'Ted Lasso' Star Nick Mohammed Explains Why Nate Isn't Happy (Exclusive)

At the end of Ted Lasso Season 2, fans were surprised to see Nate (Nick Mohammed) join West Ham United. And despite not being seen consistently in the first half of Season 3, Nate might be having doubts when it comes to leaving AFC Richmond. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to Mohammed, who revealed what fans can expect from Nate in the second half of the season. 

"I think what we've realized is that Nate isn't happy," Mohammed exclusively told PopCulture. "I think that he possibly thought he was going to be happy by moving to this fancy club and getting a fancy car, and so on, and the prestige which kind of comes with that and getting the attention on social media. But I think he's very quickly realized that those things haven't made him happy. And so what Nate needs to do now is a lot of soul searching to address the sort of deep-seated insecurities that have made him who he is and possibly contributed towards a lot of wrong decisions in his life."

"So I think we can anticipate unfinished business with Ted, with Richmond, with his dad even. And so yeah, that's... He's flirting with relationships and he's craving that and some kind of support network in his life." The reason Nate left AFC Richmond is he felt neglected by Ted (Jason Sudeikis) after hiring him as a coach. And while Nate sometimes plays the villain role, he's still the Nate viewers loved in Season 1 and most of Season 2. This means Mohammed in some ways is playing two characters. 

"It's a constant dance, really," Mohammed said. "As an actor, is always sort of one of the challenges to try and make it believable, because there are elements of Nate's personality which are quite goofy, and he's quite clumsy and deliberately very comical. But sort of balancing that with the, I guess the more emotional, more dramatic side to him has been... Look, I've just had... The writing is phenomenal, so it is always there in the writing."

With Nate being with West Ham, that means Mohammed does not share the screen with the series regulars, which was an adjustment for him. "I try to use as much of that feeling of loneliness and abandonment as possible because that's what Nate is feeling really," he said. "He's out on a limb and a fish out of water. It's intimidating when you're suddenly on a new set with a new bunch of characters and actors who you've not worked with before. And again, that's sort of true to what Nate's going through at the moment with joining West Ham and feeling he has something to prove. So I tried to use as much of that to make it feel authentic."

New episodes of Ted Lasso premiere every Wednesday on Apple TV+.