Jason Sudeikis has years of experience playing a coach... Well, sort of.
For his new Apple+ show, Ted Lasso, the former Saturday Night Live star plays the eponymous hunky-dory American coach of a Premier League team in England, who faces nearly constant push-back from the soccer club's fans and others. Despite the evident lack of support, Coach Lasso works to rally the team together.
And though Jason has relatively little experience in the world of professional soccer, the comedian tells E! News that he pulled inspiration from fatherhood for the role. He explains that as a father of two, he's found that any parent is a coach or motivator by "default."
"You have to. Even if you don't want to, you're still doing it by example," Jason says of raising two little ones, adding that one of his and wife Olivia Wilde's biggest accomplishments is teaching Daisy, 3, and Otis, 6, to say please and thank you.
But being a father is a learning experience for the 44-year-old, too. The Horrible Bosses star shares that he continues to learn new things about himself even as his children get older. He jokes, "I don't know who is teaching who at any given point to be honest with you. I feel like we swap roles between Yoda and Luke Skywalker just about every other sentence."
In addition to being a dad, the star played characters similar to Lasso while on SNL, as well as in promos for NBC Sports.
Those successful skits are what led to the creation of the Apple+ series, an achievement that is impressive considering the star doubted his talents for much of his time on SNL. He says that he "definitely" suffered from "imposter syndrome" while writing on the award-winning show, but managed to "trick" the producers "week after week."
Fans of Jason can see Ted Lasso when the series debuts exclusively on Apple TV+ on Friday, Aug. 14. The first three episodes of the 10-episode half-hour comedy series will premiere globally on Friday, Aug. 14 on Apple TV. New episodes will debut weekly every Friday thereafter.