When asked to descibe “Ted Lasso” Season 3 in three words, actor Toheeb Jimoh chose “growth, resolution and family.”
“I want to pick my three words very carefully,” he said. “I think growth is a big one. Resolution is a big one, and … family.”
Many of the “Ted Lasso” cast attended Apple’s Monday FYC carpet and panel discussion in anticipation of the upcoming Emmy’s. The show itself received 20 nominations, including one for Jimoh as young footballer Sam Obisanya, who experienced quite a bit of his own growth in “Ted Lasso” Season 2.
“There’s so much to tie into. Sam’s gonna open his restaurant,” he said. “We get to see what his new relationship is like with the team. He continues to grow as a leader on the team, and I think he just carries on his journey of coming into manhood, standing on his own two feet and finding himself in this new country.”
Season 2 ended with Sam refusing an offer to join a new football team closer to his home in Nigeria from Ghanian billionaire Edwin Akufo (Sam Richardson), buying a place he wants to turn into a Nigerian restaurant and ultimately letting Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) go since she feels the need to iron out her fears of getting hurt on her own.
“All you guys think that we know what the hell is going on,” Waddingham told TheWrap. “We don’t and I think that’s part of the beauty of it because even if you get a script, they change so much. You expect that the script will change right up until the very last minute before the cameras go off. It’s an absolute roller coaster all the time.”
“It’s a very odd way of working, but now I feel like if I don’t work this way in other things, I feel like the script will be stale,” she continued.
Waddingham is nominated again this round for her supporting actress role of Rebecca Welton, owner of her ex-husband’s former football club AFC Richmond. In the first season, Rebecca deliberately tries to sabotage Coach Ted Lasso’s attempts to create a successful soccer team, but she supports Ted (Jason Sudeikis) more solidly in the second season.
“[It’s] a natural, beautiful, arc to be honest. They’re soulmates,” she said of her character’s transition. “They are already together in life. They’ve got each other’s backs 100%, and it was lovely to start in a different vein.
Waddingham gave two words to describe Season 3 since they are in the middle of filming what could very well be the Apple comedy series’ last season: strength and doubt.