Things seemed to be going well for Jamie Tartt at the end of Season 1 of Ted Lasso. However, Jamie seems to be dealing with a number of issues at the start of the second season. PopCulture.com recently caught up with Phil Dunster who plays Jamie in the Apple TV+ series. Dunster had an interesting way to describe what Jamie is going through.
“I’m going to do some revisionist history here,” Dunster said to PopCulture. “I wonder if Jamie Tartt is going through a bit of a quarter-life crisis. We find him at the start of Season 2 and Episode 1, he is on a reality TV show and it feels like he’s maybe scraping the barrel a little bit. He maybe didn’t get the sort of admiration that he wanted that he needed from football and so he’s turning elsewhere.”
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Jamie is seen on the reality series Lust Conquers All, leaving Manchester City to do the show. Once he’s eliminated from the series, Jamie tries to get back to Manchester City, but the team doesn’t want him. This leads to Jamie going to Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) and asking him to come back to AFC Richmond since no other clubs have any interest in the soccer star. At first, Ted declines but then changes his mind at the end of Episode 2.
“There is an authority figure, I think Jamie probably hasn’t dealt well with authority figures for some time in his life, probably because of the relationship he’s had with his dad, and as an authority figure that is trying to help him,” Dunster said. “And I think he probably sees that help as probably someone trying to tell him what to do.”
Jamie’s journey in Season 2 is something to watch. Will he be a villain like he was in Season 1 or has he really changed his ways for the better? “I think that throughout this whole process of doing this show, I think that I guess as an actor, you need to always be able to justify the decisions that your character makes,” Dunster stated. “You need to always be able to say, “Because I know them, I have spent the time getting to know them, I know that they’re doing this for a reason.” And that’s one of the great things about Jamie Tartt, because you have to really justify a lot of stuff. And so you’re digging pretty deep.
Season 2 of Ted Lasso is currently streaming on Apple TV+, and a new episode will air each week. All episodes of Season 1 are also currently streaming and PopCulture readers can get a free three-month trial subscription here.