Jason Sudeikis channeled Ted Lasso in email to grieving entertainment writer

Three years before Jason Sudeikis began starring as Ted Lasso in the hit Apple TV Plus series of the same name, he embodied the good-natured character in real life.

Uproxx senior entertainment writer Mike Ryan, who disclosed this entire story in this essay published Thursday (July 15), interviewed Sudeikis in late 2017. The actor was promoting indie drama Kodachrome, and Ryan was grieving the recent passing of his father, who died suddenly from a heart attack.  

Kodachrome followed Matt Ryder (Sudeikis) and his dying father, Ben (Ed Harris), as they drove to the last remaining Kodak Kodachrome lab in Kansas before it was too late to develop Ben's final four rolls of film. Ryan told Sudeikis how much the plot's themes resonated with him.

Later in the same day of the interview, Sudeikis unexpectedly sent Ryan the below email:

Just wanted to shoot ya a quick note and let ya know that I’m so sorry for your loss. And I thank you for feeling comfortable enough with me to share. Please please please feel ZERO regret in doing so.

It’s important and fucking necessary for us human beings to do that. To connect. To share. And to not concern ourselves too much with the outcome of such bravery. Especially the men of the world. Our generation is the first to “understand” that notion, but darn it, I’d love to try and be the first generation of fellas to “live” the notion as well. So let’s both continue to attempt to be on that “side of history,” shall we?

I wish you all the luck and openness in the universe on finding the “four rolls of Kodachrome” your own father left you. Because he did. It’s out there. I know it is.

The one thing I want you to consider though is that it might not be physically “out there”, because it might actually be living inside of you. And through you. And merely accepting that possibility might be where and when the “finding” happens.

You see deeply into things for a living. Allow yourself the experience of doing that to yourself, for yourself.

Okay man. Be well. Always good to see and speak with you.

yours,
Jason

Earlier this week, Sudeikis was unveiled as GQ's August issue cover star. In the accompanying story by Zach Baron, just how much Ted Lasso reflects whom Sudeikis actually is as a person is unpacked.

"He is quite like Ted in lots of ways," Marcus Mumford, Ted Lasso's music composer, told Baron. "He has a sort of burning optimism, but also a vulnerability, about him that I really admire."

Sudeikis added, in part: "When they're like, 'No, that is you. That is you. That's not the best version of you.' That's a very lovely thing to hear. I wish it on everybody who gets the opportunity to be or do anything in life and have someone have the chance to say, 'Hey, that's you. That's you.'"

Ted Lasso debuted to rousing critical acclaim and fanfare last August. The series follows American college football coach Ted (Sudeikis) as he is hired by Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) to take over as manager of English football club AFC Richmond. Rebecca is secretly hoping Ted unknowingly leads to the franchise's demise out of spite for her cheating ex-husband, but she ultimately develops a soft spot for the mustached optimist—just like everybody else.

Nominees for September's 73rd Primetime Emmys were announced Tuesday (July 13), and Ted Lasso is up for 20 awards—a new all-time record for any freshman comedy (h/t Variety).

Season 2 premieres July 23. Watch the trailer below.