Jason Sudeikis Reveals How Ted Lasso And Coach Beard's Relationship Mirrors Real Life

"Ted Lasso" is a gem of a production that first aired on Apple TV in 2020, a time when the population at large desperately needed a reason to smile. Fortunately, that's exactly what the show provided, with a cast of compelling characters all caught in the gravity of the protagonist, the titular Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis), who refused to keep his genuine positivity to himself no matter how hard things got. And things did get hard because, between his wife filing for divorce and his realization that Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) hand-selected him to fail as a coach for a sport that he hadn't ever coached, poor Ted was put through the wringer ... and that doesn't even take Season 2 into account.

In all things, Ted found solace in his best friend, Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), who provided company, guidance, and more than the occasional cutting quip. A commonality found in most "Ted Lasso" scenes featuring the two characters shows Ted grinning his way through confusion while Beard clarifies anything he misunderstood in dry, succinct explanations. Apparently, that's among the many aspects of Sudeikis and Hunt's real-life friendship that wormed their way into the production.

In a live panel on Apple TV, the cast of "Ted Lasso" — appropriately moderated by James Lance (who portrays Trent Crimm) — spoke at lengths about the London-based production. In a move that proves that Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt were simply putting themselves onscreen for "Ted Lasso," Sudeikis admitted that, much like their respective characters, much of his European football knowledge stemmed from Hunt's brain. "Brass tacks ... it's legitimately how I came to understand the small level of soccer/football that I do, was through Brendan," he said at around the 14-minute mark of the live panel. He also discussed how he brought Hunt along with him on the project ahead of its inception as a commercial.

Sudeikis went on to discuss how he enjoyed bringing Hunt as his plus-one to events — another thing that Lasso does with Beard — because as he put it, "Brendan is self-sufficient, and yet Midwestern enough to stick out in the best ways." He joked that the only difference between the Lasso and Beard relationship and himself and Hunt's was that, while Lasso feared for Beard if he was out alone in the city, in real life, Sudeikis believed that, "it's the town that's gotta worry."

As the two then lightly bickered over the nuances behind Sudeikis's word, Toheeb Jimoh (who portrays Sam Obisanye) piped in to say, "this is what it's like on set." Sometimes, it pays to work with your friends.