Amid World Cup, ‘Ted Lasso’ cast shares how they came to love Jason Sudeikis’ KC
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Sudeikis was born in Virginia but grew up in the Kansas City area.
- Season 4 includes scenes filmed in Kansas City featuring local institutions.
- The first episode premieres Aug. 5 and begins in Kansas City, tied to Ted’s roots.
Not that “Ted Lasso” with Kansas City’s own Jason Sudeikis and the FIFA World Cup were destined to converge or anything, but …
“A long time ago,” co-creator Brendan Hunt joked Saturday, “we thought it would be good for (Sudeikis) to be born here.”
Or at least grow up here after being born in Virginia.
That proved a fine turn many times over when it came to Sudeikis, the Shawnee Mission West High School graduate best known as a longtime “Saturday Night Live” cast member — and for co-creating and starring in the uplifting and poignant Apple TV series that’s back for its fourth season next month.
Best of all, through all of that and plenty more, Sudeikis has maintained what might be considered a symbiotic relationship with Kansas City.
Put another way, Season 4 cast addition Abbie Hern put it with a laugh, “He’s obsessed with Kansas City.”
It’s such a part of him that he relishes bringing people to town for the noble causes of Big Slick Celebrity Weekend and Thundergong! — but also to show off what he called on Saturday “just a groovy place.”
That’s why they filmed some Season 4 segments here featuring or making reference to, among other institutions: Gates Bar-B-Q, Arthur Bryant’s, the Country Club Plaza, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the KC Current’s CPKC Stadium.
The scenes here “were special in a bunch of different ways,” he said, smiling and including the post-production complications of removing the pesky sounds of cicadas.
Given that it was such a compelling place in the early 20th Century and now early in the 21st Century, Sudeikis reckons it will only be more in the middle of everything 100 years from now.
He imagined, he said with a smile, “they’ll probably move the White House here” ... and pictured it going right on State Line Road.
Clad in a Royals hat, he added, “If you want to move Mardi Gras here, we’ll give it a shot. Keep bringing your throngs of people.”
More seriously, though, his thoughts turned to those already here and how his formative years helped make the show what it is.
From the get-go, Sudeikis said, there was “a spirit of openness and enthusiasm and certainly chattiness with my character that feels unique to the places we had the opportunity to grow up. And the circle of people we got to grow up around.”
Mixed in with some distinctly local dynamics.
“There’s a congeniality that can sometimes be confused, even though it’s kind and open, as being innocent and maybe even naive,” he said. “And yet, I have found that to not always be the case.”
As it happens, some combination of Sudeikis’ infectious enthusiasm for Kansas City and the experience of filming here seemed to strike strong chords with the cast.
Juno Temple, who plays Keeley Jones, joked that “me and Kansas City go way back, guys.”
At least enough that both she and Sudeikis think Keeley herself would be happy to move here because of how her gregarious nature would mesh with the welcoming vibes.
Part of that fondness for the area is her grasp of why it’s important to Sudeikis, for whom she said “it’s so personal.”
“There is a lot of Ted Lasso within him,” she said.
The fact she was sporting a Teal Current kit reflected another reason for her feeling: the sensation of walking into the world’s first stadium purpose-built for a women’s professional sports team.
“IN KANSAS CITY!” said Temple, adding that she didn’t know it was possible to feel so moved by merely entering a stadium.
“Because there is something so nurturing about it,” she added, “and I really think that is special and profound.”
Noting she’d brought her little brother along to see it and later attend the Argentina-Switzerland quarterfinal match at Kansas City (Arrowhead) Stadium, she said her excitement was such that she might wake up in an institution saying, “Well, that was a beautiful dream.”
CPKC also was a focal point for Hunt, who plays “Coach Beard” and shares an executive producer role with Sudeikis.
Beyond the statement it’s made for women’s sports and its state-of-the-art appeal, he appreciates the symmetry of its setting on the Missouri River — which he equated to “a diamond on a ring.”
Meanwhile, Jeremy Swift (Leslie Higgins) had his own longstanding affinity for Kansas City — a place he said has “always been legendary” to him because of a discovery in his teens that famed musician Charlie Parker was from here.
That’s why he spent time at the American Jazz Museum even before knowing — “spoiler,” he said — it would be “involved” in the filming.
When he said he “could live there,” Hunt interjected: “Side story: We’re still on the lookout for Charlie Parker’s missing saxophone.”
Like Parker and filmmaker Robert Altman, another Kansas City native, Swift sees Sudeikis as a genius.
“Something in the water here,” he said.
No wonder Sudeikis joked that shooting in London was an “absolute drag in comparison: the barbecue, specifically.”
The result will be a first episode on Aug. 5 that evidently will have some “Wizard of Oz” allusions among Sudeikis’ own “no place like home” elements on a show that will underscore the beautiful convergences.
“Starting it where Ted is and where Jason’s from just felt exactly right,” Hunt said.
And “the world discovering” Kansas City over the last month, Hunt added, is “exactly what happens to Keeley and Rebecca in that first episode. So you’re about to have deja vu real hard when this thing comes along.”
This story was originally published July 11, 2026 at 9:15 PM.