Nick Mohammed interview: ‘Ted Lasso’
“It’s been the most overwhelming joyful rollercoaster,” reflects Nick Mohammed about his time on “Ted Lasso.” For our recent webchat he continues, “There have been highs and lows, but no one could have anticipated where it’s taken us.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
In the third season of the Apple TV+ comedy, AFC Richmond is still coached by the lovable Ted (Jason Sudeikis) with assistant coaches Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) and Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt). Mohammed plays Nate, who turned his back on the team at the end of season two and becomes head coach at rival club West Ham Utd. The actor says, “It was great to have lots of interactions with new people. But God, I missed hanging out in the locker room and getting to be on the side-line with Jason, Brendan and Brett. I really tried to use as much of that feeling of abandonment with Nate.”
For many, Nate’s ‘The Wonderkid’ has become a villain in the series by ruthlessly attacking Ted and his former club in the press. But we also see a vulnerable side to the former mild-mannered kit man. Mohammed explains, “Often is the case, that he’s saying or doing one thing but actually inside we need to see it eating him up. We need to show that confusion. You walk a bit of a tightrope. Some of his actions might have been villainous. But, if ‘Ted Lasso’ has taught us anything, we are allowed to make mistakes and find our way back. That’s the whole point of the show. And without giving anything away, Nate represents that in a nutshell across three seasons.”
On where the season might be heading, the actor notes, “We see these moments of regret in Nathan’s eyes. He is still riddled with all this insecurity and lacks self-worth. We are starting to see cracks. There is unfinished business between him and Ted. It would be mad for them (the writers) not to deal with it. Whether it’s redemption is a whole other matter. Because, in way, it’s not even up to us. It’s sort of up to the audience if Nate has done enough.”
Mohammed also reveals, “We ended up filming some of Nate’s last scenes of the season on the very last day of the whole shoot. We genuinely don’t know if that’s it. That might be the end of the whole thing. There was an element of it being quite emotionally charged. And it was meant to be an emotional scene. So, it ended up becoming quite real. This world blurring between reality and stuff that we were shooting was wonderful.”
