Jason Sudeikis has spoken out about the alleged feud between himself and Ted Lasso showrunner Bill Lawrence, who left after season two.
Sudeikis, 50, is the star and co-creator of the football-themed Apple TV series, which returns for an unexpected fourth season next month following a three-year hiatus.
While several figures associated with the show claimed they witnessed mounting tension between the two, Sudeikis denied ever getting into any screaming matches with Lawrence in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“Bill never yelled at me and I never yelled at him,” said Sudeikis, who went on to say that he would have liked for Lawrence to stay on for the third season, which was, at the time, supposed to be the end.
“My preference would have been to land the plane with the same people we took off with.”
After Lawrence quit the show ahead of season three, he told The Hollywood Reporter: “It was healthy for me to let go the third year because Jason is Ted Lasso and, especially landing the plane, deserves it to be his vision – and I’ve reached a point in my career where I’m not the best at having to listen to other people over my own opinion.
Filming the third season without Lawrence proved difficult and costly, though, with star and co-creator Brendant Hunt describing it as “death by a thousand paper cuts”.
Showrunner Jack Burditt – behind sitcoms like 30 Rock and Modern Family – was tapped for the forthcoming fourth season, with Lawrence still involved only through his company Doozer Productions.
Burditt told The Hollywood Reporter that prior to him starting work on Ted Lasso’s fourth season, Lawrence called to give him “a lowdown of what to be prepared for”.
“He says, ‘Here’s how to deal with the show, here’s how to deal with Jason. …’ I think we spoke for about 20 minutes and then he said, ‘We should continue to have these conversations every one or two weeks,’ ” Burditt recalled, adding: “I have not talked to him since.”
On his working relationship with Sudeikis, Burditt said: “I know he’s got this reputation, and I know he drove Bill insane, but I honestly feel like Jason’s easy.”
The fourth season of Ted Lasso will be released on 5 August, and will follow Sudeikis’s affable football coach as he embarks on a new chapter of his life, taking charge of a second-division women’s football team.
It is a switch-up from the previous three seasons, which saw Ted coach AFC Richmond’s men’s team – the cast of which had to be let go for this forthcoming season in a series of phone calls that Sudeikis described as “difficult”.
Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, and Juno Temple will reprise their roles in the forthcoming season.
Released in 2020, Ted Lasso has gone on to become a huge hit for Apple TV. The feel-good show won 13 Emmys and a Peabody award. Its success was hampered, however, by its third season, which was accused of losing its way, despite receiving positive reviews from critics.
