- I know that AFC Richmond
is going to give me
everything they've got,
win or lose.
- Or tie.
- Right, y'all do ties here.
(yelling)
- Tell me about the origin
of the Ted Lasso character.
Like, I know you did him
for the Premier League ads,
but did he exist before that?
- No, not really.
I mean, it'd be a voice
that I'd kind of do
when playing a coach.
I'm not, you know, Daniel Day-Lewis
or Meryl Streep and so,
you know I've only got
like two or three moves.
And one of them is yelling
and one of them is being nice.
And so, you know, I would
do a lot of coaches.
And the initial idea from the people that,
that head the idea for these commercials
was to play a little bit more of a
yelling, screaming kind of coach,
someone that motivates
through anger and fear
and like, that style.
- Will you explain to
me how that was offside?
No, I'm asking you, seriously.
Explain offside to me, it makes no sense.
- And that's something I'd played on SNL
and something I'd
improvised loosely based on,
like, you know, my high
school basketball coach
who was a big yeller and a screamer,
and would get like spit on his lip
when he'd be yelling at you,
and he's "ah" scary.
But then, but then there's the other side.
There's another kind of coach, like,
kind of a Jimmy Stewart meets John Wooden,
who's, you know, a fabled coach from UCLA,
a basketball coach who
coached Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
And I like someone with that
little, kind of Andy Griffith
homespun wisdom, Will Rogers kind of vibe.
And so that's what we ended up going with.
- In an act of solidarity,
I spent and entire day
not using my hands out of
respect towards the game.
And I think that went pretty well,
I think it garnered a lot
of respect from the players.
They appreciate not only the
fact that that I could do
most activities without
the use of my hands,
but that I just tried.
- And that again, that's something that,
that's always kind of always in me.
I think Ted Lasso is in many ways a joke,
the best version of myself.
Or at least the version of
me after a couple of beers.
You know, on an empty stomach
on a bright sunny day.
You know. (laughter)
When you're, you know,
you're doing a little,
you're a little day tipsy
and you feel like you
can take on the world,
and defend your friends from
any oppressors or anything.
- What, you're going to use my play?
- Yeah, I mean, we'll try
it on, see if it fits.
You know, why not?
Then again, it might be a
very flattering silhouette,
I might wear it right out of the store.
Makes me feel good, I start to strut.
I'm like, ooh, I like this.
- It's been a long genesis,
like why is soccer such a,
I don't know, like a
fertile garden for material?
- Yeah, well I mean, I
think sports in general
are a world you know well,
I think if you come about it
honestly and it's not just a
lay-on for jokes and what not.
But if you truly have a love
and appreciation for something
you can find the beauty in any of it.
One of the things I always
have loved and respected
about Aaron Sorkin is
that when decides to shine
his creative light on something,
he always asks for the
best of it, you know,
whether it be The West
Wing or SportsCenter,
even when he did Studio 60 with SNL.
He "endoused" things with
being, you know, um...
of a higher integrity then maybe
then the places actually are themselves.
And that's inspiring to watch,
I know as a fan of his work.
And so, I think sports allows
for a lot of, you know,
drama and metaphor.
Soccer, though I don't know it as well
as a sport like say
basketball for me personally,
I'm smart enough to keep
company with people that do,
like Brendan Hunt.
And so I think, especially
as you get to know players...
I think that's why we
all love the Olympics.
I couldn't, you know, give
two shakes about, you know,
uh,
curling.
But when you know it's
a brother and sister
from the mid-west are
going for goal against
whatever other country, you give a damn.
You know, because you've
heard their story.
It's like watching the
behind the scene pieces
of American Idol and be
like, I like this guy.
This guy works at a gas station
but he sings like Barry White.
Let's see what happens.
I love seeing people discover their power,
and I encourage them
to use it responsibly.
- I always figured that tea
was just going to taste
like hot brown water.
And you know what? I was right.
Yeah, it's horrible. No thank you.
- Welcome to England.
(upbeat music plays)
