Ted Lasso: What Only True Fans Know About The Jason Sudeikis Hit Comedy

Before "Ted Lasso" debuted on Apple TV+ in 2020, we can't say we weren't skeptical. A clueless American taking over a British football team in a spinoff from an NBC Sports commercial? Surely, it would succumb to every fish-out-of-water cliche in the book while embarrassing those on both sides of the Atlantic? But in fact, it turned out to be a bona fide triumph, combining its titular character's enthusiastic charm with his new homeland's slightly more cynical demeanor and a whole lot of heart, wit, and relatively convincing action on the field, too.

The sports comedy became the ultimate comfort show during the pandemic, going on to win multiple Emmys across three seasons of AFC Richmond action. And despite appearing to wrap everything up with a neat bow, the creators decided to bring the show back three years on, this time with a focus on the women's team. From on-set accidents and origin stories to theme tunes and bland biscuits, here's a look at 13 things only superfans of the feel-good sitcom would know.

It's hard to imagine anyone other than three-time Emmy Award nominee Juno Temple inhabiting the role of lovable PR Keeley Jones on "Ted Lasso." But the part was initially inspired by, and written for, another actor who's since been romantically linked to Jason Sudeikis.

In her autobiography "Everyone's Seen My T***," former glamour model Keeley Hazell revealed that years after they first shared the screen in "Horrible Bosses 2," she'd met up with the Apple TV+ hit's leading man to talk about taking on the role. "The show hadn't been picked up at this point, meaning, it was just a script waiting to be sold," she wrote. "But the idea of me being a lead in a TV show was enough to make me wet my pants with excitement."

The casting team went with Temple, who on the Season 2 red-carpet premiere confirmed her character's inspiration. "I felt like I'd been punched in the chest," Hazell admitted about the snub. "Once I didn't get cast as Keeley, I decided that acting could go f*** itself." She did, however, change her mind and even ended up gracing "Ted Lasso," albeit in the much smaller part of Jamie Tartt's ex-girlfriend Bex.

Life ended up imitating art for "Ted Lasso" star Cristo Fernández, aka Richmond FC's most optimistic player Dani Rojas, in 2026 when he played a game of professional football for real. He entered the field of play in the 79th minute of El Paso Locomotive's tie against New Mexico United and he made an instant impression.

Alas, Fernández received a booking after just eight minutes for fouling the opposition's goalie Kris Shakes. And to make matters worse, his team ended up losing 2-0 in their third and last encounter in the USL Cup group stage.

Fernández was already the most experienced footballer in the "Ted Lasso" cast having played for a youth team in his hometown of Guadalajara before a knee injury forced him to abandon his sporting ambitions. So he was understandably as enthused as his on-screen alter-ego when he landed a two-month trial with America's second-tier side El Paso Locomotive at the age of 35. "Fútbol has always been a huge part of my life and identity, and no matter where life has taken me, the dream of competing professionally never truly left my heart," he said in an official club statement (via The New York Times).

Brett Goldstein went from being a relative unknown to a two-time Emmy Award winner, a supporting character in the MCU, and Jennifer Lopez's fictional love interest thanks to playing hardman Roy Kent in "Ted Lasso." But initially, the multi-talent had only planned to write the character rather than actually inhabit him.

In a 2021 interview with Coup de Main, Goldstein revealed that it was halfway through penning Episode 5 of the sitcom's inaugural season that he started to consider himself for the role. "I was thinking: I really get Roy," he said. "I think I have Roy inside me, but I also know that no one's thinking of me for Roy because I've been playing all these nice bumbling guys."

Goldstein, whose previous credits included David Hasselhoff meta-sitcom "Hoff the Record," self-penned superhero comedy "Superbob," and various Catherine Tate projects, admitted that he was nervous about suggesting the idea to his colleagues. "I knew it'd be really awkward if I said in the room, 'I think I could play this ...' Everyone would be like, 'Oh god, please don't say that, now we have to pretend to think that's a good idea,'" he said. Luckily, the self-tape he made which saw him act out five different Roy Kent scenes proved to be convincing enough and the rest is history. Here's a further look at where you've seen the "Ted Lasso" cast before.

One of the funniest physical comedy moments in "Ted Lasso" is in Season 1, Episode 10, when the titular coach, getting a little too carried away after a successful meeting with Hannah Waddingham's club owner Rebecca Welton, jumps up and hits his head on the door frame on the way out. But it was no laughing matter for the man who played him.

While guesting on "The Drew Barrymore Show" in 2021, Jason Sudeikis revealed that the bump, which at first glance seemed perfectly timed, wasn't actually in the script. "That was a complete accident," he said. In fact, the actor struck the frame so hard that the blood soon started pouring.

"I roll like I do, I stand up, I think I'm fine, I go off stage," Sudeikis recalled about the moment which resulted in the show's team having to glue his head shut. "I reach up, and there's a little bit of blood on my finger. I look down, and then a pool of blood starts dripping down, pooling in my hand, and I'm like, 'Oh no.'"

In Episode 7 of the first "Ted Lasso" season, Hannah Waddingham gets the chance to both display the vocals that made her a West End star and show that her character, Rebecca Welton, wasn't the hard-nosed boss she seemed to be with a spellbinding karaoke performance of "Frozen" classic "Let It Go." But the studio behind the original wasn't so keen to let a rival license one of its biggest hits.

In a 2021 interview with Nerdist, music supervisor Tony Von Pervieux revealed that Disney bosses initially refused to license the Oscar-winning song: "When we first got the denial, I was like, 'No!' And then letting everyone know, 'Hey, we should find a backup just in case for that spot, but I'm going to go back and try and fight for it.'" There's an alternate scene out there in which Rebecca wows with a rendition of Gloria Gaynor's self-empowerment anthem "I Will Survive."

True to his word, Von Pervieux contacted the House of Mouse once again with footage of how they were applying "Let It Go." "The hope was that we would send them the scene and be like, 'Look, we told you, she's an amazing singer,'" he recalled. "This is actually a really good scene. We're not denigrating the song in any way.'" Luckily, the tactic worked and audiences got the chance to hear Rebecca putting all the other karaoke performers to shame. 

The initial casting of Ted Lasso is filled with "what if" moments. For example, both Phil Dunster and Nick Mohammed, who play playboy striker Jamie Tartt and nice-guy kitman-turned-villainous rival boss Nate Shelley, respectively, tried out for the part of Rebecca's right-hand man Leslie Higgins.

"It's just one of those things you get for castings; you try and do your best, especially when it's something that you think is good," Mohammed told Awards Radar in 2023 about being rejected for the role that eventually went to Jeremy Swift. "But, it doesn't always go your way for whatever reason. So, I kind of forgot about it." The actor also revealed that he very nearly turned down the opportunity to audition for Nate as he was busy working on another project at the time.

In even more unlikely early casting ideas, Brett Goldstein, who went on to star as polar opposite hardman Roy Kent, was also initially penciled in to play the jazz-loving Director of Football Operations. "I was originally brought on as a writer with the promise from Bill Lawrence of, 'Maybe you'll play this Higgins character,'" he explained in Jeremy Egner's book "Believe." "And I knew I'd lost the gig the second we in the writers' room saw Jeremy's casting tape."

The "Ted Lasso" theme boasts the dulcet tones of Marcus Mumford, the other half of Hollywood star Carey Mulligan and the frontman of nu-folk outfit Mumford and Sons. But thanks to a breakdown in communication, he very nearly missed out on getting the gig.

In a 2020 interview with USA Today, Mumford revealed that he'd accidentally blanked the show's leading man Jason Sudeikis and his offer to provide the theme for several months. "He left me a very long message on my U.S. phone, which I don't keep on when I'm in the U.K.," he said. "He thought I was just ghosting him." Luckily, the musician eventually picked up the voicemail and after watching an episode of the sitcom being filmed, he and film composer Tom Howe got to work.

Mumford had first crossed paths with Sudeikis when he and his bandmates showed up in a Beatles-themed sketch on "Saturday Night Live," and soon after, the funnyman agreed to appear in the promo for Mumford and Sons' "Hopeless Wanderer." "And we've just remained friends," the Grammy-winning artist added. "Despite being an American comedy great, Jason has a real British taste in his sense of humor. So that's one of the reasons we hit it off, for sure."

Forget winning the domestic double with Borussia Dortmund, guiding Liverpool FC to their first league title in 30 years, or taking charge of four-time World Cup winners Germany. Jurgen Klopp's proudest career achievement appears to be a shout-out from the man behind TV's most famous fictional football coach.

"Ted Lasso mentioned me," an excitable Klopp told CBS Sports in 2021 after learning that he — alongside Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola — was one of the inspirations for Jason Sudeikis' leading man. "That's better than getting the trophy for best manager! Unbelievable." Without wishing to burst his bubble, it wasn't Kiopp's tactics on the field that got the creative juices flowing, but his idea of a good night out.

In a 2020 interview with Sports Illustrated, Sudeikis revealed that the first season's jaunt to a karaoke club — where owner Rebecca Welton famously belts out "Frozen" favorite "Let It Go" — was inspired by Klopp's decision to take the entire team to a similar joint. "I was like, 'Hellooooo, story idea,'" he recalled. However, the funnyman did acknowledge some of his and Guardiola's other qualities, too: "I really love those coaches. I really like the way they handle themselves as leaders of an organization. They are guys who I would follow into a fist fight."

A busker named Cam Cole came to the rescue in "Ted Lasso" Season 1, Episode 4, when he filled in for an absent Robbie Williams at Rebecca's charity bash. And if you scoured the closing credits, or are simply a regular passer-by on the streets of London, you'll already know that the guitar-wielding savior wasn't an actor.

Indeed, Cole is a very real one-man band who'd been entertaining the public for free (well, apart from some spare change) for years, and had previously gone viral for his talents. In a 2024 interview with Fox Reviews Rock, the musician explained how his casting came about: "Jason Sudeikis, who is an amazing guy by the way and just as nice off screen as on screen, was looking for an actor that could play a busker. They couldn't find any so they typed 'London Busker' into YouTube and I came up."

Cole, who's now playing stages both indoor and outdoor, and presumably for a guaranteed fee, also admitted that he initially thought the casting call was a practical joke: "They wanted me to play a character called Barney something ... Don't remember now exactly but I said, 'I'm s*** at acting, just let me do my thing.' He liked my tune "Mama" so much he was like alright let's do it. Changed my life that guy."

"Ted Lasso" is renowned for being the kind of wholesome, feel-good comedy that wouldn't hurt a fly. But in 2023, its makers were accused of disrespecting a real-life former footballer when they digitally changed a banner made in his honor.

In Season 3, Episode 6, Brett Goldstein's Roy Kent returns to his old stomping ground, Chelsea's Stamford Bridge, where fans display a banner which declares, "They don't make them like Roy anymore." Only problem is, this footage was doctored from a real-world tribute to Ray Wilkins — a beloved player who made his Chelsea debut in the '70s and died in 2018 from a cardiac arrest — which read, "They don't make them like Ray anymore." And this was without obtaining permission, too.

"We have expressed our disappointment to club officials," a spokesperson for the Chelsea Supporters' Trust said (via The New York Times) about the stunt. "We expect that Chelsea will address this in due course." The club's owner, Todd Boehly, did indeed do just that soon after, tweeting an apology while also clarifying that they had no prior knowledge of the clip. "We are sorry it affected so many and mostly we care about Ray and his family," he added.

It's fair to say that things have desperately soured between "Ted Lasso" co-creator Jason Sudeikis and his ex-wife Olivia Wilde. The former famously served divorce papers to the latter while she was on stage at CinemaCon amid rumors that she'd had an affair with Harry Styles. And then, per the Daily Mail, Wilde's legal team would assert that Sudeikis was trying to "litigate her into debt." But back in 2021, when things between the recently parted couple appeared to be more amicable, the funnyman was more than happy to give his ex some props.

In a 2021 interview with GQ, Sudeikis acknowledged that Wilde was instrumental in the decision to expand "Ted Lasso" from a NBC commercial to a fully fleshed-out sitcom. "It was there, the night at dinner, when Olivia was like, 'You should do it as a show,'" he recalled one particularly pivotal evening.

The conversation got the "SNL" graduate thinking: "'Okay, but why would he take this job? Why would a guy at this age take this job to leave? Maybe he's having marital strife. Maybe things aren't good back home, so he needs space.' And I just riffed it at dinner in 2015 or whenever, late 2014. But it had to be that way. That's what the show is about." Sudeikis also gave a shout-out to Wilde for her input while virtually accepting Best Comedy Series at the Critics' Choice Awards earlier that same year.

Turns out that the toughest acting required of Hannah Waddingham in "Ted Lasso" is making the titular coach's biscuits seem as though they were heavenly. As in reality, the prop shortbread cookies certainly wouldn't pass muster on "The Great British Bake-Off."

While appearing on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (via YardBarker), Waddingham shattered all illusions by revealing that the biscuits, famously gifted to her by Lasso in a pink box, were particularly unappetizing. However, she also admitted that she didn't make things easier for herself by insisting that her character should eat all her troubles away.

"[The show's producers] didn't expect me to go at them like a truffle hound because I decided that Rebecca should be like an emotional eater," she said. "And then at the end of the take, they were like, 'Do you want, like, a spit bucket?' And I just thought, no, that's very inelegant. I just constantly went with them, so it's not really their fault. I did add it as quite a thing." This wasn't the first time that Waddingham called out the so-called delicious treats, either. Per The Wrap, in a video message sent out to TV reviewers, she compared them to a "dried-out sponge."

While the relationship between Jason Sudeikis and Keeley Hazell came to an end, there is official confirmation of at least one other real-life "Ted Lasso" romance. Yes, Jeremy Swift, who plays AFC Richmond's Director of Football Operations Leslie Higgins, is married to his on-screen wife Julie, aka Mary Roscoe.

In a 2021 interview with Los Angeles Times, Swift recalled the moment co-creator Bill Lawrence enquired about the possibility of art imitating life. "[He] asked, 'How well do you get on with your wife?'" he recalled. "I said, 'Well, we're not divorced.' He said, 'We've seen her [for a casting], we think she's lovely and we'd like her to play your wife in an episode.'"

Roscoe, who's shown up in five episodes of the Apple TV+ hit, also has two children with Swift and has appeared in the likes of rom-com "The People We Hate At the Wedding," period drama "Call the Midwife," and Victorian mystery "Enola Holmes." Here's a further look at the "Ted Lasso" cast's real-life partners.