This year, four out of eight nominees in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category are from one show, Apple TV+’s biggest hit, “Ted Lasso.” Many predicted that the Jason Sudeikis wonder would earn a ton of Emmy nods, but its 20 nomination haul, including almost every supporting player in the cast, was a bit of a shock. In fact, it was so off the radar of one of those nominees, Nick Mohammad, that he was informed of his nomination while he was getting his second COVID jab.
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Mohammad, a UK television veteran who also recently created and starred in the SkyOne/Peacock series “Intelligence” with David Schwimmer, plays the usually timid Nate Shelley on “Lasso.” The kit man (equipment manager for us Yanks) quietly gained the coach’s confidence in the show’s first season and was promoted to assistant coach for season two. While many of the characters are in a happy place at this point in the program’s second go-around, many viewers may have noticed that Nate is not one of them. During a conversation earlier this week, Mohammad says we’ll soon find out why.
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“In the first four episodes, all we’ve got of Nate is that something’s up with him. He’s not quite the Nate that we know and love, I guess, from season one,” Mohammad admits. “There’s something going on. He’s struggling with something. He’s struggling, maybe being in this new position of slight responsibility and having someone beneath him that used to do his job. And the truth is, and we were about to episode five, but from five onwards, five to 12, it gets quite devastating. I can’t spoil anything, but it’s an absolute roller coaster, and they’re so clever in the way that they’ve teed up everything up. And there seemed to be a lot of it, to be honest, even in season one, but some tough times are coming, and it might even make for quite a tough viewing, I think, some of it. And it was a real challenge too, and we can maybe speak again once it’s all gone out a bit. Because I can’t give anything away.”
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Over the course of our conversation, edited for length and content, Mohammad waxes on “Lasso’s” quick popularity, reveals that he also initially auditioned for the character Higgins (played by fellow Emmy nominee Jeremy Swift), how the producers have kept him in the loop on Nate’s character arc and much more.
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The Playlist: Congratulations on your Emmy nomination for “Ted Lasso.” What was your reaction when the Emmy nomination was announced?
Nick Mohammad: Oh, goodness me. It sounds like a cliche to say, “Oh, I wasn’t expecting that. I was very surprised.” But honestly, I had no idea. I didn’t see it coming. And so I think. Obviously, I hoped that the show might get a nod, and I was convinced that Jason and Hannah might as well, but no, I just didn’t see it coming at all. And I was actually having my second COVID jab right at the time I found out. And my phone started going crazy; I’m like, “What’s going on?” So yeah, listen, I’m so grateful and still overwhelmed and still processing it, really. But yeah, I was delighted, obviously.
I know things are still strange in the world at the moment but are you going to try to come to LA for the ceremony?
I think that’s the plan, yeah. It will, I think, depend on COVID. And I’m due to shoot a film as well at some point later that month. And so just trying to minimize time away from the family as well. But yeah, I think they want it to be an in-person event. I doubt, again, if there will be an audience. But yes, it would certainly be nice to all get together and have a little celebration. So, yeah, hopefully. Fingers crossed.
Besides the fact that obviously you guys came back and shot season two, you haven’t really all had a chance to be at any event and celebrate the show. No Peabody Awards, no SAG Awards, no BAFTA TV Awards, any of that.
It’s true. And it feels like a bit of a first-world problem, complaining that we’ve not been able to go to award ceremonies. Still, I remember specifically when we were filming the start of season two around February time when…It would have been the Critics’ Choice, the SAG stuff, or Golden Globes coming out around then. And that was particularly when COVID was really, really bad in the UK around then. Not that we were ever lax at all, but there was no socializing whatsoever. We were pretty much in lockdown if we weren’t filming. So, it was strange because there was no sense of relief or celebration. But Jason and the other creators, they’re so humble about the whole thing. And Jason, I remember when he won the Golden Globe, there was a round of applause on set and stuff the next day. And he was like, “Oh, we’ve got work to do.” And he really played it down. And so, I think despite the awards noise, we just got on with it. I think we all just felt fortunate to be working. But yeah, it will be nice if we get to go to the Emmys to have a little celebration, and that can maybe include the celebration to the Critics’ Choice and Golden Globes and all that stuff.
How did this show come your way? Was it just a traditional casting call to your agent?
Yeah, it was a casting call, absolutely, but I went out for Higgins, first of all. And that must have been back in May 2019, which I obviously didn’t get; brilliant Jeremy Swift, he got that. And then it was about a month or so later that I got a call saying, “Oh, they would like you to tape for Nate.” And I was not reluctant, but because I was filming “Intelligence” at the time, which has the premise of an American coming over who is a fish out of water who befriends this shy British guy, I thought, “Oh, well, is there a bit of a similarity between Nate and Ted’s relationship there?” And then, of course, once I read the scripts and realized these shows are very different. Especially when I heard their plans for Nate in terms of the season arc and stuff, and where they want it to go, even with further seasons, and they didn’t know that there would be another two seasons after that, I was absolutely hooked. And that level of talent, Bill Lawrence, and Jason, and Brendan Hunt I’d actually met at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007 or something, literally ages ago when I was first starting, and he’d seen my show and stuff. I remember finishing “Intelligence” season one, and it was a week or so in between, and then going into “Ted Lasso” and thinking, “Crikey, this is crazy.” Everyone was just so nice, and it was just a breath of fresh air in terms of the show’s tone. And at that point, obviously, no one knew that it was going to be taken to people’s hearts in the way it has been. Obviously, everyone was hopeful, but you can’t predict that kind of success.
When I spoke to Brett Goldstein, he mentioned he’d auditioned for Higgins as well. What was it about Higgins that made you all want to play that role?
It was what I was sent; I think the casting director had put me up for it. So it wasn’t so much that we got to be too choosy. Brett had a bit more of an inside knowledge because he’d been in the writer’s room. And I know he then resonated with the part of Roy and had put a little tape together just before he left. I think this is crazy, but I think even Phil Dunster, who plays Jamie Tartt, went out for Higgins as well.
What?
I know, which is crazy, right? But I think we all went out for Higgins, and Jeremy just blew us all out of the water and made way for himself.
I have not seen a lot of Phil’s other work, but I could never imagine him playing Higgins. I don’t know how he would have pulled that off, even.
Well, he’s incredibly versatile; he genuinely is. But also, he’s just too good-looking, right? No offense to Jeremy, of course. I’m sure it would just have been a completely different dynamic between Hannah and Phil to Hannah and Jeremy.
Because of my own selfishly busy summer, I have not watched all of the screeners for the complete second season. I’ve just been watching season two week to week. So we just had the fantastic Christmas episode, but I wanted to ask you, what did Jason and the whole writing crew, what did they tell you about what Nathan would be going through on season two before you started shooting? Did you know what his arc was?
All of it. Absolutely all of it. They’re really clever because even when they’d not even written the scripts, they were like, “This is…” And I remember maybe days before we were about to start shooting season two, and Jason…maybe one day I can screenshot it and put it out on Twitter or something because it’s this really detailed account of Nate’s arc. And they’re just so clever. They just drip little pieces of info. Because, in the first four episodes, all we’ve got of Nate is that something’s up with him. He’s not quite the Nate that we know and love, I guess, from season one. There’s something going on. He’s struggling with something. He’s struggling, maybe being in this new position of slight responsibility and having someone beneath him that used to do his job. And the truth is, and we were about to episode five, but from five onwards, five to 12, it gets quite devastating. I can’t spoil anything, but it’s an absolute roller coaster, and they’re so clever in the way that they’ve teed up everything up. And there seemed to be a lot of it, to be honest, even in season one, but some tough times are coming, and it might even make for quite a tough viewing, I think, some of it. And it was a real challenge too, and we can maybe speak again once it’s all gone out a bit because I can’t give anything away.
Right, no spoilers.
But even if I didn’t have the specific words to the specific scripts, they [informed me] in terms of the story and beat for beat what every single scene means for Nate, and where it’s heading, and why it’s heading in this direction. It was very key for them to get that right. And I’m watching the show every week when it comes out as well. I possibly could get the things I had if I wanted to, but I quite enjoy watching it week on week, and they’re treading an interesting line with Nate, and it’s about to all go awry.
Because clearly, you’re hinting that something else is going on, but for those of us who are just watching, it seems like, I don’t want to say he got a little bit of power and he doesn’t know how to use it, but it’s like he’s been, for lack of a better word, a bit of dick.
Yeah, he’s being a complete dick. But it’s also because he’s just maybe misunderstood, or he has misunderstood what his promotion to assistant coach at the end of season one means. And he’s never been in this position before in his life. And we’re about to, in fact, in episode five, which comes out, well, it comes out the next episode, we get to see a bit of Nate’s home life. And it wouldn’t be surprising, and I don’t think it’s giving anything away in saying that a lot of his insecurities and so on stem from the fact that his relationship with his dad is not great. And I think “Ted Lasso,” the show in itself, examines that father-son, or mentor-mentee relationship quite a lot. And this is another one of those. And yeah, we’re going to get to drill down a little bit into why Nate is being such a dick. And it all comes out. It all comes out. It’s just; they’re being very teasing at the moment because we’ve got another eight episodes to go.
Knowing that the producers, writers gave you a heads up for the arc for season two, do you know where his character goes in season three?
Yes, I do. And in fact, it was very, even from before season two filming, they had outlined the trilogy idea for the story of Nate. And so, yes, I do know where it’s heading in season three, yeah.
Does that help you? I know some actors say, “I don’t care. I like not knowing where my character is going to till I get the script.” Are you someone who actually likes to know where it’s going long-term?
Oh yeah, absolutely. I like to know as much detail as possible. And I will ask a lot of questions if I’ve not, because often we won’t get, even if I’ve been privy to the story and to where it’s all heading, we won’t necessarily see the exact scenes of future episodes until maybe a week before we’re about to shoot them. So often, it would be quite important to have those conversations before we shoot a scene because we know that there will be a scene that is strongly related to what you’re filming in the now. So yeah, I like having as much information as possible. And it was sort of true with season one as well, the underdog story of Nate then succeeding. It was important not to peak too early and that slight build and confidence to be eked out, rather than to have it all come out in one episode and then tread water a little bit in the episodes surrounding that. And season two is almost more tricksy for that because Nate’s journey is a bit more of a roller coaster. So yeah, having as much information as possible is useful for me. Although I can see that some actors sometimes like not going because they say that it puts that character in the same position because that character can’t predict the future. They don’t know where their life is heading. But I found it quite useful to know what was coming and how it related to stuff that even we’d shot already, or we were about to shoot in future episodes.
Really quick question, do you guys sometimes shoot out of sequence?
Yes. They try and do it, and we do it in blocks of two episodes at a time, but I know we shot episode nine out of sequence. Some of them, partly because of the weather, the British weather as well, a lot of the outdoor stuff is slightly weather dependent, so we might pick up stuff from earlier episodes when the weather is a lot better, much later into the filming. So yeah, we have to be reminded of what’s just happened. But yeah, to a degree, they try and do it as much in story order as they can, but yeah, we do end up having to shoot out of episode order sometimes.
Did it actually snow when you guys were shooting one of the episodes?
It did. It absolutely did. It was absolutely freaky. But yeah, I think it was either February or March, and I think the pitch didn’t look the same in any shot, in terms of continuity, because the snow was falling, and then the sun would come out, and it’d melt it. And then the next day, it would be bright sunshine, and then it’d be snowing or thundery. It was crazy, the weather sometimes.
“Ted Lasso” is available worldwide on Apple TV+.
