MY DAY ON TED LASSO – Sam Parks on being in Season Four
Women’s football fan and Ted Lasso aficionado Sam Parks could not believe his luck when he was asked to join the cast for the latest storyline in Season Four – on women’s football!
Let me tell you, I was thrilled to get the call from my agent to tell me that I’d be popping up in Ted Lasso Season 4. I’ve watched the show, and I know it has a lot of fans in the UK.
It all happened really fast. I did the audition midweek, heard back at the end of the week, had a costume fitting on the following Monday, and filmed two days later on the Wednesday.
Things move fast in the world of Ted Lasso!
I was late to the party with Ted Lasso. I have lots of friends who love it, and particularly Hannah Waddingham’s character (below, right), and they would quote Jason Sudeikis’ Ted a lot!
But what got me really excited was the hint dropped at the end of Season Three when Juno Temple’s character floats the idea of a Richmond women’s team – AWFC Richmond!
New Direction
I’ve been a fan of women’s football for about five years now (I’m a Gooner – evidence in photo at bottom of the page!) and am now following women’s rugby, so this new direction seemed a perfect response by the writers and producers to the growth of women’s sport here in the UK and globally.
As well as a no-brainer in terms of more acting jobs for actresses out there!
My scene took a day to shoot and was relatively simple – so a handful of lines in a duologue with one of the new cast members who make up the brand-new AFC Richmond Second Division women’s team – so maybe WSL2…
There were about 30 extras on the day, plus a couple of us in a walking-talking scene. I didn’t know Abbie Hern, one of the actors I was working with, but my actress daughter Freya does know her, so that broke the ice – and we had lots to talk about!
The set moves pretty fast, and we did have some script re-writes on the day which always keeps you on your toes.
I didn’t meet any of the other major stars on the day, but I got a sense from my day on set that production, the director and producers were pretty excited about this new season because of its new direction – I believe the Lionesses’ double Euros win, and the WSL were mentioned numerous times on the day!
Dribbling Skills
I asked Abbie Hern about shooting the football scenes and she told me they all have football training to prepare for the shoot days and for some of the close-up dribbling etc there might be some body doubles brought in – it all depends on the skill level required!
I had googled the new season so I already knew that the main storylines would follow the birth and growth of the new women’s team.
And I immediately thought this could bring a new and different audience to the show, as well as retaining the current audience, of course, because there is such affection for Ted Lasso.
Obviously, I have to be careful with spoilers, but simply put, my character is the Professor of one of the new AWFC Richmond players – and she has a big decision to make!
I think the warmth of the show is why audiences have taken it to their heart – it’s so positive, and Ted is such a force for good and endlessly quotable. This sums him and the show up…. “You say impossible, but all I hear is I’M POSSIBLE!”
Fan Favourites
Ed: keep an eye out for our own Sam Parks (recently in both Henry V and A Man For All Seasons) and one of his co-stars, Abbie Hern (Peaky Blinders, My Lady Jane), (both pictured above).
Fans will be pleased that the new, fourth season of Ted Lasso stars their usual favourites, Emmy Award winners Jason ‘Ted’ Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham and Brett Goldstein, plus Juno Temple, Brendan Hunt and Jeremy Swift.
Bonus is the handful of new characters being introduced, including the brilliant Tanya Reynolds (of Sex Education, Emma and 1536 fame), Jude Mack (Such Brave Girls, Capture), Faye Marsay (Andor, Game of Thrones), Aisling Sharkey (Jurassic World: Dominion), Rex Hayes and Grant Feely.
We gather there might even be the odd guest appearance too…
Season Four of Ted Lasso starts on Wednesday August 5th, on Apple TV.
