‘Ted Lasso’ Star Phil Dunster On First Emmy Nom & Competing Against Brett Goldstein For Outstanding Supporting Actor—”Brett Is So Loved”
First-time Emmy award nominee Phil Dunster is celebrating the milestone in London, the city where he brought to life the character of Jamie Tartt across three seasons of the hit Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso. A role that changed the British actor’s life forever — and that of TV history.
Dunster’s nomination for Season 3 puts Ted Lasso among the rare ranks of television shows to have all members of their original series regular cast nominated for an Emmy. The other shows include Golden Girls, Schitt’s Creek, Will and Grace and All in the Family. Ted Lasso earned a total of 21 Emmy nominations on Wednesday.
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“I think Jamie experienced this sort of slow growth and he’s this interesting benchmark for Ted,” Dunster tells Deadline about what attracted him to the role. “I think one of the reasons that I think and hope people connected with Jamie was because we can see how effective he was with Ted, one of the hardest nuts to crack. He helps the audience see how effective Ted Lasso was at influencing change when you lead with kindness,” he added.
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Although football bad boy Jamie began as an “unapologetic douche,” as Dunster calls him, the actor enjoyed going on this journey of self-discovery and personal improvement across three seasons.
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“Playing [Jamie] has been a real departure from the norm for me, being put in the ‘bad boy’ category. I’m very much not that in my real life,” he shared. “We move away from that but I think he is kind of still effectively like that in his core. He has that within him but he is making different choices. He’s changed enough from being this person we believe doesn’t care much which is that growth that we expected.”
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He continued, “I really loved that he was rough around the edges and how he is so blunt. He was just this straight-up nasty dude and I didn’t want to shy away from that.”
On Emmy night, Dunster will compete in the same category with co-star Brett Goldstein, his small-screen nemesis-turned-bestie, but the former makes it clear he doesn’t view the latter as competition.
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“Oh, no, man. There will be no face-off with [Brett]. It means I’ll get to hug him, cheer him on from up close and smell him because [Brett’s] so loved,” Dunster said.
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Since Season 3 wrapped and the future of the show is yet unwritten, Dunster has been in production on a new series, the Apple TV+ psychological drama Surface where he’ll portray the character Quinn, a departure from his role in Ted Lasso.
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“As actors we hope to have variety in the roles we take on,” he said. “We’re such a fickle bunch of people that we like to change it up and being allowed to do that is a real dream come true. What I can say is that the cast and the production are wonderful. I’m having a great time shaking things up in very different ways.”
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