Ted Lasso is officially back on the pitch. Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, and Brett Goldstein are among those to have returned for the fourth season, but there are several fresh faces in the cast too. The hope is that the new iteration of the story will be told over three seasons (although, at the time of writing, we’re awaiting official confirmation), which means plenty of opportunities for new talent to join Ted (Sudeikis), Rebecca (Waddingham), Roy (Goldstein), and the rest of Richmond FC.
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Premiering in 2020, Ted Lasso has grown into a cultural phenomenon, proving a TV hit for Apple TV+ and a star-making vehicle for many among its ensemble cast. Gentle and big-hearted, it’s not your typical competitive sport-themed show. Sudeikis stars in the titular role of an American football coach charged with improving results for an ailing British football team. His rallying cry to “believe” alongside his folksy, optimistic charm and excellent biscuit baking also wins over the sceptical Brits.
The show was conceived out of a joke between Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard. Hunt was a soccer obsessive and Sudeikis wasn’t, and they riffed gleefully about an American who knew nothing about football. Then, in 2013, they turned American doofus Ted into the manager of Tottenham Hotspur for a skit promoting NBC’s broadcast of the UK Premier League. The internet loved it, and the Ted Lasso phenomenon was born.
The show built a steady following – as did its ensemble cast, many of whom were not previously well known. Major awards followed, and when Season 3 aired in 2023, audiences braced themselves to say farewell for good. Fortunately, there was more to come.
When we last saw Ted, he’d left the UK to go home to Kansas to be closer to his son, Henry. Rebecca was embracing the possibility of a life with an unnamed Dutch hunk, while Roy had become Richmond’s new coach and Nate (Nick Mohammed) had been welcomed back into the fold.
Season 4 picks up there, and the cast were seen filming in Kansas as well as the UK. The bulk of the narrative will centre around Ted coaching a second-division women’s football team.
A new story means new characters, and among those stepping into the show are Tracey Ullman (The Tracey Ullman Show), Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education), Jude Mack (Back In Action), Faye Marsay (Adolescence), Aisling Sharkey (Jurassic World: Dominion), and Abbie Hern (My Lady Jane).
Not everyone is coming back. Phil Dunster, who played Jamie Tartt in the first three seasons, had a scheduling clash, and Cristo Fernandez, who played Dani Rojas, just signed for professional football club El Paso Locomotive FC, so he also isn’t returning.
Other changes include Ted’s son, Henry, who was originally played by Gus Turner, but has been recast with Grant Feely, known for playing young Luke Skywalker in Disney+ and Lucasfilm’s Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Season 4 premieres on 5 August.
Ted Lasso’s casting director is Theo Park (Paddington, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), who famously looked at the UK standup comedy scene, the National Youth Theatre, and Open Door, a group that encourages talent from less privileged backgrounds, in search of talent.“Just looking outside of people who already have agents is really good and really exciting,” she told Backstage.
Plus, there is one thing that really gets her attention: “The main thing that makes my ears prick up or makes me take notice is timing – using the right beats and hitting the joke.” As in life, having a sense of humour always helps!
There was one obvious problem when casting the show the first time around: finding footballing actors. With the game as ingrained in the show as it is, it would be tricky to rely on stunt doubles to do all the footwork. It’s a hurdle that likely also applied to casting the new Richmond FC women’s team. “The boys on the team had to play football to a good standard, so we made them do little videos of their skills, which were really great,” Park told Backstage. “I saw some brilliant tapes – really creative self-tapes – from actors showing us their football skills.”
Park has a website with an email and telephone number. If you get in touch, send a polite and professional message expressing your interest, with your acting CV, head shot, and showreel (if you have one) attached.
Waddingham shared with Backstage her top tip for learning lines. “I would say, only read [the script] through once. I put it on a voice app because I have to – it’s the same as I do when I’m learning scenes that we’re going to shoot. I have to hear it as music in my head. I have to hear the reasoning of each character,” she said. “Obviously, you’re needing to hear the cue lines, as well. For me, I find that I have to hear it in the room as a conversation. So I go straight on to putting it as an audio thing that I can just feel around me.”
She also has advice for recording an all-important self-tape. “Particularly with self-tapes, I make sure that I have a really good working knowledge of [the text], but I don’t ever make sure that I’m completely off-book,” she told Backstage. “I stick it up on the wall behind the camera – like, really crudely. I cut out the script bit, get all the rest of the paper out of the way so that my eyeline’s not budging here and there. I think that keeps it more fresh and more coming from your gut; that kind of nervous energy on it is more honest than having it completely in your skin.”
Talking to Backstage, Goldstein had these words of wisdom for surviving the audition process: “Psychologically you have to go, I’m just offering them a flavour. And it might not be the flavour they want. They might want chocolate, and I’m offering vanilla or whatever it is. I mean, this metaphor is getting stretched. Offer them a fucking flavour from the spice board!”
Goldstein started in the Ted Lasso writing room, but he felt strongly that he was perfect casting for the part of Roy. “On the last day of the writers room, when I left, I filmed myself in like five scenes as Roy,” he told Awards Radar. “And I emailed it. I said, ‘Look, I don’t make anyone uncomfortable. And if this is shit, pretend you never got it and I will never ask again. So you can ignore this email if you want. But I’m really feeling I can play Roy and here is a tape. Let’s see what you think.”
Park agrees that actors shouldn’t wait around to land roles to show the world their talent. “Just film something, stick it out there, get on social media, and tweet it,” she says. “That could be the best thing to do.” That and working on your dribbling!
For further auditioning advice, check out the below guides.
