Ted Lasso‘s Roy Agrees to Train Jamie! Brett Goldstein, Phil Dunster Mull Who Has More to Gain From Their Sessions
An unlikely partnership was formed during the third episode of Ted Lasso Season 3, when Roy Kent offered to train “pre-Madonna” Jamie Tartt to be an even better footballer than AFC Richmond’s newest recruit, Zava.
But before fans get a glimpse of their training sessions in Episode 4 (streaming Wednesday, April 5), we wanted to know what portrayers Brett Goldstein and Phil Dunster thought about this new arrangement — specifically, who these sessions will benefit more. Whereas Jamie’s need here is quite transparent, Roy’s motivations are less obvious. Is he just being a good coach? A good friend? Or is he in pursuit of something deeper?
As far as Goldstein sees it, the answer boils down to science. “It’s the f–king science of happiness,” he posits. “Doing things for other people will make you happier, and I don’t think Roy was ever an actual, gifted footballer. He was an excellent footballer, but because he worked f–king hard [at it], whereas Jamie is a natural and doesn’t have that work ethic. Roy sees that and thinks, ‘if I can instill the parts of me that he doesn’t have, he could be one of the all-time greats,’ and that would be a gift for both of them, really.”
Dunster, meanwhile, suggests that the fandom will benefit more — or, at least, a certain faction of the fandom. “Is it benefiting [Jamie] more… or is it benefiting the certain corners of Twitter that are obsessed with the idea that Roy and Jamie are gonna f–k at some point?” he deadpans.
But on a more serious note, Dunster says that there’s merit for both of Keeley’s ex-boyfriends. “For Jamie, there’s a time constraint to this,” he says. “He’s only a young, brilliant footballer for so many years, and he can be an even better, more brilliant footballer if he does this now. I think that it benefits Jamie more because Roy is already a coach, [but it does] feel like it’s a big step for Roy in his emotional development. I suppose in the context that we find each of them, Jamie is already on an emotional path, and I think that he’s teaching Roy a lot. But I [also] think that Jamie is also learning [about] humility.”
Now it’s your turn! Who do you think will gain more from these training sessions: Roy or Jamie? Sound off in Comments.
To be honest, I’m disappointed in this season. I think all the creativity Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein have went toward making Shrinking.
That picture makes Brett Goldstein look like a CGI version of himself.
I like Ted Lasso a lot, and the current season just seems to me a logical continuation, not a failure of creativity. Earlier on many of the characters were using certain coping strategies — Ted’s boundless optimism, for example — and the show was allowing us to go along with them, at the same time it often seemed absurd. Now a lot of that has been worn down, and they have to get more real, which is less flashy and entertaining. That’s perhaps why Jason Sudeikis has been so careful to say that it remains to be seen whether people will even want a Season 4.
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That’s the story they’ve been telling from the very beginning, and they’ve approached it with integrity. They could have been more crowd pleasing, and just serialized this forever, after all. Just never shown their characters really growing up, in other words. Instead, they’ve been honest about it, and trusted their audience. And the season trailer has been clear about it, I suspect. “You can’t always get what you want / But you can try sometimes / To get what you need.”
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I think it’s the same Ted Lasso it’s always been. People tie themselves into knots and act badly, but kindness and understanding can often help resolve that. Not always, as perhaps with Nate, and certainly not with Rupert, at which point you do what you have to. But it’s still what makes sense, so you stick with it. In this life we have to help each other.