Why This Ted Lasso Fan Favorite Is Still “Absolutely Afraid of the Silence.”

Brett Goldstein will tell you it’s crazy. It’s crazy. But here he is. The breakout star of Teddy Lassoone of the most talked about TV shows in recent years.

At 20, he ran his father’s strip club in Spain. Now at 42, the British comedian is a sought-after actor and writer who doesn’t just help with the craft Teddy Lasso an award-winning hit, but also created the Harrison Ford comedy-drama series shrinkage. He won two Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in Teddy Lassohe was turned into Hercules for the film Thor: Love and Thunder and had his chest hair fetishized in the animation Harley Quinn: A Very Troubled Valentine’s Day Special. And and! – he was up Sesame Streetteaching the letter “F”.

As they say inside Teddy Lassohe is here, he is there, he is everywhere.

“Oh, it’s a crazy life,” he says, laughing. “It’s crazy. And look, all I can say is, I don’t know, I feel incredibly lucky. And all of these things have happened in my life and I’ve just always put everything into the story. I think I probably have mostly scared, but in my head I’m always like, ‘Well, would you rather not do it?’ I mean, ‘Would you ever not take this opportunity?’ or “What’s your option?”

“You either do what you’re afraid of or you don’t. That’s a crappy option. You just do the damn thing. I was very lucky. I had a very interesting set of chapters.”

But the best?

“Do Sesame Street really was the best day of my life,” he says. “I thought, ‘I can’t believe this happened.’ Of all things, that was pretty special.” (In case you’re wondering, the F-word Goldstein taught was “fairness.”)

Today, Goldstein sits in a lush-looking beige room for a day of interviews. He wears black and the red and blue stadium that Ted Lasso’s London football team AFC Richmond calls home is visible through a fake window.

He’s smiling so big and hearty that I blurt out, “What a beautiful big smile you have” before I have a chance to register what I’ve said. He laughs and I awkwardly continue.

In Teddy Lasso, Goldstein plays Roy Kent, a sinister, snarling former footballer who struggles with life after retirement but eventually finds his place on the coaching staff of AFC Richmond. He manages to turn the F-word into a verb, a noun, and an adjective while also being the romantic heart of the show. He is the storm cloud for Jason Sudeiki’s eponymous blue sky trainer, the rain that will fall on your save.

Making Sesame Street really was the best day of my life. I thought, ‘I can’t believe this happened.’

Brett Goldstein

But Goldstein isn’t Roy Kent, as much as people would like to believe that’s true. Goldstein is a much sunnier personality, his South London accent lighter than his Roy Kent grunt. He is engaged and curious about his podcast Movies to bury, playful at every TV appearance and always polite. Today he even double-checks my name and brushes my apologies away for a question he’s probably been asked a million times.

“I’m a lot kinder in real life,” he agrees. “But I think the anger is that [Roy] has, I have repressed in me. It’s definitely there, but I don’t express it a tenth as much as Roy does. And I also have the struggle with vulnerability that he has. For example, I know objectively that it’s better to be vulnerable and open. But I struggle with it a lot. I do it, it happens, but it’s difficult.”

The comedy’s third season begins March 13 after a delayed production that kept fans waiting more than a year for what was rumored to be the final season. Sudeikis, who developed the show after writing the Fish on Water story about a US college soccer coach hired by a professional soccer team in the UK for an American commercial, originally signed a three-season contract with Apple. But since the series became a worldwide sensation, there has been feverish speculation about a sequel.

Goldstein will only be keeping up — the story has always been a three-season arc, he says — but he admits there’s pressure to get through the landing.

“It’s a lot, isn’t it?” he says smiling. “It’s interesting because you have to drown out the noise. When we did season two, season one wasn’t out yet, we had no idea how people felt about it.

“And season three is different because we know how people feel about it. But you have to stick to the plan. And Jason had a very clear vision of where it was going and how it was going to end, and you have to have faith in that.

“You have to ignore what people think they want. And I know because I’m a fan of other things, there’s something unsatisfying about getting exactly what you think you want. So, part of the joy of Teddy Lasso was surprising for people and I think you have to stick to that.”

Will Roy get the happy ending he deserves?

“I don’t know,” he says. “I think part of the problem with your question is does Roy think he deserves a happy ending? I don’t know if Roy thinks so.”

Do you think Roy deserves a happy ending?

“I do. I love Roy. I care deeply about Roy, but I don’t think Roy feels the same about himself.”

And that gets to the point Teddy Lasso – a show presented as a sports comedy that explores divorce, depression, loss, family disorders, grief, mental illness and modern masculinity.

It’s a classic bait and switch, just like MASH sweetened his anti-war agenda with martinis and medical hijinks, a big part of it Teddy Lasso are broken people trying to fix their lives. And that’s what fascinates Goldstein about Roy — and the show — subverting people’s expectations.

“That’s the part of it that I think is interesting,” says Goldstein. “[Roy] wasn’t raised that way [sharing his emotions]. He doesn’t have the vocabulary for it, he doesn’t understand it. He couldn’t name his feelings, it was just ‘F— it, I’m f–ed.’ He doesn’t necessarily have the words for it.

If you’re miserable all the time, look around and see what you have, what your life is like, the people that are around you.

Brett Goldstein

“But what’s interesting is how he grew up too, whatever happened, he’s good but he doesn’t know that. But I think his instincts are good, he’s actually quite moral. He immediately stepped in to help wind it up [his niece] Phoebe and he loves her. But that wasn’t part of his plan. It’s just right and it’s turned out wonderfully for him because he absolutely loves it.”

If you want to get a snippet of real goldstone, it’s worth listening Movies to bury. It’s an absolute delight when Goldstein asks his guests to discuss which movies have made them laugh and cry, their sexiest movie and the ones they relate to the most.

Here you’ll discover his passion for musicals (something he shares with Roy Kent) and his love for Pixars from the inside to the outside. He prefers to watch films alone so that no one sees how he reacts and thinks Everything everywhere at once will win Best Picture at the Oscars. Above all, he is an inquisitive host who is genuinely open to what others have to say. Where did he get that glorious ray of sunshine?

“To be honest, it took a lot of work,” says Goldstein. “I think my standard was pretty damn miserable and dark. But it [the positive attitude] comes from – and I hate to say this without sounding cheesy – gratitude. I really think that’s important because it’s a skill. It’s one thing you teach yourself to be like, “Wait a minute, if you’re unhappy all the time, look around and actually look at what you have, what your life is like, the people, surrounding you.” and you realize, ‘Oh, I love this person. i love this person The sun is shining, there is the sea, it still exists.’ You know what I mean? And you’re starting to see that maybe the world ain’t so shitty after all.

“That’s one thing. And the other thing – when you leave the podcast – is interest in people and stories. And again I hate sounding cheesy but being curious. If you are interested in people, anything, it makes life a lot more exciting. Instead of saying ‘oh it sucks’ and looking no further.”

Goldstein is a worker. Bill Lawrence who co-created Teddy Lasso with Sudeikis and shrinkage with Goldstein, has called him a “workaholic”. And it’s a label Goldstein is happy to wear. What drives him so?

“I think it’s the fear of silence,” he says. “I mean, I can argue both ways. Either I’m very, very lucky. I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do. And I feel engaged and alive and excited and happy doing all this work. Because it’s really important to me, it’s very exciting.

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“The other aspect is that I’m absolutely afraid of the silence. I feel every second Otherwise I discover what’s really underneath, what’s a mess.”

He’s the kind of person who lays up at 3am thinking about work?

“It’s always like, ‘What about this scene? What about this scene?’ Never look inside – that is the secret.”

At the beginning of each episode of his podcast, Goldstein asks his guests how they would like to die. So how would he like to die?

“I have two options,” he says. “Jump out of a plane without a parachute. That’s when I know I’m going to die because I’ve always wanted to jump out of a plane – I guess nice view and instant death. Or shot in the back of the head in the shower in Las Vegas.”

Or, as Roy Kent would say, “Get out there and have some fun.”

season three of Teddy Lasso Premiered on Apple TV+ on March 15.

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