In “Ted Lasso” season four, the series shifts its focus to AFC Richmond’s women’s team — and introduces its most significant new character yet: Alice, the sharp-edged assistant coach played by English actress Tanya Reynolds.
In this Hollywood Reporter interview, Reynolds opens up about landing the role (despite never having seen the show or kicked a soccer ball), her Zoom offer from Jason Sudeikis, and playing a former player turned coach who’s “brittle and spiky on the outside but… quite wobbly” inside as she learns vulnerability and finds her coaching voice.
Lacey Rose for The Hollywood Reporter:
Unlike the women cast as the AFC Richmond players, who had to audition as actors as well as athletes, Reynold’s soccer know-how was far less relevant. Still, she requested a follow-up Zoom with Sudeikis to make sure he was aware of her lack of athleticism. “I got really paranoid because the thought of me playing a coach is quite hilarious to anyone who knows me,” she says. “I was like, ‘Listen, man, you’ve not met me but I’m not this character. I can give it a go, but I’ve never kicked a ball in my life.’ And Jason just was very Ted Lasso about it, like, ‘Well, I think you are.'”
Over time, she got comfortable, but not without some early nerves. “For the returning cast, they know their characters inside out — but for us, we were still figuring out who we were,” she says, though she did get plenty of pep talks from Lasso vets like Temple and Waddingham. And to Reynolds’ delight, as the writers got to know her and her voice better, they started to write to her, which, she jokes, is why the character became less bulldog and more chihuahua over time. Still, none of it was easy.
MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve written before, after season three, we approach season four warily, especially as its subject matter is ripe for treacly preaching if handled ham-handedly by those in charge of Lasso‘s third season train wreck. Here’s the official season four trailer:
See also:
• Will ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 be a woke disaster like Season 3? – July 22, 2026
• Some fans of the Apple TV+ series ‘Ted Lasso’ feel it’s being ruined by ‘woke’ writers – May 2, 2023
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