Jason Sudeikis says Ted Lasso was originally 'belligerent' but Donald Trump inspired him to make the character kindhearted

• Jason Sudeikis spoke about "Ted Lasso" in an interview with The Guardian.
• Sudeikis said the rise of former President Donald Trump partially inspired the titular character.

Jason Sudeikis said former President Donald Trump helped shape his beloved "Ted Lasso" character.

Sudeikis shared details in an interview with The Guardian published Sunday as the Apple TV+ series continues season three. Sudeikis told the outlet that he was at dinner with his ex-partner, Olivia Wilde, in 2015 when he revisited the "Ted Lasso" character he had crafted two years earlier for a comedy skit.

When asked why he later decided to make the character "warm and fuzzy" — despite initially framing Ted Lasso as "belligerent" — Sudeikis pointed to the United States' 45th president as one source of inspiration.

"It was the culture we were living in," Sudeikis said. "I'm not terribly active online and it even affected me. Then you have Donald Trump coming down the escalator. I was like, 'OK, this is silly,' and then what he unlocked in people… I hated how people weren't listening to one another."

Sudeikis added that "things became very binary and I don't think that's the way the world works."

He also noted that his and Wilde's son Otis was born in April 2014. The former couple also had a daughter, Daisy, in October 2016.

"And as a new parent — we had our son Otis in 2014 — it was like, 'Boy, I don't want to add to this.' Yeah, I just didn't want to portray it," Sudeikis told the outlet.

"Ted Lasso" first premiered in August 2020 and tells the story of an American college football coach hired to coach an English football team. The series quickly amassed fans and in September 2021, Sudeikis won his first Emmy Award for "Ted Lasso." Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, and Brendan Hunt also star in the series.

In March, Sudeikis confirmed to Deadline that "Ted Lasso" will end after three seasons.

"This is the end of this story that we wanted to tell, that we were hoping to tell, that we loved to tell," he told the outlet. "The fact that folks will want more and are curious beyond more than what they don't even know yet —that being Season 3 — it's flattering."

Sudeikis also appeared open to the idea of a spin-off series.

"Yeah, I think that we've set the table for all sorts of folks…to get to watch the further telling of these stories," he told Deadline. "Again, I can't help but take the question as flattery for what all of us that were working on the show has tried to do."

He added: "It's really kind of folks to even consider that because you never know what's gonna happen when you make things. The fact that people want more, even if it's a different avenue is lovely."