Norah O'Donnell Person to Person cast of 'Ted Lasso'

[Music] hi I'm Nora odonnell and this is Person to Person tonight our guests are The Ensemble of the fan favorite hit comedy Ted lasso it's award season in Hollywood and nearly sweeping the comedy TV category for a second year in a row is the cast of Ted lasso that way is the lasso way the streaming phenomena was co-created by Jason sedus who plays the Title Character Ted lasso is an American football coach from Kansas who moves to the UK to manage an English soccer team well that's a heap and spoonful of Truth soup right there SED has told us the show which streams on Apple TV plus is not about soccer it's about kindness and being a work in progress diagnose my tears and then one the cast just won the prestigious Screen Actor Guild Award for best comedy series Ensemble and ahead you'll hear from some of the show's biggest stars like Brett Goldstein check on your teammate the actor who plays rough around the edges but lovable soccer star Roy Kent we go to a soccer match in London with Brendan hunt who plays coach beard and toib jimo and Kaa bokini who portray AFC Richmond star players Sam o bagna and Captain Isaac McAdoo but we start our intimate conversations with Hannah Wingham the PowerHouse who plays boss and team owner Rebecca Welton [Music] so what did you think when you first saw the script for Ted lasso I thought whoever gets this it's going to change their lives honestly I really did and that's why I didn't think I'd get it because those things that you dream of and you look at and you just think this has a world of potential for a woman of this age you know within one sentence it can be heartbreaking and hilarious mhm and I just thought there's just no chance you said to Jason SAS you said you changed my life yeah he has and your daughter's life he has more importantly her life because I've been a single mother since she was two and a half she and I are thick as thieves and she's my best little friend in the whole world and now I can absolutely give her everything that I could have ever dreamt of in life whereas IID always been a jobbing actor and desperately going please give me something that I can get my teeth into he's given me that what is so distinct about Rebecca Welton she is 100% real and very much trying to hide that she's been brought up to hide everything and then fell into a marriage where she thought she wasn't worthy of standing on her own two feet being power powerful in her own right you play a female boss of a Premier League club I mean that's pretty rare a struggling Premier League club yeah but you're a badass boss she's a boss-ass N/A man tough and yet extremely vulnerable tough because she's vulnerable though and that's the biggest thing that I wanted to play you have to look at the slaps around her face that she has had previously at the hands of men and that wall has come up that is why I make sure that every single element of her clothing is absolutely I mean the I the costume I drive the costume Department mental and the hair department and the makeup Department because the more of a shield and a barrier that Rebecca has speaks to be more about the fragility behind it that's why she always look so perfectly put together Immaculate so that nobody will think there's anything wrong but the clothing you know gives her the armor so when we first meet Rebecca she's vengeful she wants to destroy her ex-husband's Club yes she's she's vengeful but she's flailing in every way shape of form from the tip of her head to the tip of her toes and then there was the immediate visceral response I had to her of no she's not vengeful she's lost it's just I don't know I what what can I what can I do to get back it's that in her soul but inside but outside she's you know she's got the the club in the divorce settlement she's absolutely Steely she's going to bring this guy over she knows he has not no clue about football and she thinks this will be the quickest path to rert being as miserable as she is you slap me around the face I'm going to slap you around your other cheek harder rert because you've ripped my heart out and smashed it on the floor she hires the bumbling football coach from Kansas Ted lass and she thinks it's she thinks it's done she sees these these YouTube clips of her of him and thinks that is the quickest way to destroy it thinking I need to find something to heal my pain and heal it quickly and so she sees what she thinks is this bumbling kind of puppet and thinks that's it job done and it brings something in her so I wanted people to see throughout the whole series that she is at odds with herself about it arm started you I love her I love my character I love her like serving a friend and I and I hope that the writers room who are you know squirreling their heads together at the moment I I always just hope that they will serve My Pal and serve her how to just I never want it to be an obvious route because I love that for a start they've got someone who's 6'2 in heels playing her which I've never had in my life someone to trust that you can put me like that that was Jason going no she doesn't need to be in a little kitten heel or pumps she can give her whatever height heel she wants and I was like are we okay with 4 inch Christian labas cuz I wanted there to be you know the the ice queen that needed to thw in every way the ice queen that needed to thw yeah so I love the fact that he was like no you make her who you want her to be what makes this cast so incredibly special well one we are nauseatingly happy together I mean really like the Brady Bunch two I think they cast it so well because people weren't Stars really I mean Juno obviously um and Jason but all of us are what I would say actors rather than stars and I'm perfectly happy to stay that way because I think you give of yourself more in a way because you you you don't want it about be about any one person that sign that's above the coach's office believe yeah yeah I believed and I this is why I talk about manifestation I believed that there was something that would be a great vehicle for me and that's what I mean about when I looked at that script at first I was so sad because I had been used to rejection and I thought if only someone would let me get my teeth into this I know I will serve it but it has exceeded expectations for sure it is life-changing for all of us and the fact that it's something that at its very essence is about believing and the greater good and holding each other up it's a little bit life imitating art with us as a collective and when we come back we're going to head to a pub with Brett Goldstein to talk about his rough but oh so lovable character Roy [Music] Kent you all played like a bunch of little pricks you hear me yes coach Brett Goldstein what a pleasure what a pleasure to meet you nice to meet you who is Roy Kent he is a cauldron of emotion that he doesn't want anyone to know about who has been raised uh in a culture of almost toxic masculinity he has been raised from very very young in football aies is to be a wall and he has all these feelings and these emotions but he cannot express them all and he has to keep them pent up which is why he talks like TS cuz he's holding it all in and uh and through the show through Ted lasso and through key this sort of Iceberg chipped away a bit and some of it is coming out do you think that's one of the themes of the show I think the show is about masculinity a lot you know football football's interesting I think it's changing a lot I think it's already changed in the last 5 years I'd say the culture has changed a lot in England certainly it's I don't know what it's like here in England it's religion and it's also how men communicate and like I joke about it but I also really mean it is that me and my dad how we communicate is talking about football he'll call me tell me about the football that's all we talk about but what we're saying is I love you but we're not saying I love you we're saying tell me about the game and he'll tell me about the game you know what I mean and that I think is true of probably a lot of people particularly in in the UK that that's how men communicate that's how men communicate and I think men can't talk to each other looking in each other's eyes so if a father and son or two men go to a game they can express their emotions outward and they can shout and they can scream they can get stuff out and they can talk about stuff but they don't have to have the intensity of looking at each other and I think that that is a function that Sports serves how would you describe Roy Kent the footballer uh he's a midfielder who's a captain he's called a box tobox player his job is get the ball get it out get it up the field make sure no one gets past him he's an enforcer until he gets injured and can't play anymore yeah Roy Kent his whole plan was play football until you die and in the beginning of season one he is aware he probably only has one or two seasons left in him and I think he's profoundly in a dark place at the beginning because he cannot see beyond that beyond that is death let's put it that way and what saves Roy Kant well it's a bit of Ted lasso and a lot of key you know Roy's used to being with women who leave and steal his watch and then probably do a kiss and tail story in the paper the next day and then it is the beginning of a scary relationship because they're both like very tentatively trying to trust each other I like being Roy Kent I don't know if I can handle just being some loser has been called Roy the heart of their well initial attraction to one another is that they find that one another is accountable and they've never experienced that in a relationship yeah and I don't think they've experienced it in in life emotionally accountable yeah why did Roy Kent feel like a calling for you I just think Roy Kent's a really tragic character and I think I really tragic yeah I really understood it it's like there's a tragedy to the phys physicality of Aging the tragedy of like his knees aren't working and that's just very sad like there's nothing he can do about that and he isn't ready to let that be the end it's this kind of transition of in his life of what do you do if if the thing you love and thing you've only known you now can't do what the do you do what we're always trying to do in Ted lasso is take a character that you may initially not like and then make you like them by plotting their emotional journey and explaining why they are the way they are and that's I think true of nearly all the characters even even Ted arrives and you're like at least the character is like who's this idiot and what's the device behind this that right that when you first meet someone you don't like them and then you end up falling in love with them for me certainly that that when I am my best self which is not often but like that is true that is the best way of being of living your life I do believe if you ask the right questions no one is boring or hateful or uninteresting but you do have to write ask the right questions I mean you this is your living mhm how am I doing you're very good at it yeah thank you you you're doing very very well so Ted lasso was the antidote to what was a corssing of so Ted Lasser came on and people I from what I understand people were very like moved by it and touched by it I think that speaks more to the state of the world than it does to Ted lasso but seeing a show in which someone is decent and trying to improve and to help people and be collaborates felt revolutionary at the time Ted lasso was sort of the Cure for I me and an escape from what was happening out in the I think it was also just like a a model of behavior that that had been missing from public discourse for a while we spoke with writers and co-creators Brendan hunt Jason sedus and Joe Kelly about what Brett Goldstein is like out of character Roy is very Gruff very angry and it's always jarring when you call Brad and he answers the phone hello how are you how are you dear friends he's the sweetest most gentle man Joe Kelly told us there is no one more opposite in life and then in the cast than than you than Brett Goldstein that's funny and Roy Kent that's very funny that in person you're very sweet you're softspoken and Roy Kent is the opposite although you both cuss who the is Joe Kelly what does he do I got do him in when I get to work stay with us CU when we come back we go to a proper football match with members of the Ted lasso [Music] cast to fully get the English Premier League experience we went to London to watch a Saturday afternoon match with Brendan hunt toib jam and cola bini what do you think is the genius of the show um The Genius of the show um not Brendon no um I think I think um I think like for me anyway like why I think a lot of people gravitated to it is because like it really just touched it touches on something that we all have in us like um it's really it's really hard to like live in the Ted Lassa world like everybody seems like really open especially when Ted comes and like encourages people to like break down their walls and um and I feel like just in real life especially you know like when the came out people just wanted to do that like things just seemed tough and Bleak and everything was hard and suddenly here comes the show that's like encouraging people to like push through that and to remain open and to remain loving if one of the themes of the show is fatherhood which we've talked about Sam your character has a great relationship with his father yeah so many characters in our show don't have great relationships with their father like one of my favorite quotes is when um I would to paraphrase it when Ted goes um I love meeting people's parents it's like an instruction manual for why they're nuts like which is which is like this it's that isn't it like it's the kind of it's like the root of the show it's like every every character you meet especially the ones where you get to meet their parents like you just like understand like what their trauma is like where it's come from you know what I mean how they're dealing with it and like it really informs their outlook on the world you guys are a team yeah kind of right you guys socialize a lot oh my God yeah a lot like we're in me and col was saying earlier we're in like me and col are in like six different Ted lasso Related Group chats at the moment I'm only in one huh I'm only in one uh we we can cut that right what was with Isaac's challenge in season two like what happened you kind of had a little mental uh yeah um well Brendan can can can touch on this but I believe that like becoming a captain's a lot of stress a lot of pressure you know just out of the blue like that and Isaac had a big turnaround in a season one you know from being kind of a bully to kind of you know and you know Roy shoes is a big shoes to feel so that's what I believe I don't know Brandon maybe maybe I mean Captain is in in football is particularly like important position more so than in American Sports like it's you really have to be a certain kind of leader and and you know the Isaac story there it's you know we have version of the story throughout the show like someone not seeing in themselves something that other people see so he becomes a captain never knowing or even aspiring to be one really and then he has to he has to figure that out and that's why he has the difficulty the season new all right he's going to go Brendan hunt had to leave us during the match but we kept watching and chatting with toib jam and cola bini so how much do you love [Applause] football you can to answer that question I live and breath football you do like it was this was definitely a dream job and it was like you're going to pay me to run around and play football and be a footballer is that me exactly tell tell jokes while we do it don't tell them now so like when when we started when we started the um the first season I remember us being at the readr and meeting each other for the first time and I went up to Brett and I was like oh man like isn't this so cool like just get to like play football I've been playing football since I was a kid and Brett looks at me and he goes yo don't tell anyone I haven't kicked a ball since I was 4 years old yeah you'll be right oh oh so how does the popularity of the show rank here in England versus the United States it's not as popular here as it is in America and I didn't understand that until I went to America and was like if I walked outside and I took my mask off like people would like I mean stop you in the street um so yeah i' I'd say like even just on social media like it we get a lot of love but social media I've seen you know behind the curtain yeah and yeah people people you know it's America heavy they they they they they be messing with the show it's it's it's yeah it's definitely La heavy but I would say like since I came back since after the second season um I was in South Africa for a bit and then I went to LA and then I came back and like that's where [Applause] and they're going to score I'm telling you they're going to score cuz it's your first game but um yeah like that's when I started getting recognized in London for the first time which is a bit like it's weird in London cuz like we also have a culture of like if I'm on the tube and you're on the tube don't look at me don't talk to me I'm going to where I'm going you're going to where you're going and suddenly you just run into taso fans which is which is like a welcome Edition I'll be talking to my friends and saying some embarrassing stuff like not realizing that the person next to me is like would tap me afterwards and be like oh I really love you in the show I'll just be embarrassed I'll be talking about some embarrassing stuff yeah so but that's it's great though it's great we always say like a cult-like following you know people become Believers and I believe there's actually a Instagram and a Twitter Cult of lasso there is one I saw that the other day it's good um I think I think I I like that because it felt like I mean we certainly didn't know that the show was going to blow up in the way that it did I mean we hoped it would but like that never felt like why we were doing it and so when the first season came out and you know like when it just started it felt like we had our own little like Community like our own little tiny Ted lasso bubble and they just like slowly grew and grew and grew and grew and grew as actors have you gotten more attention now for your own career for personal it's been great like it hasn't it hasn't hurt us like it's opened so many doors I'm not going to say like it hurting you know it's good doesn't hurt to be part of her life yeah I show that everybody loves yeah was get off me oh man I really want them to squ run what a fun afternoon well Ted lasso is currently in production for season 3 which is expected to stream on Apple TV plus later this year thanks for watching person to person I'm Nora odonnell [Music]