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Jason Sudeikis’ award-winning creation of Ted Lasso was inspired, in part, by Donald Trump’s arrival on the political scene.
The actor said in the UK Guardian newspaper that in 2015 he was considering revisiting a character he had previously created for a comedy skit. Lasso was originally more “belligerent” but the politics of the time persuaded Sudeikis to take him in a warmer direction.
Sudeikis says THE Guardian:
“I’m not very active online and it even affected me. Then you have Donald Trump coming down the escalator. I was like, ‘OK, that’s silly’, and then what he has unblocked in people…I hated how people weren’t listening to each other.Things got very binary and I don’t think that’s how the world works.
The result was the warm, uncynicistic character of Lasso – a clueless manager recruited to take charge of fictional English football team Richard ACF – which captured the imagination on both sides of the Atlantic.
And, as the series prepares to retire after three seasons, Lasso’s motto “Believe” has caught on all the way to the White House.
Sudeikis says The Guardian from his recent visit to Joe Biden in the Oval Office, to discuss mental health strategies, where “Believe” had been pinned above the door.
“It’s crazy, man,” Sudeikis said. “I haven’t even looked at the pictures of the White House yet because I want her to live up there for a while like this amazing fireworks rather than say, ‘Oh, boy, why did- I wore sneakers? “”