Jason Sudeikis has admitted there were ‘a lot of tears’ during the last day of filming for Ted Lasso after the final season was released on Apple TV last week.
The actor, 47, who stars as the titular character and co-created the programme, said that while many fans are hoping for a fourth series, it was only intended to be three.
Ted Lasso follows an inexperienced American struggling to coach a fictional London football club, with Jason likening the last day on set to a real life team’s last match.
Speaking in an interview with EW, he explained: ‘A lot of tears, lot of cheers, lot of clapping. It felt like an actual sports team after their final game.
‘But without really knowing if we’d won or lost, which as Ted says is really not the most important thing, so in many ways we won.’
Over and out: Jason Sudeikis, 47, has admitted there were ‘a lot of tears’ during the last day of filming for Ted Lasso after the final season was released on Apple TV last week
Jason continued: ‘Everyone came in to the locker room. It was a great moment of connection. It felt like a culmination, and it is definitely a treasured memory from this whole experience.
He described the feeling as ‘a call to arms’ adding that the cast and crew will take the series to ‘wherever any of us go next.’
It is the good-humoured, fish-out-of-water comedy that has become a global hit, thanks to the irrepressible positivity of its chipper title character.
But as Ted Lasso returned for its third – and most likely final – series on Apple TV+, there has been only one question on the minds of fans: what on earth is wrong with Ted?
The exploits of the charmingly optimistic Ted as he coaches fictional AFC Richmond usually delights viewers, but many have been turned off by an unexpectedly downbeat tone to the opening episode.
And here may be a good reason for that, as the private life of its star, writer and executive producer Jason was in turmoil as the series was being made.
At the time he was in bitter dispute with his ex, actress Olivia Wilde, who had left him for former One Direction star Harry Styles.
Soon after the new series of Ted Lasso began shooting in London last year, lawyers acting for former stand-up comic Sudeikis served custody papers on Ms Wilde while she was on stage in Las Vegas.
On screen: Speaking in an interview with EW , he explained: ‘A lot of tears, lot of cheers, lot of clapping. It felt like an actual sports team after their final game’ (Jason pictured as Ted Lasso)
She slammed the ‘outrageous legal tactics’ which she said ‘clearly intended to threaten me… he chose to serve me in the most aggressive manner possible’.
The pair’s acrimonious split came in late 2020, about the time the third series of the comedy was commissioned by Apple executives who realised they had a hit on their hands.
Sudeikis, now 47, and Wilde, 39, had been together for almost a decade and share a son Otis, now eight, and daughter Daisy, six.
Just weeks after they announced their supposedly ‘amicable’ split, Wilde was photographed holding hands with Styles – who is a decade her junior – having met on the set of her film Don’t Worry Darling.
Sudeikis – who at the time was said to be heartbroken – appears to have drawn on his agony to inspire Ted Lasso, as his character went through a divorce, straining the relationship with his son. At the end of last week’s episode, he learned that his ex-wife is seeing a new man.
On Sunday, a source who knows both Sudeikis and Wilde said: ‘It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the drama in his private life might spill on to the page.
‘The whole narrative in the new series speaks to the pain of a marriage breakdown.’
Drama: The private life of its star, writer and executive producer Jason was in turmoil as the series was being made with his ex, actress Olivia Wilde leaving him for Harry Styles
Over: The pair’s acrimonious split came in late 2020, about the time the third series of the comedy was commissioned by Apple executives who realised they had a hit on their hands
However, ‘pain’ is not what fans tune in for. At the Prince’s Head pub in Richmond, South-West London – which doubles as The Crown and Anchor in the show – one viewer lamented on Friday: ‘I’ve never felt so depressed watching a comedy.’
The change of tone did not escape TV critics, who have been given a preview of the first four episodes of the new series.
The Washington Post noted that the ‘main character is in a rut’ and said the show was treading water. ‘Ted has already checked out, whether he realises it or not,’ reviewer Lili Loofbourow wrote.
And Los Angeles writer Valerie Ettenhofer said the show ‘is more likely to make viewers cry than laugh’.
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