‘Ted Lasso’ Season 2 Star Phil Dunster Opens up About Jamie’s Emotional Breakthrough With Roy

Episode 8 of Ted Lasso Season 2 was one of the most emotional episodes of the series. The romantic pairing of Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) and Sam (Toheeb Jimoh) is surprising, but everyone was caught off-guard when Jamie (Phil Dunster) and Roy (Brett Goldstein) embraced after Jamie punched his dad in the face in the locker room after AFC Richmond lost to Manchester City in the FA Cup Semifinals.

Dunster spoke to Entertainment Tonight about the scene from the Apple TV+ series: “Depending on which psychoanalyst speaks, I feel like that’s probably pretty universal, that [people] get some bad habits or perhaps traumas from their parents. As well-meaning and brilliant as their parents may well be, I think it’s something that for every single human that’s ever lived, that’s how we learn.”

“I spend a lot of time thinking about how I feel about these things — a little too much, at times,” Dunster continued. “I think for me, there’s this sort of archetypal, emotionally-closed individual who doesn’t know how to emote and actually feels like emoting and sharing that is weak, [that] being vulnerable is synonymous with being weak.”  

Jamie’s relationship with his dad is not the best, which was seen at the end of Season 1. In Episode 8, Jamie’s dad, a Manchester City fan, makes fun of the team and in the locker room leading to Jamie punching his father. This led to Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) kicking Jamie’s dad out of the locker room and Roy quickly gave Jamie a hug, who then began to cry. It was a big moment considering the two have been at each other’s throats since the beginning of Season 1. 

“I think what we see in episode 8, in that scene that they’ve brilliantly written, is this symbol of his family in the past, his dad coming along, and him dismissing that and fighting against it and embracing his new family, and embracing this new life,” Dunster said. “I think that it’s a really brilliant combination. It’s a very symbolic combination that they showed.”  

PopCulture.com recently caught up with Dunster and talked about Jamie’s transition from being an antagonist to changing 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.”