{"id":626372,"date":"2026-08-08T02:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/626372\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:26:18","slug":"ted-lasso-womens-sports-was-the-perfect-way-to-bring-the-show-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/626372\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ted Lasso’: Women’s Sports Was the Perfect Way to Bring the Show Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHannah Waddingham<\/a> always had a hunch that \u201cTed Lasso<\/a>\u201d would return. Even when creator and star Jason Sudeikis wasn\u2019t so sure. <\/p>\n

\u201cI could have told him we were coming back,\u201d laughed that star, who has played AFC Richmond team owner Rebecca Welton since \u201cTed Lasso\u201d first launched in 2020. \u201cI don\u2019t know whether I was just in denial that it had finished or in some kind of weird head space that it was going to continue. I just thought there\u2019s no way, with the quality of our Jedi writing team [that it wouldn\u2019t].\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on Wednesday evening at the Variety x Apple TV \u201cTed Lasso\u201d New York Screening and Q&A (held at the MoMA), Waddingham pointed out that not only is Sudeikis a big supporter of professional women\u2019s sports, but Season 3 ended with the perfect segue for a new storyline: Keeley (Juno Temple<\/a>) gives Rebecca a dossier on how AFC Richmond should add a women\u2019s team. <\/p>\n

\u201cCome on, for God\u2019s sake,\u201d Waddingham said. \u201cIt\u2019s just an obvious thing that it\u2019s going to be fucking magic. So get on with it! Like, what took you so long? I knew we were coming back anyway!\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cTed Lasso\u201d co-creator Brendan Hunt (who plays Coach Beard) said he didn\u2019t want to push Sudeikis on the issue. \u201cI kind of took it as my job to never discuss it with him, because I knew a million people would be discussing it with him and pressing about him about it all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then finally, one day I got a text, \u2018I think we should do it. And I think we should do the women\u2019s team.\u2019 And then we were off to the races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temple said she and Waddingham would often text about what they were hearing and whether to \u2014 in \u201cTed Lasso\u201d parlance \u2014 believe. <\/p>\n

She said returning was a no-brainer for her. \u201cJust the joy of it being the continuation of the incredible story we\u2019ve gotten to tell so far, and then this absolute fresh take on it,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it being something about a women\u2019s team and this incredible new cast that we get to watch flourish and grow was something that was an honor to get to do again \u2026 It\u2019s a job that I\u2019ve learned a lot from. And I think I\u2019m somebody that loves learning as much as possible. Whether I can retain all the information sometimes is questionable!\u201d<\/p>\n

Waddingham joked that she most dreaded figuring out how to get back into Rebecca\u2019s \u201cquite tight pencil skirts. I was thinking, how much time have I got to, you know, stop eating things?\u201d<\/p>\n

Also back and on stage at the panel (moderated by Variety executive editor, TV, Michael Schneider) was Annette Badland, who plays Mae, the owner of the Richmond pub The Crown & Anchor, where Ted and Beard share many a pint. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in the actual pub in Richmond, they have a whole room dedicated to \u2018Ted Lasso\u2019 now,\u201d she said of the real watering hole that inspired The Crown & Anchor. \u201cAnd there is, on the wall, a painting of Mae with a heart. So I\u2019m thinking of having a tattoo. I think it\u2019s obligatory. Anyone that goes to the pub needs to have that tattoo on their backside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining the veterans on the panel were three new \u201cTed Lasso\u201d stars: Tanya Reynolds, who plays women\u2019s coach Alice Chilton; Jude Mack, who plays goalie Boots; and Abbie Hern, whose character, Gemma, may be the best athlete on the team.<\/p>\n

Finding the right person to play Coach Chilton was key, Hunt noted: \u201cThis is the person who has to fit in our office the most, who we\u2019re going to be hanging out with a lot. There\u2019s a sort of preset rhythm to those scenes. It\u2019s like joining a cover band, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alice has a gruff demeanor that begins to melt the longer she spends time with Ted. \u201cShe\u2019s so delicious for an actor because she\u2019s kind of everything,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cShe\u2019s a lot. Alice kind of starts off as this spiky, cold shrew. But there\u2019s a lovely journey of her softening and peeling back. She\u2019s lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea of Mack\u2019s character, Boots, comes out of the general sense that goalies are a bit more wild and eccentric. \u201cJason was like, \u2018That\u2019s Boots right there. Let\u2019s go. We\u2019re done.\u2019 As you will see, as the season progresses, that has turned out to be very, very true,\u201d Hunt said.<\/p>\n

Said Mack: \u201cIt\u2019s a gift to play a character who\u2019s just a bit unhinged. It means every new script you\u2019re like, \u2018So, that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing today. OK.\u2019 Which is just so much fun. And I think, she\u2019s rooted in truth, so there\u2019s all this arrogance and bluff. But she\u2019s grounded in truth and there\u2019s loads of vulnerability there. She is desperate for connection and community, and that\u2019s what she gets from this lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Hern as Gemma. \u201cIt\u2019s been phenomenal joining the team,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you guys love the team half as much as we love each other, then we are in for a treat. Gemma is a joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among this season\u2019s guest stars is Tracey Ullman, who appears in several episodes. \u201cI felt like I\u2019d won a competition to work with her,\u201d Waddingham said. \u201cI\u2019ve loved her all my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, how much will the tension over making the women\u2019s team successful weigh on the friendship between Rebecca and Keeley? Rebecca sees how much this expansion means to Keeley and doesn\u2019t want to rain on her parade, but knows it is quite a financial gamble.<\/p>\n

Temple isn\u2019t worried: \u201cI think it\u2019s going to go to the next level of friendship where it becomes something even deeper, even bigger, even more important,\u201d she said, \u201cand a greater example of what it is to actually explore female friendships that are real life, which is sometimes you have to guide your friends in a direction so that they are learning things. And they are allowed to also get things wrong. The key to it all is communicating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Waddingham: \u201cIn real life, there is an unspoken, \u2018we\u2019re not ultimately going anywhere, but we will always call each other out on things.\u2019 And it\u2019s really lovely that as much as Keeley needs Rebecca to further that, so does Rebecca. She has to be called out. And the main person she listens to is Keeley.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temple was particularly pleased with the way the show explored all of the topics that come with the struggles in bringing pro women\u2019s sports to the mainstream. \u201cIt was another way to explore how women\u2019s sports are not even close to how men are seen,\u201d she said. That was actually a really profound part of the relationship that Rebecca and Keeley go through as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waddingham said she\u2019s been \u201cfiercely protective\u201d of Rebecca from the beginning, even back when she was a bit more of the villain in early episodes of \u201cTed Lasso.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people used to say she was like Darth Vader on \u2018Ted Lasso,\u2019 I was like, \u2018You can shut the fuck up.\u2019 She was a woman, scorned, wronged, usurped, all of it. The joy every single minute that I\u2019ve had this girl rippling through my bloodstream. As someone who\u2019s 6\u20192\u2033 in heels, I had never had a role come to me like this. The joy then of playing it over many seasons that you can finesse quietly in some ways has been really incredible. It\u2019s, it\u2019s an arc that I will always be so grateful for and long may it continue!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hannah Waddingham always had a hunch that \u201cTed Lasso\u201d would return. Even when creator and star Jason Sudeikis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,64358,19,17,35874,133714,264431,128],"class_list":["post-626372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-hannah-waddingham","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-juno-temple","tag-ted-lasso","tag-ted-lasso-screening","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}