From the moment Brett Goldstein’s aging, angry footballer Roy Kent is introduced on Ted Lasso, his second act hangs in the air. As his late thirties linger and an unexpected romance with Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) develops, the cheeriest show’s most stubborn figure struggles with the question: “What next?”
Charting out a new chapter has also been top-of-mind for Goldstein, who recently finished co-writing and starring in season 2 of the AppleTV+ series (out July 23) alongside Jason Sudeikis. “It was a real treat to be able to, I hate using this word, but to get in the sandbox,” Goldstein explained of the second season to Little Gold Men’s Katey Rich. “You’ve got the sandbox now and there’s all these action figures in it, and you can fucking get in there and play with them, and you built this thing. I’m not saying it was easy, but it was a fucking pleasure to write season two.”
In a wide-ranging conversation, Goldstein opens up about channeling rage to inhabit Roy, hosting his cinephile podcast Films to Be Buried With, and dodging a scenario in which he nearly played Higgins (Jeremy Swift) on Ted Lasso.
Elsewhere on this week’s Little Gold Men podcast, Katey, Richard Lawson, Joanna Robinson, and guest Anthony Breznican unpack the complicated history of On the Waterfront and Marlon Brando’s indelible performance in it. David Canfield also drops by to talk all things Awards Insider, Vanity Fair’s new headquarters for everything trophy-related, including the upcoming Emmys. Conversation then shifts to the upcoming Fast and Furious movie, continuing controversy with the Golden Globes, and an interview with Hacks star Hannah Einbinder.
Take a listen to the episode above, and find Little Gold Men on Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you get your podcasts. You can also sign up to text with us at Subtext—we’d love to hear from you.
Read a partial transcript of the Brett Goldstein interview below.
The show premieres last summer, the world’s locked down, no-one’s going anywhere. Was there a moment when you realized the extent to which [Ted Lasso] had taken off?
Well, it’s so surreal as well, because I’ve been in the UK. I’ve been in this attic that you are looking at during the pandemic. We were writing season two, but I was writing it in this office, in this little attic with the Muppets poster and bullet holes behind me, and just on Zoom and it was six [minutes] until midnight, my time. So it was all very surreal. I was very tired, and hot, and it was summer, and I was stuck in this attic. And because we weren’t out in the world, you could only tell by social media. But I guess it’s amazing, people have done fanart. Anytime you see anything where someone’s made a creative effort based on the show or some moment in the show, you just think, “Fucking hell, people are really watching it.”
I think there’s all this stuff me and Jason have always talked about, it’s intentionality. You put all this stuff into the show and there’s lots of minor, subtle things in there that we’ve wanted to put in and fought for, but there’s always the thing of “No one will notice that.” But it matters because collectively, all these tiny moments matter. Then reading, people have written essays where they pick out all these tiny, subtle things that you didn’t think anyone would notice, and the fact that not only do they notice, they appreciate it. I mean it’s really quite phenomenal.
Anything in particular you can think of that people picked up on that you’re proud of?
I mean all of it, but there’s the small story of Isaac (Kola Bokinni) becoming the captain, and you see this little journey and it’s all done in small beats that you might miss. Like he’s mean to Nate (Nick Mohammed), and then there’s a tiny moment where he makes room on the bench for Nate. Then you see [that] Roy sees him tell them to get off their phones when they’re watching Iron Giant. And it’s all just tiny bits of storytelling, but it tells you why he chooses Isaac at the end.
When [Roy] grows over the course of the season, are you changing the way that you hold yourself ? I think you see on your face the unclenching of the fist and how much of a struggle it is. What do you do with your body to get to that point where he is at the end of the season?
Well look, there’s a thing very specifically in season one that Roy smiles, I think, four times in season one—and none of them were accidental. They’re very chosen spots for…I plotted the smiles, and so there’s that. I suppose it’s difficult because a lot of it is just instinct, but he’s like an iceberg, and he keeps melting, and things are being chipped off. Sometimes it’s in the face and a softening of the scowl, but also he can turn it back on, he can say “fuck you” at any moment. I don’t think he’s ever going to lose that, but for the first time in many, many, many years, he’s letting the light in, and that’s so much to do with Keeley as much as it is to do with Ted. Yeah, and it’s also what I think is true in life is he’s different with different people. He’s never going to be soft-soft with Jamie. I don’t think he’s ever really going to smile with Jamie in the room.
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