Source : the age
At the halfway mark of the fourth season of Ted Lasso, things aren’t looking too good for the newest member of the coaching staff of AFC Richmond.
Following a series of clashes with her players, Alice Chilton (Tanya Reynolds) gets a talking to from Ted (Jason Sudeikis).
“I had the privilege of working with another coach who had your fire,” he tells her. “Unfortunately, I didn’t notice what was going on with him before he’d been burnt to a crisp. So, in the hope of learning from my mistakes, I’m going to try a different approach with you. I’m going to suspend you for a match.”
The other coach was, of course, Nathan Shelley (Nick Mohammed), who went from boot boy to acolyte to arch-nemesis over the course of three seasons before finally finding some humility and peace (a trajectory entirely in keeping with the show’s vaguely Buddhist leanings).
“I think it’s a real wake-up call for her,” says Reynolds of Alice’s suspension. “One of her main drivers is that she just wants to be excellent at her job, and this is a real dent to her ego.
“Also, I don’t think she sees it coming, especially from Ted. I think she’s really taken aback by it, and I guess it forces her to confront a lot of things about herself, and forces her to address how she interacts with people.”
Without giving too much away, Reynolds suggests that Alice is “quite brave in the following episodes”. “She steps out of her comfort zone a lot and really tries to be a different kind of person, as well as a different kind of coach.”
Well, not that different. In next week’s New Year-themed episode, she’s still torn between her desire to connect with her players and her impulse to judge and harangue them.
While it’s tempting to imagine that famous handmade “BELIEVE” sign represents the core message of Ted Lasso – and, to a degree, it does – the show rather demands a second sign: “LET GO.” Let go of your ego, let go of your ambition, let go of your focus on outcomes and learn instead to live in and savour the moment.
Of course, you can also sense how that might seem a rather strange message to be spreading in the changing room of a professional sports team.
Not that Reynolds, who is 34 and best known for playing Lily Iglehart in Sex Education, would be likely to weigh in on such matters. A total sports novice who describes herself as “more of a chihuahua than a bulldog”, she says she only began to pay any sort of attention to the sport since the rise of the English women’s team.
“I’ve definitely watched more women’s football than I’ve watched any other sport. I think the Lionesses got a lot of people into football. But it’s not been something I’ve spent much of my life with.”
In fact, she hadn’t even seen Ted Lasso when she was invited to audition for the role.
“I didn’t watch it when it came out, I only watched it when I was offered the job,” she says. “I binged all three seasons after Jason offered it to me, and I loved it. I couldn’t believe I had missed it. I don’t know where I was, but obviously not on planet Earth.”
What resonated with her, belatedly, was what landed for the many people who fell in love with the show when it premiered during the long dark months of COVID isolation in 2020.
“I can’t watch things that are too stressful or violent or fill me with dread, because I feel like I am full of dread in normal life.”Tanya Reynolds, who plays a new coach on Ted Lasso
“I loved the sense of optimism and warmth, I liked that it was putting out some positive messaging into the world about giving people chances, and it was just hopeful and warm,” Reynolds says. “It’s the kind of show you watch and you want to be there, you want to go to Richmond and hang out with Keeley (Juno Temple).
“It’s the kind of telly that I am craving right now, something that is going to make me feel good. I can’t watch things right now that are too stressful or violent or fill me with dread because I feel like I am full of dread in normal life. I want to watch something that’s going to give me some hope. And I think a lot of people feel that way.”
Playing the wet blanket amid the sunshine comes with its challenges. In real life, she says, “I’m a massive goofball. With the girls, the football team, when we were not filming we were all just goofing. And then when the cameras were rolling, I had to be very, very ungoofy.
“I just wanted to laugh and join in, and it all looked so fun, but I had to be so very stern,” she continues. “I’m amazed they got any footage of me at all, to be honest, because – especially in the scenes with Jason and Brendan (Hunt, who plays Coach Beard) – I was laughing all the time.”
But what about the more serious side of Ted Lasso, the call to be better. Do you believe that people really can change?
“Yeah, I do. I think that we can all change, and I think we are all changing all the time, because we’re learning all the time.
“It depends on what you digest, what you’re immersing yourself in, and the way you use your brain,” she adds. “But I think everyone’s capable of immense growth, really.”
You just need to believe – and, maybe, let go a little.
Ted Lasso is on Apple TV now, with new episodes each Wednesday.
