dudes and yeah and and then the day I walk into that that speech and debate class

what they call it forensics in the Midwest and then I'm watching like this whole other group of clever kids that were also supportive of me being an athlete but and they were also a little bit you know flummoxed by it and it never yeah never I always felt welcomed in in both groups and I loved both things equally and then at some point you know I remember driving through the lane in community college and getting hit in the face and it wasn't it's not like I'm like you know Leo DiCaprio it's not

like my face is my money maker or anything like that it was not like I'm a male model but I just remember being like what is the end game here Jace like are you like you're just gonna get hurt or something and and I did kind of lose my my mojo for you know driving to the basket or just the the physical contact of it all and it was at that time that I was already sort of I was driving home every single weekend to go watch Comedy Sports every Wednesday night to uh like an hour and a half there an

hour and a half back borrowing a friend's car to go do rehearsal so I could do this you know this transition from Sports to comedy with this thing called Comedy Sports when you um when you decided to drop out of college and move to Chicago and pursue acting um did your I mean obviously you had your your Uncle George was well known actor but were you did your parents support it I mean you know that's kind of a a risky move right it's very rare for people to like I'm gonna drop out of college and

make a career out of acting and just try to figure it out 100 no they I mean by and they were supportive yes I mean in the simplest way but I also you know yeah I dropped out then I lived in my parents basement I went to the local Community College like literally like you know 10 minutes away versus you know uh an hour and a half down Highway uh 69 highway I I bought a drum kit before a car because my mom was traveling a lot so I could use her car a lot you know so she would just leave that and

and uh uh so I never had a car and I guarantee you they were worried sick I mean I I know I would I know I'd be like being able to empathize with them better now but I was just like I worked at Blockbuster Video I worked at a grocery store and and you know in Kansas City in Kansas City yeah before moving up to Chicago but then moving to Chicago I lived with my grandma on the South Side uh I Michael George let me uh use a car that him and his family would keep at this lake house in Michigan um a

nd and then yeah I just I so I didn't have to pay rent and I just had to pay you know you know for gas and I worked at Banana Republic on Michigan Avenue and I would just spend my every night up in Chicago you know because I would to pay for classes I did interning like I'd work you know at um in in different places and then you get to go see shows for free and I would just go watch you know four to five hours of show every night like with Incredible casts and um you know on the Second City main

stage or people that have been doing long-form improv or or the the annoyance theater where they did really interesting outside the box shows and I just was a sponge you know it was any any time that I probably anybody my age would have been spending it in classes or at parties you know in a college setting I was I was doing it on the north side of Chicago we've had um we've had several guests on the show who really got their start in Chicago improv Seth Meyers and like baronholtz and Stephen C

olbert and and I've asked a version of this question all of them and and no one can quite answer I can't certainly but what do you why do you think Chicago was this has been this like Wellspring of talent around improv like why why should because they're a bunch of yeah improv theaters that became really famous yeah yeah I mean Amy Pole or all these people came out of Tina Fey out of Chicago yeah well Amy pole in New York but it started there you know they grew up in the Boston area then moved t

here that's where you would gravitate towards I think I mean I'll try to answer the extemporary I mean I am an extemporaneous I I but I've tried to think about it myself too in the past and and you don't have the same pressures that you have in New York and La one it's a you know a little bit more uh inexpensive to live in you know a Miller Lite would you know back in my day cost three bucks versus nine bucks on the coast so you know they're like uh I'm sure there was a similar thing with milk u

m but like it I but I think it was I always felt that it was about the work and not the the journey and not the destination uh you know like and and you know what show you on what auditions you're getting you know that like those sort of pressures and you know more so la like New York feels like it has like that art of soul and it's they're connected to it but but Chicago has like this yeah this blue collar you know feel to it and and um and that would be the only thing I could I could think of

and you're also in in the um you know to have something to been around since 1959 and has all that you know amazing alumni you kind of those you carry those at least I did it I felt not like I was trying to impress those people living or dead uh you know familial or not you just wanted to um honor what they built and and try to you know add to it you know it's the same thing that you kind of feel that or I ended up getting to feel when working on Saturday Night Live you know it's like it's like

oh you're part of something and that's just Second City but the whole city has it I mean the Goodman Theater the Steppenwolf you know where Mammoth like you know wrote sexual perversity in Chicago like it the the city just has that experience that I I think if the if the weather didn't get as crummy as it does did during you know five months six months of the year there I think the whole world would live in Chicago I think it's a remarkable town you you ended up um getting a part or going to wor

k for um uh boom Chicago in Amsterdam we've had as I mentioned Seth Meyers and um Ike parentals were also part of you were there when Seth Meyers was there it's it's a it's this to me I still can't grab my head around it's a it's a chicago-based improv uh Troop that started in Amsterdam and and so and this is really where you meet like Brendan hunt and Joe Kelly and people who would you know you go on to Forum to create Tallassee with which we'll talk about in a bit but um yeah we all met in Chi

cago at different times but that was where where we all like forged together yeah yeah and and because it's it's kind of like meeting someone from your high school After High School in the city that you both moved to it's like you there's an instant shoot there you know like we're we're you know English speakers at this you know American you know Theater Company in the middle of this you know interesting land for numerous reasons not even the most obvious ones in a lot of ways and yeah you you a

nd then you're performing with each other and you're on the same side of you know whatever you know you're doing you're on stage together and that's yeah that forms a quick Bond just like again just like a sports team I'm curious about what improv did for your brain right because the Yale drama Conservatory like Sigourney Weaver went there or you know like you went to medical school to become a doctor like you were learning how to do this by performing but I imagine that it's like kind of becaus

e it's hard you've got to come up with comedy because I've watched some of your stuff that you did earlier in your career there's one um that you did uh blind line that I saw and it's very funny you're just picking a piece of paper that the audience is thrown on the ground and you're just like performing a sketch based on that word but to get to that place right imagine you have to you have to like rewire your brain in the sense to be able to think that quickly hi so I don't know I mean I may ha

ve just been lucky that it it just gave me the repetitions to to to do it my brain may have already been you know that way and then I just found a place that that you know you didn't get demerits and detention from doing it they gave you you know well you didn't get paid really either at that point but I just love doing it and I loved the people that did it um as well you know the majority of them like and just that type of energy being around I I genuinely think it has as much to do with you kn

ow the nature of the family I was born into and the nurturing that I got from from you know the the friends that I had um and and maintain you know um and then it just came down to those schooling sometimes it's just it's about it's all vocabulary it's like okay here's what I do and then a teacher's like oh that's called heightening or that's called you know finding the game of a scene and you don't know that until then someone gives you the vocabulary and sometimes vocabulary is merely there to

help you access that that moment that skill set again or to to make the thing that I would you know say you know it's kind of a broad term of it but it helps make the invisible visible it gives it gives a method to the madness and so yeah and and you don't know it's one of my favorite things about and I don't watch it anymore but I know early on like American Idol that you know you that you know there's some you know young gal from Oklahoma named Carrie Underwood oh that's a good name and then

it's like and then she doesn't know what she has in her and it's one of the themes of our show it's like you don't know what you have in you until someone comes along and says hey you might be able to you might be good at PR Kelly Jones you know it says Rebecca Weldon and so I've had people do that along the way and and um and yeah each job you get you can't help but feel like that's someone you know wanting you to do well no no one hires you to like you know [ __ ] up they want you to score you

know on on their behalf sometimes yes but but also with the understanding that if you were to do the right thing at the right moment for yourself like that's just a good field that's going to go out into the universe you know and that need not always be obviously in entertainment but if if you if you're doing something that you have a knack for that you care about you're not hurting anybody while doing it then yeah who wouldn't want that you know for someone tell me tell me a little bit about w

hat was going on in your life in your mid-20s because you're back from Amsterdam you moved to Las Vegas to open up um uh Second City in Las Vegas right um and uh you're performing there sometimes in for very small audiences but um but I've I read that at that time you became really stressed out like yeah anxiety and stress like what I mean it seemed like you know you were had you were leading Second City there so what was going on yeah it's a good question yeah I developed uh like like my new ve

rsion of alopecia you know I remember and it's like it's still so I mean you're looking here but it was like right on my chin about the size of a dime like hair just stopped growing there I was like what's going on there I went to a doctor and they're like oh you think you have to think alopecia I go oh okay how do you get rid of it I you can't it'll work itself out where does it come from uh we don't know I was like oh boy you know I'm like am I dying am I gonna die like well you are gonna die

I've known like soon anyway I know we all die but um and then yeah gave me like some sort of steroid ointment uh to put on it and it did it eventually came back grew back white and then it grew back normal and then it would sort of move around every now and I think that was that was like the body like the way our cars you know well the the brakes will Screech you know like you're scared you know it's kind of telling you hey take a look at some stuff so I've tried to investigate it I think I prob

ably I think maybe I was only supposed to stay in Vegas for six months and then my my uh girlfriend got hired you know our names Kay she we were working together in Amsterdam then she gets hired and then three months after that 9 11 happens and so now it's like oh my God like the world is ending you know all that all that fear that we had both uh from within but then anything depending on your news sources what what you're reading and you know we're hearing that the hijackers had just been in La

s Vegas like two weeks prior and it just it was just like this nutty thing and yet we had a sold out uh house that night we did two shows that night on 9 11 and it kind of made you feel like he gave you a purpose gave you something you know to do at night besides just watch you know CNN or something uh and between doing that show and watching you know Sex in the City those that gave us you know space and peace and like a little optimism and hope uh beyond what we were all you know all dealing wi

th at that point and I just feel like um you know that that place really allowed for the I mean the Reps I mean uh that straight out of like you know Malcolm Gladwell like it was 10 000 hours it was my Cavern Club it was all of our Cavern Club you know I I ended up staying two years nine months you know and it uh it was life-changing and it was like Beyond just going to college now it was like graduate school because we had to earn these audiences we had to found a voice you know I think and and

I think being away from the from the The Hub of Second City Chicago even though we would go back there because Kay was from Chicago and my folks would go up there for every Christmas and we'd go check in and watch like the mainstage shows and Etc shows and everything it it allowed for like just this yeah you almost you almost you know beat the acting out of yourself or like the the influences and sort of found your own thing but yeah I think all that stress and anxiety and maybe having wanting

to do more or wondering if I had more to give was manifesting and white blood cells attacking my hair follicles you know it's like you see it all the time and we we were I was more I was set at ease by realizing oh this happens more often with people because I thought it was it was unusual but then I started to remember oh and Mike Tyson you know you'd see it more often and in like you know African-Americans because their hair doesn't you know didn't like lay over so you'd see in Rasheed Wallace

you'd see like a missing patch of hair in like you know Mike Tyson and those guys are a lot tougher than me so I was like okay so we're all sort of dealing with this and again these are the small manifestations that we you know you know kind of You drama dramatize in Ted lasso and whether it be Higgins like his guttural sounds or or Nate's hair turning gray you know you know throughout this you know second season as he's making this internal shift it's these external things that your body's jus

t trying to like look at look at this man hey hey dude take a look at this and yeah you know I didn't for a long long time but you know you were um I'm curious about I mean you were eventually hired you were asked to audition you were hired um not to be a cast member but to be a writer on Saturday Night Live and and I'm right before that happened would you I mean I have to assume that you you had Ambitions that you you know being a second City performer in Las Vegas was not the ultimate goal lik

e did that that you somehow wanted to kind of break through and have you know an opportunity to do something on a bigger stage was that a cause of anxiety in a sense like feeling like I'm never gonna make it not really not consciously honestly I it was always tiny goals the fact that I got to was getting a weekly paycheck you know and even though it wasn't a lot you know in in in relation to um you know other jobs in show business but it was consistent I I loved what we did I felt a great respon

sibility knowing that this was gonna maybe most likely be the only show that a lot of people from you know on the west coast will see a second City show and we were doing like for the majority of my time there an archival show meaning we're doing like some of the best sketches so you're doing old Chris Farley Tina Fey sketches you know Colbert and Corel sketches you know and I I just took great pride in that you know it felt like wearing you know like a Kansas you know University college basketb

all or like a Celtics Jersey you know whatever whatever great you know sort of a Yankees uniform um and and I was maybe too much you know in in that regard and that was a thing that that I sort of you know had to work through and and learn and be more be more open towards like you know how do you how do you help the situation um through and again I don't think I was the excellent at it by any means and uh but how do you how do you help a situation without demanding more from people than they're

willing or wanting to give you know and and uh yeah I that the SNL thing it didn't seem real until until Seth Seth was like the first person from our generation that made it through you know prior to that if my memory serves it would have been like Horatio Sans and Rachel Dratch who were like they were like seniors you know when I was a freshman in the you know Chicago experience and they were Legends I mean they were like two of the funniest people I've ever seen I mean they're still hilarious

but like that's who makes it on SNL Tina Fey yeah yeah that made that who makes it uh and then then I had the knowledge of all the people who were incredible who didn't and so then to get so you know you never think it's gonna happen and then then I remember vividly Jeff Richmond uh who did you know all the music for 30 Rock an incredible director at Second City uh also you know the husband of Tina Fey um but for me you know Jeff Richmond comes out to Vegas watches the show and says have you eve

r thought about auditioning for SNL and I was like wait what you know like and that that's I mean the metaphor I've used is like is you know the the prettiest girl in school that you're like uh she seems so stuck up and saying oh really because she she has a crush on you she does you know you're like what because at that point I think it's within any sort of Comedy snobs you know journey to dislike SNL I think and I think I think SNL thrives from that dislike to a certain degree it certainly has

more to it than just any one individual genius and I think Lauren would own up to that too because even it still survived even when he dipped out for five years you know what I mean and yet I think some of that is people you know it just said a bar it was a bar for things that for you to like dislike you know have opinions about performance it's it's it's uh and yet that that again that vibrates and it's one of those things you hear that about certain you know football teams you know football i

s better in European football soccer is better when Manchester United is playing well you know when the when the Yankees are doing well it's better for baseball and when SNL is kicking butt is better for comedy um and at that point yeah I was like ah I don't like them and more importantly they would never like me you know and right then you know I I was I was proven wrong about both you had sort of the opposite um the opposite opportunity that Seth Meyers has had because he was hired as a as a a

n actor and then he became a writer you were hired as a writer and then you became a patriot player on the show in in the two years before you became a featured player you'd have bit parts now and again but you were mainly writing for other for other voices um what did you learn about about comedy that made you better at it during that time because I know that probably I mean you were watching people on stage and probably you were thinking I really want to I want to be in that scene or I want to

be on on the show yeah that was advice the Tina gave early on I was like don't write something for someone else that you could do yourself it'll drive you crazy and I remember following that advice until one point I wrote like a Dr Phil sketch um and uh for a phone named Jeff Richards who did a great Dr Phil impression on on the show and uh and I remember feeling as he was performing it I was like uh you know what and that was the first time I did and you know as with many things uh Tina Fey wa

s correct and and you know you sometimes gotta you know leave the house and prodigal son and return and come back um but but what it what all that did you know getting that opportunity to kind of like I get lucky on my first week I got a sketch on my second week I uh got another sketch on my third week I was in like the the monologue asking a question I think my fourth week I got to write a piece with Robert Smigel you know like a weekend update feature so I had a heck of a run and that first mo

nth of Justin Timberlake yeah yeah yeah Jack Black yeah I mean yeah I mean great hosts you know that was the first time you know Justin had ever hosted and he was like so comfy but those Mickey Mouse club kids are like you know like they know like the 40s performers they can tap dance they can do magic they can they're incredible uh just uh and and then I went like Oprah Winfrey first forever like I didn't get anything on but what I loved loved and still love and will always love is the rewrite

room like when you get to take on like I'd do it like a bad impression of a Maya character a Fred character and then just your brain clicks into those those voices and you try to write for them support them and and it's just I I love it and you sit around that room and we were kind of you're kind of encouraged early on like hey just listen you know don't you don't want to like be annoying basically you know and and uh and I would go back and forth between the rewrite rooms of Dennis mcnicholas w

ho was down on nine and then Tina was was up on 17 and and I would get bounced around from from both and I remember early on you know sort of mumbling a couple jokes you know being like a little you know trepidatious and shy and then Tina being like what was that that's great let's do that and then she'd you know take her pencil and like you're just like oh wow and then you start to joke around and and yeah it was just it it just wanted to feel you know helpful you know I did the only way to get

over the Imposter syndrome that I definitely felt especially because I was thinking myself more as a performer than here got higher as a writer you know Seth was a freaking great writer from junk like you know like so even though he got hired as an actor I mean he's you know very very special in that regards and had had uh and he was doing a boom Chicago too uh clearly but yeah I uh I just was um just trying to keep you felt like that you weren't you weren't what you felt like you weren't as sm

art or as clever as the other writers you saw in there no I mean I don't know if it was that so much as again is the knowledge of all the people that had had that job before that um that didn't keep it or or possibly maybe uh heard Rumblings of them not liking it and and and wondering am I am I really supposed to be here you know do I really belong here like can I really do this like when are they going to sniff me out you know I didn't unpack the boxes in my apartment which I bought I bought I

rented three blocks away in case they needed me at a less second notice you know my my partner and I at that point she was living in LA or Vegas first you know staying with the show and then then doing La too you know for this is okay yeah for for um for acting purposes so I was you know uh the job you know I was you know dating dating that show and and and every joke was it was a child you know that kind of gave you vitality and made it all worth it um and yeah because he didn't want to just re

st on you again your laurels or or or the resume or or uh but it wasn't it wasn't from a place of it didn't feel from a place of fear it just genuinely loved it you know I wasn't trying to keep up and yet it was a remarkable group that I came into as a you know underclassman if you will um but that only prepared me to keep up with the truly truly incredible you know generation I feel like I was lucky to be a part of you know I'm I I sort of looking at your kind of your career right up until 10 l

asso which we'll talk about in a moment but there's something that I think is really common there's a Common Thread in how you perform whether it's like Vance the dancer behind Keenan Thompson um which is so funny or you know the two a-holes character or playing like Mitt Romney one of my favorite sketches ever on SNL was the Mitt Romney drinking milk increasingly getting drunk off milk it's just it's so funny but what ties them all together is your comedy isn't mean like it's it's not like Mitt

Romney could watch that and laugh at that and not feel offended you know it's sure like you know that it was particularly cruel right um and I wonder if that was conscious I mean you're obviously midwesterners and earnestness and you know and in a good way in in the world you grew up in but I wonder if that was always conscious in your mind about the way you did comedy not conscious not conscious but but again having wanted to not just make people laugh but be around people that made me laugh l

eaves you open to I don't think you can same way they say in basketball you can't coach height I don't think you can coach cleverness what you can encourage people to do is listen listen people like how do you get to you know quick listen what's the trick to improv listen I like this girl listen like you know like just listen and and I think listening is kind is an active form of kindness truly truly listening I mean you do it for a living right you know there's the research that you do but then

there's also the part of you here that's open to whatever wherever the answers I take you whether I forget your question by the time I'm done with my sentence and we're off on that thing you're listening you're here boom you're in the pocket and it's like that's that's what it's all about you know and so and so by circumstance that then makes maybe the comedy a little bit more you know a little Kinder uh but it but I just you know I always wanted to speak truth to power you know like that's why

I love Axel Foley that's why I love Fletch that's why you know that's why you love John McLean you know like you know even though it's not technically comedy it's like he's always he's they're always fighting for the the little guy uh but trying to be you know defeat the biggest guy in doing so and and um and yeah I I personally like that doesn't mean I can't be you know snarky and mean and cynical and and have opinions about you know things the work mostly probably my own and I can't like lay

myself out you know with some inner voice and you know inside my brain but but yeah it it it it doesn't motivate me uh to do it that way when you um is a well-known story that Ted lasso began as a just a a three four minute skit on NBC Sports it was a this trying to promote the Premier League the Premier League I should say pronounced the Premier League in the UK the Premier League in the in on us TV uh television and and they used and developed this character this coach Ted lasso and he was he

was kind of more like the a-hole character right I mean he was this kind of blustering certainly in the first one anxious um but funny character um how did you tell me how you decide to kind of take that character and turn him into something bigger and actually quite different from what he was originally yeah I mean originally originally the the Ad Agency a couple fellas called the Brooklyn Brothers who were actually a couple Brits uh but they were like hey if we're gonna have a ad company in Ne

w York let's you know Brooklyn um they um they had more they had envisioned the character be yeah a little bit more of uh you know hair dryer type coach you know someone that yells and screams like a Bobby Knight or your your stereotypical like NFL coach and I just wanted to do like this like a softer version of that just yelling and screaming just didn't feel as as fun and also felt maybe derivative of things that I just you know I'd played or or and this was an energy that I definitely would h

ave you know played joking around like you know playing beer pong with friends you know like some version of this especially after you know a couple losses and therefore a few more you know cups of beer um pre-coveted of course uh but uh and it shifted into a less version of a hair dryer more like this you know this this pumpkin guy but in that first commercial yeah we we you know I dressed like you know Mike Ditka you know with the polyester shorts and the orange glasses and the mustache and uh

which I I had and yeah any any chewed gum you know that was like you know yeah like you know and and then when we got to do the second commercial um that's between the two the the fun like the enthusiasm and kind of the um the uh um you know the part that wasn't a blowhard is at the end of that first commercial he gets fired by Tottenham and he's just kind of like oh oh well you know he's and and for me versus versus victimhood versus versus like they didn't give me a shot then you give me a ch

ance you know being mad about it he's like hey all right oh well and so in between those things had the soccer Community not embrace the commercials and they truly did and if for any of them that hate uh Ted lasso the show it's their fault for like and tell last of the commercial because it let us do the second one and in that second one if you're if we're gonna keep the story going so we're already sort of seeing a narrative and it was always my philosophy about like doing recurring characters

on SNL like very often it's just about repeating the mannerisms and like using the joke structures and yet I always like the idea of trying to keep like a universe going or trying to you know in the very subtle ways and the show doesn't necessarily lend itself to doing that and I understand that but it was just an instinct of a desire to do so we did the second commercial and it's like okay we're gonna follow the narrative he got fired and he loved it he was only there three days and he loved Lo

ndon and he just took it home and he fell in love with the sport and that as you can even hear me singing and saying it like it was just like opened up this whole world kicked open all these doors of just like that's what it is and so then he's coaching like this little girl's soccer team and yet he's having a great time with him he's talking about their feelings you know he's doing all that and it's just any and it's sincere and we meant every bit of it we weren't taking the piss out of any of

it including football originally including soccer including American you know football none of it it was all done from Love and Brendan Hunt is in it as your assistant coach and I've heard him on on soccer podcasts and he has incredible knowledge of professional soccer I got a million things to be quite honest I mean that's probably the closest you know like element of the coach beard character to him is that he is like yeah you know he's like a soccer Encyclopedia Brown yeah no he and and came

about it honestly like you know later in life when living in boom in Amsterdam at boom Chicago but he was a cynical as any American football fan about what is 190 minutes zero zero is this you know then fell in love during a very special time of Dutch Football you know and IX football and and yeah and when like anybody that has I'm sure you have people like this in your life if you're not one of these people for other people uh when he has an enthusiasm for something and he shares it with you ri

ght it's it is yeah not condescending it is not I think didactic right that's a negative thing yeah it is just it is pure joy and and we could just speak in metaphors about what I did know and what he knew and and that's where that's the comedy of the of those first two commercials really certainly the first one between the time that you you sort of um uh introduce this character Ted lasso in 2013 to the time where I was picked up by Apple which is six years later was it clear to you once that t

hat very brief campaign on NBC was done that you were going to do something more with that character or did you think that was it not immediately but then I remember being at a dinner uh me and my ex-partner Olivia were at um dinner somewhere and it must have been yeah probably Brooklyn and she just knew that Brendan Joe and I just had a ball doing it and and that was that it was well liked and and she you should do something more with that and it's not like that idea hadn't crossed our mind but

I do remember that being it's sort of one of those things where like oh I feel this way about something and then it takes someone outside of you to be like hey you should do that and and I the the phrase I've used for years is like it someone is there or something is there to help you know get your baggage out of the way of your intuition you know it just sort of like so the part of me is like no that's that only exists in that medium and people on this and the second she said it I remember I r

emember dude sitting there being like and started just riffing on it being like okay but why why would he do that because I'm like I'm like okay I'm like you know at that point almost 40. it's like how do you must have you must have a kid and if he doesn't because that must be part of the story right at that age and that's just you know the conditioning that we have just whatever here in the states and and uh and just having friends back home that all have almost teenagers at that point here I w

as childless you know like thinking okay but why would he leave and if I'm gonna play that character he's coming from that spot well maybe things aren't going well at home and so he's taking he's taking this job to you know to like have some space and and that stuff marinated and then Brendan and Joe came out to to uh Brooklyn for a week and we stayed at at my house and and we'd get up every morning drink coffee go down in the basement play Pinball then come upstairs and just Riff on ideas and y

ou know it was a very prolific week because we we basically beat out you know the pilot and then we kind of did six episodes six episodes and uh and like like a special we were just modeling it structure wise off the British office which I think is an iconic piece of you know work and and and if you're gonna at least steal its structure you know like you can't you know that's magic in a bottle uh but like at least you can be like when we do this this exists and and we came up with so many ideas

for episodes and things that were in the like that are in the show currently came up from that thing about you know Ted you know seeing Rebecca cry in episode four that was I was always out of Gala it was based on the real thing that happened to me um and I knew because we always knew that it we were going to show why this woman was hiring this guy to fail you know like we could like allow space for the empathy Ted's panic attack in seven it was always going to be surrounded and within a karaoke

situation was until we were fortunate enough to meet and then uh hire you know Hannah that that it was going to be sprung by her yeah like but all those things happened in that week and so then it sat and Justin for a while while you know different things were being made Joe was working on detroiters with our friends Tim uh and Zach and Sam uh Richardson and and I was eping that Brandon was getting acting gigs uh Olivia and I were having our our first child um and doing things they're in like m

ovie things and so then it kind of disappeared for a while and then Bill Lawrence steps into our live or my life specifically and and with it with a project that that didn't didn't you know manifest there but he was like well if you ever have anything and I was like well we have this and I had like a you know stack of papers you know like you know a crummy first draft of a pilot and uh you know beat sheets and character ideas and kind of gave it to him and then once again that's a dude that look

ed at and goes yeah this is something I was like it is you know I can we should you know uh and then it was just a matter of you know trying to write that pilot and and with the three of us every day like in L.A I forget what year that would have been that would have been like I guess early 2018. yeah and then boom boom boom yeah so overnight success for sure um I you know slightly direct digression but you know watching that first season and and the storyline behind it and I know you've been as

ked about this you can't help but identify with what's going on in that character's life and obviously your public figure and you've been through very public turmoil you know because we live in a celebrity obsessed culture where you know normally if somebody has marital Strife or challenges it's hap you know maybe their co-workers would know or it's private but when you're public figure it's in the newspapers um obviously this this character was written before all that happened but you've you've

been through this in a public way um you know before how do you how do you do comedy and do your public work and make people laugh when things are kind of falling apart in your personal life and these compartmentalize those things yeah I mean it depends your definition of falling apart sometimes things need to fall apart so they can be rebuilt in a in a better way you know it's like a bone breaking and you know up to a certain age it heals stronger right so you know one has nothing to do with t

he other like they're like the story lines were just we're always there and maybe it's a you know so self-fulfilling prophecy but but I that wasn't that wasn't intentional either you know it uh it's like it all stems from that that conversation and just letting things exist and and and one thing that that you know when you when you live long enough and if you're smart enough I think to listen to enough people then we're all going through a lot of the same stuff you know and and and you know para

llel thinking is one thing but parallel existing is alive and well you know and and that's that's really all we're you know I know I personally was tapping into it was like you know I don't I don't anything that's that's you know gone on for me personally is probably still in the gestation period and that Ted lasso is is like the the destination that I arrived at through the Journey that I had had up to that point in my life you know and so I I don't think I've used you know my without with the

exception of of you know and this is just my assumption of being able to play a parent more realistically more authentically with with the exception of that the majority of it is is all based on things that existed as much of them prior to even you know having the Good Fortune of Olivia being a part of my life you know I mean so it's like and yet at the same time to to your question all of us on camera have received these when we get approached you know people will say to us you know the the sho

w you know saved me you know and I and I've said this in the Press but it's the truth man it's like I will say back me too and people will laugh and you know I mean it yeah I mean it just like they mean it they're like I mean it I go I know you know or if they have something to say I go you know like some kind words it's like I'm being I'm being serious I go yeah I [ __ ] hope so it's like me too like and one of the neat things about the show is is the quest is the quality of the questions that

we get and you know I understand people asking us a thousand times have you had any Horrible Bosses you know would you who you know who would be your hall pass but the questions we get about this show man the stories are tremendous and and they're um and they're tremendous in their size and scope whether it be someone that's decided not to take their own life because they're a parent and they're thinking about you know what Ted's gone through and and what the father's gone through or or people j

ust being like I'm gonna be nicer at work you know people people in hospital rooms putting up believe posters like all that stuff is like that like that like in my personal life who gives a [ __ ] like you know it's like that's like that's it doesn't come from that there's no there's the show isn't made from anywhere but love you know it is an enthusiasm you know like in a H it's I'm curious if that was I mean you mentioned like the believe like I know a very good friend of mine who's like super

cynical really successful and accomplished academic but the shows just can't totally transformed him I mean just the conversations we've had he he has a believe poster in his office I mean somebody would never imagine you know just super but there's something about this show that has resonated and and and at a time that is unkind we're living in an unkind moment in in human history yeah we have been for a variety of reasons and I wonder if you saw this show as a deliberately as a vehicle to kin

d of do something Earnest I mean and and to basically kind of say well actually the world can look like this if we I don't know I mean was was any of that part of your not conscious not until no but um it all stems from you know the character and and like again doing that second commercial and his reaction to having got hired and let go in a three-day span and him just loving it and fun and taking nothing but the good things from it um allowed for this like so if it all stems from the character

then like even those glasses like I've worn those those Shades you know in my personal life those like orange ones for a while and they're like the blue blue blockers of like you know commercials of our youth where it makes the blues Bluer and the greens Greener and it is it is um uh like a different version of rose-colored glasses but it is that way of seeing the world and that way of viewing people and I think we didn't sit down and say this is going to be this this is gonna be that but every

time a joke would come up that was rooted in sarcasm or cynicism or apathy towards someone else's story just cut it out you couldn't even we didn't they wouldn't even get typed I mean you try not to say no in the writer's room when you let ideas and sometimes they get into a draft but then I mean a few times that a few would some of them would get there like you know like I can't I can't remember one specifically but I'd like I can't remember the content of it but I remember there being a joke a

t higgins's expense like season one and do and it got as far as a script that we would do it and we're doing in rehearsal and it was just like what is that what is that it's like you know like I can't even think of a good metaphor it's like you know hearing a a vibrous lap and like you know Mozart it's like wait that doesn't that he didn't write that song that sound like that's not his um and so yeah and then when Dylan just got cut and and I think it was just rooted from I know I can tell you t

he pure intention of the character was by the time we were talking about doing it as a narrative was to not play an energy of um because you're talking about 2015 you're talking about before you know our you know um you know the Trump came down that escalator it like but there was all this stuff kicking up right you know um and but just I didn't want to play a [ __ ] I I didn't think how how could I improve on if you just use David Brent and Michael Scott which which the energy of the first comm

ercial would would probably fall under that like sort of archetype how was I gonna those guys some Geniuses those things are iconic and they're from the same DNA it's like it's it's Bonkers but then also on the on the you know on the dramatic side we had we had you know had all these anti-heroes of Tony Soprano and Don Draper we'd fallen in love with all these quote-unquote you know bad guys you know nobody wants to be like any of those people but I disagree I think they're it doesn't it may not

been the intention but like I I Banana Republic and coming out with a Madman you know fashion line would would say that you're probably wrong there right like I mean elements of that yes but who they were their character like you don't aspire to well you pick out what you want yeah yeah yes you know some people wanted to be you know like get back at people like Tony Soprano or have uh uh you know uh away with with uh with women you know like Don Draper you know I you'll be able to hold his liqu

or like uh Don Draper but but I but I understand your point yes but I knew I just didn't want to do that and we couldn't couldn't add to that conversation like I wanted to play something different and I also wanted to play something where I didn't swear those are like the two Leons and that lent itself but those are all in harmony with this overall vibe that yeah I just I just didn't want to like snark out anymore I I it seemed too first thought for me at that point he's such an unusual characte

r in that he's like deeply rooted in pop culture and also highbrow culture too but not in a not in an obnoxious or pedantic way like you know there's a lot of references to Nora Ephron movies obviously there's there's references to musicals and Royce Scheider and not in Jaws but in Legends right exactly um and then you know like lines I was just like listen let's think about lines in the show like you're more mysterious than David Blaine reading a Sue Grafton novel Area 51 like just it just migh

t pass by or like I like my water like Kyrie Irving likes his earth flat you know just the jokes in the show are it's like they don't just stop and land for like the put them they just keep going like you don't stop and allow people I shouldn't say Lobby you don't stop and just pause them and say look how clever we are they just keep going oh yeah but I but I I can't imagine how hard it is to write so much of that in an episode you know so many of these references like all you know it's it's lik

e you're be you beating yourself up is like Woody Allen playing the clarinet I don't want to hear it I just all the these lines on the show I hear them like wait what like how did how do they just the effort that goes into writing that yeah all that stuff I mean just just again the Good Fortune of of surrounding myself with and getting to be surrounded by really clever people you know I remember first week of first month at least at the writer's room uh you know and I didn't know anything you kn

ow I never you know you know written on a show I mean that's an Les but not in a narrative that's why bill was so instrumental towards you know getting this thing off the ground um because he understands Bill Lawrence yeah because he he in in that you know that cliche of like he knows more about you know television than you know he's forgotten more about television than I'll ever know he like he was one of those guys and it was something that I'd said to my manager I go and like when we were doi

ng detroiters sort of saying like you know maybe there there's some you know guy or gal out there that would want to like you know Show run this that has made a good chunk of change and I just want to do some small with it with like you know some nice guys as I felt Brendan and I were and Joe and uh and he's like it's never gonna happen you know then I mean and why wouldn't he think that and then lo and behold it happened and and you know Bill would refer to me as like a cheat code because I'm i

n the writer's room and I'm saying some of these lines so then if I say it some of them would just spill out of me it's just a mindset and it goes right back to that that skill set that I got to develop or at least hone writing into doing at the rewrite table except I'm writing for myself but then I can do it with all the other characters because you know one thing I should you know say is it's not that things in my life aren't the things that Ted is going through but but I think with many peopl

e that that are in the same position I'm in with when they're making something is that the elements of things that I've gone through and go through and will continue to go through it throughout my life are also hidden if you will in other characters right so those things happen both for dramatic you know narratives but then also just the comedy of things and then when you do keep your ears open keep big ears like Dell close would say uh you know uh then you start to hear how Juno speaks you know

both on camera and off camera and then Hannah and then this and that and then you just keep bringing those things in so like those lines come out of you know out of from outer space but then also from an inner space too as corny as that may be but it's the truth and and then yeah then it's just a matter of curating you know then it's just a matter of picking which ones and instead of going shots on goal like boom boom boom three jokes on every page it's like no no let's let's save it for a page

and a half and you know the thing that I love about Nora Ephron or you know Ron Shelton is that they had they and other people do this but these are the ones that spoke to me they always had buttons to their scenes and so it keeps the narrative going because as you're as the cut happens you're laughing you know and uh that's better for television in a lot of ways because you know we're not surrounded by you know uh you know a couple hundred people that maybe might be laughing over that transiti

on instead you're just sort of feeling it and it's bringing you to the next thing I mean same thing with like a you know twist obviously as well but I feel like those are harder to write because you can only do so many of those the show before you know snapping people's necks at home being like what is going on um but yeah oh but I said the first week of of first month I was like Ted's Ted's reference level is this room's Collective reference level and if it was a thing that I didn't understand

then just like when I would you know I'm a vessel for an actor or a writer or a director or a writer it's like I don't understand slime what does this mean instead of trying to change it first going there this is what it should be it's kind of like what does this mean to you it's like a lot of times people articulate their point of view you're like oh oh I never thought of it that way you know and nor should I assume that I can always think of it the way other people have and so that's where all

that's where a lot of those reference levels but as I said earlier you know my mom would take me to you know you know go see these musicals whether I was yeah ready for their content or understood like the themes I just knew the songs you know uh that's all there it's it seems like you're not a kind of uh over emphasize or beat this with the you know beat this this horse but it seems like and and I think this probably applies to a lot of people certainly for me with with what I do but that in a

sense Ted lasso is a one of the benefits I guess for you personally is like it's like almost like a form of therapy for you yeah I think it has been for others too I think it has been it like yes without a doubt before I was doing it consistently you know but it was I think it similar to the hair falling out of my face or like having sciatica nine months before and nine months after having you know uh my son like it it's a it's one of the positives of something that you wanted and needed to com

e into your life and the people and experiences that it's brought into my life you know like and I and I I know for a fact I'm not alone uh in that of the people that have in every aspect of the show um have felt you know um and and what's lovely is a lot of times it's from within all this you know reaction to it and people's response to it is nothing you sit at a keyboard thinking that would happen and in a lot of ways maybe elements of it after you've experienced it would ever want to happen y

ou know um because it's a great you know responsibility and and yet we came about it as as sincerely and authentically as as I think you come to something that that resonates this way you know I'm curious about that word responsibility and that and the responsibility of that character because you mentioned when you were a kid you know people would see her Uncle George and they'd say Norm and and to to some extent that that may happen to you and certainly will happen to you for a long time or peo

ple will see you as Ted right yeah or coach which is hilarious you know I wonder doctors from Gray Anatomy have that doc hey Doc you know like wrestling video and he is such a he's an aspirational person like we all want to be a version of him because he's the best version of of of what we hope to be but like it also means you in like you can't be an [ __ ] like you always I mean I don't know I wonder like do you do you feel like in a sense you have to represent this guy in real life too I think

that you know after season one people ask you know you like Titan you're like and it's a hard question to answer because people put a lot of different things on what Ted is I'm like yeah I'm a lot like that you know but I think the thing that people are responding to and maybe asking me about if I'm like that I think we all have it in us you know and then sometimes it got beat out of us or you know tricked out of us or we're hiding it to keep ourselves from not being hurt that maybe in a way th

at that Ted's openness and vulnerability which I don't think is carte blanche you know I think he's still I think you know people have sniffed out like the toxic positivity and all that and him not taking care of himself but as I mentioned earlier people walk up to any of us on the show with such enthusiasm but also such like sincerity and kindness and Grace and and those are elements that again we didn't have these words up on the you know this is what the show is about Grace forgiveness it jus

t when the choices come to make for characters just where they would gravitate you know like episode nine that first season it's not it it didn't seem to me to be a plot point that Ted was going to forgive Rebecca it's like let's just get that out of the way man let's look like it's about her Ted hadn't done anything wrong to her it's about her forgiving Higgins we used to sneak [ __ ] girls Rupert's girls in you know because he was scared about losing his job and he has got a family of you know

six you got five boys and a wife that he loves and he doesn't want to lose his gig and so he had to play the game and and he hates himself for It Go forgive that dude you know like take what Ted you know did and like let let yourself off the hook you know a young lady and so like I don't I it's it's not it's a responsibility in the sense that it it reminds me of of that part of myself that that that is innate to this character that I think again is in all of us that that meet people where they

see you I have you know I've Had The Good Fortune of being quote unquote you know uh a public person for a while you know just having worked at a place like SNL which you know they don't there's no classes for fame you know and and and yet it is an incredible place to watch the intoxications and uh and just toxicity of um new fame and so yeah I'm glad that this moment in my life this this creative sort of you know career moment happened at this point in my life and not early on you know um but y

ou know I don't think I've been able to write it or play it uh it'll get out of my way enough to like allow the things that that sort of that were delivered almost you know from from somewhere else uh in aspects to the creation of the show but but it also just allows for just sitting with people but I would always I would always return I always felt like return the energy that you're given so sometimes people are a little you know maybe if it's later you know you know they're turning the lights

on in the bar and people are a little bit more you know tossing elbows or coming out with the phone already and they they just want to take something from you versus you know having a in your you become a prop and not a human being then you sort of deal with that differently but I'd still deal with it I guess in my mind unconsciously like Ted and I wouldn't you know you know just it's it's not a put on it's just it's just nice and what I truly truly like um in in like I find inspiring is the opp

ortunity to um when people ask you know questions about it or want to know something about it or want to share a story it allows me to let yeah just sit in the present with them um and that's something that I would have always done but I wouldn't have got received the same energy prior to the show you know it was never bad but it was but it was always um you know um it wasn't quite as as as as focused as it is now um do you think that that the natural sort of life cycle of the show ends with sea

son three that that maybe even with all of its success and love and fan base that maybe this is it I mean that's the way we conceived it you know and and whether it's whether it was you know just going back to that modeling of the six episode six episodes Christmas special you know uh and it's not like it was all written out it's not like we had 34 scripts and we're just hiring people to you know shut up and say the words just show up and you know here's you know it it was it was a feel it was i

t was a an arc specifically for for for Ted um that that I I don't know how I don't know how it would feel to not honor that story not because it was the one that we had but because of the one that it is if that makes any sense and so I'm sitting here with this knowledge of what this is you know look man it's not Citizen Kane it's not you know it's it's not Casablanca it's not Moonlight it's not like this seminal it doesn't feel like a seminal work to me nor do I expect people to view it that wa

y but it is what it is and we're very lucky to get it allow it to be what it was supposed to be and it would feel s knowing how it how it ends this in this iteration it would feel very cynical to to have it immediately and we're back you know like that'll make more sense when folks see it I think and if it doesn't though at least hopefully allow the space to empathize with how those of us that know the story um where it should go but yeah man like I can't um I'm flat we're all flattered by the e

nthusiasm folks have for a fourth season and yet it also is kind of hilarious that from the second we we you know all flew from the UK to uh LA and you know to have a good fortune of winning the the Emmy again that those questions started about okay so we're here celebrating season two we're in the midst of shooting season three what about season four I'm like if that's not the most anti-tet lasso [ __ ] question you know what I mean like yeah if Ted Lazar was a metaphor for mushrooms and mushro

oms are just this thing that the gods gave us to be present in the moment with nature and in one another and the nature within ourselves what like what about this thing you know and I get it and I'm I'm cool with it and and I appreciate the question in every way it's coming at us um but yeah there's no secret that uh uh we're not withholding and like we're gonna spring you know season four on you like Renaissance you know like where it's just like just shows up on your Apple TV plus you know tha

t I know of I hesitate to ask this question but I do I am I I think it is important and it's the last question I'll ask you which is because you know people have an accomplishment and people say what's next which is I hate that question because it's like what do you mean what's next I'm just finishing this thing but obviously this is done I mean season three is is wrapped up and and now you are enjoying the fruits of that we're editing still to be you know oh yeah okay I got you okay um what do

you want to do I mean this character is so iconic and he is so associated with you but you've also been like that guy and and book smart the the principal and driving the Uber and you know like you've played a bunch of different characters do you imagine developing a brand new show with a brand new character I mean what do you what do you think yeah I you know no BS I I haven't allowed myself the time to to I haven't been granted the time to be quite honest with you it's been it's been go Go I m

ean that's part of the reason why it's hard to talk about season four is because people like I know people love sitting down watching it I love I know look people love you know showing up to work and saying the lines and then people let you know it's we do things in a in a a different exciting I mean so many of our directors come in like this reminds me of you know film school like you know and you're we're not making stuff up as we go but but you know sometimes the scripts will will shift based

on a rehearsal like I mentioned earlier like about that Higgins sort of you know sarcasm joke but so I just haven't sat with it you know I I think another reason why the show is the way it is is because of all this time that it took to marinate now it doesn't mean I'm gonna take you know 39 years or whatever whatever this thing started to come up with with another one you know there's there's all sorts of ideas but the way but I have to get out of this out of this universe first you know I see

all these guys and and I feel like you know we haven't seen each other since the Show wrapped you know during this press week the last couple a couple weeks but I'm with them every single day I'm with a you know and I'm like they're and they're seeing me oh my gosh how you doing you got a beard I was like oh yeah right and it's like and I see them every day and they make me laugh and cry every day uh and that's just the cast you know and then occasionally like on a daily you'll see you know you

know a boom operator or a director you hear their voice in the back and I'm still with them and so I can't think about what's next I can't be on this date with all of them and and think about some you know booty text you know I'm gonna send or receive after the moment that's just not it's not the way I I can I can live my life I gotta I got I got you know trying to land this plane and then you know trying to make sure you know Otis and Daisy have enough fuel in their own planes to yeah to take o

ff and land wherever wherever you know and they're and they're you know doing a lot more starting talking to me this allows for a little bit of autonomy to make that decision but I also have no interest in like sitting in it and like getting stuck in my own like you know oh God how do I how do you follow that it's like I you know I I don't feel that either you know uh luckily and so yeah I wish I hadn't I would I mean I wish I had an answer for you but I also I'm also glad that I don't you know

not even a cute way because I think that's the way I have to you know go about it for right now but you know again flattered by the Curiosity [Music] Jason thank you so much no man thank you very much this is this is uh this is really really neat and then you know love your questions hey thanks so much for watching my interview with Jason Sudeikis here on the great creators for more episodes like this one on YouTube please hit the Subscribe button below this video and if you want to get notified

when we post a new video just click the Bell Button as well you can also find out a lot more about our podcast and these videos by going to the great creators.com we post show notes we've got interviews with Stephen Colbert and Bjork and amazing people on that channel go check it out Keenan Thompson I'm guy Roz you've been watching the great creators thank you so much for watching and listening and we will see you here next time