As “Ted Lasso” returns for Season 4, Tanya Reynolds is bringing a very different coaching style to AFC Richmond.
Reynolds joins Season 4 of the Apple TV+ comedy as Alice Chilton, the coach of AFC Richmond’s women’s soccer team, whose tough, guarded demeanor couldn’t be more different from Ted’s signature optimism. Though Alice is initially perceived as “cold” and “standoffish,” the coach’s walls slowly start to come down, showing viewers her complex backstory.
“She’s a real juicy onion,” the actress tells Variety during the July 27 premiere.
Co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis offered Reynolds the role without showing her the script, walking her through Alice’s personality rather than teasing the episodes themselves. “Jason had given me a very detailed rundown of who she was and what her storyline was. [Alice] was so far away from me, and it was a process of trying to figure out why she was so tough, why she was so cold and standoffish. I was trying to understand the psychology of that.”
The actress is one of the many new faces joining the Emmy-winning comedy’s highly anticipated fourth season, which premiered on Aug. 5, three years after the Season 3 finale. Despite her excitement, Reynolds admits joining such a beloved series came with plenty of pressure.
“It’s really nerve-wracking to step into something that is so well-loved and try not to fuck it up. That’s hard,” she says.
Created by Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, Bill Lawrence, and Joe Kelly, “Ted Lasso” became one of Apple TV+’s biggest hits, earning multiple Emmy Awards and racking up views that total more than 25 billion minutes.
Sharing the screen with Sudeikis and Hunt was like receiving a “free comedy show,” Reynolds says, but it was also a challenge due to Chilton always being so stoic. “It was so fun. It meant that I had to keep a straight face, because Alice rarely cracks a smile,” Reynolds says. “But Jason and Brendan would want to make me laugh. They would make me laugh so much, where I was just constantly biting my cheeks.”
Reynolds also stars alongside returning actors Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple and Jeremy Swift, as well as “Ted Lasso” newcomers Abbie Hern, Jude Mack, Faye Marsay and Rex Hayes. “It’s been a joy to go to work every day, because everyone is so nice. Everyone is so grounded,” she says. “There are no dickheads.”
Also at the premiere was professional women’s soccer team Angel City FC. Carina Lageyre, the team’s midfielder, told Variety she was excited to see the show revived with an all-female team. “It’s really cool to see the culture of a female side,” she says.
“It shows how women are really powerful,” player Riley Tiernan adds. “I think we’re tougher than men.”
