Tanya Reynolds was not initially sold on Ted Lasso.
When her reps reached out about the possibility of a major role in season four, the English actress had never seen the Apple TV show. At that time, Reynolds was so consumed by other work — performing in The Seagull and rehearsing for 1536, both on stage in London’s West End — that she didn’t have the kind of bandwidth that auditioning would require.
Then, a month or so later, the opportunity came back around, and, having now wrapped The Seagull, Reynolds agreed to put herself on tape. After all, the scene she’d be reading was legitimately funny. Plus, Lasso was one of TV’s most decorated series, winning 13 Emmys (including two best comedy trophies) and a Peabody, and, in the three seasons prior, had made bona fide stars of its cast.
Before she knew it, Reynolds — who was then best known in TV circles as Lily, a teenage writer of alien erotica, on Netflix’s Sex Education — was hired as Alice, the assistant coach of AFC Richmond’s women’s soccer team and the most significant new face of Lasso’s fourth season. “Jason had asked to have a Zoom with me, which I assumed was part of the audition process,” she says, referring to creator/star Jason Sudeikis, “but he just sort of offered me the job on the Zoom.”
She continues: “And I still hadn’t seen the show, so I wasn’t entirely sure what I was being offered.”
To her credit, Reynolds swiftly rectified that, bingeing the first three seasons to get herself up to speed. “I absolutely loved it,” she says, “and totally got the hype.” But without any scripts at that point in the process, she knew only what Sudeikis had told her about her character, who was being introduced as the series shifted its focus from AFC Richmond’s men’s team (seasons one through three) to its women’s one (season four). Unlike the players, Richmond’s executive suite, which includes Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), Keeley (Juno Temple), Roy (Brett Goldstein) and Ted (Sudeikis), would all be back.
What Sudeikis had told her was fairly straightforward: Soccer had been Alice’s life, but after suffering from a recurring ACL injury, she’d segued to coaching — though she’s not a natural coach, at least not initially. “A lot of the series’ arc for Alice is about her finding her best kind of coach self and learning how to better communicate and be vulnerable with the team,” says Reynolds. “I was very interested in this idea of this character who is very brittle and spiky on the outside but inside is actually quite wobbly.”
Unlike the women cast as the AFC Richmond players, who had to audition as actors as well as athletes, Reynold’s soccer know-how was far less relevant. Still, she requested a follow-up Zoom with Sudeikis to make sure he was aware of her lack of athleticism. “I got really paranoid because the thought of me playing a coach is quite hilarious to anyone who knows me,” she says. “I was like, ‘Listen, man, you’ve not met me but I’m not this character. I can give it a go, but I’ve never kicked a ball in my life.’ And Jason just was very Ted Lasso about it, like, ‘Well, I think you are.’ ”
Over time, she got comfortable, but not without some early nerves. “For the returning cast, they know their characters inside out — but for us, we were still figuring out who we were,” she says, though she did get plenty of pep talks from Lasso vets like Temple and Waddingham. And to Reynolds’ delight, as the writers got to know her and her voice better, they started to write to her, which, she jokes, is why the character became less bulldog and more chihuahua over time. Still, none of it was easy.
“I’m nervous on any job, but I was particularly nervous on this because it’s a show that everyone loves so much,” she says, “and you’re stepping into it as this new character who, at the beginning, especially, is not particularly likable. I just really felt the pressure of it.”
Ted Lasso returns to Apple TV on Aug. 5, and rolls out episodes weekly. Read THR‘s cover story with Jason Sudeikis and the Ted Lasso cast on why they returned for season four.
Leave a Reply