Ted Lassoisn’t just one of the best shows on Apple TV+, it’s a full-fledged cultural phenomenon. So, the idea of anyone in the Ted Lasso cast turning down their part feels almost unimaginable. However, before it was a hit, this was a small comedy on a new streaming service, and one key actor recently explained why he said no before eventually accepting the gig.
Nick Mohammed, who played Nate on Ted Lasso (which you can stream with an Apple TV+ subscription), is the actor who recently opened up about turning down the comedy at first. Before being cast as the kit man-turned-coach, he was up for Higgins alongside Brett Goldstein, who ultimately played Roy, Phil Dunster, who ultimately played Jamie, and Jeremy Swift, who did end up playing Higgins. Between that and a few other factors, Mohammed said no at first, explaining on The Comedian’s Comedian Podcast:
In all honesty, I turned down that casting when I initially got offered it. I actually said no to it.
Further elaborating on why he said no, Mohammed said that he’d auditioned for another part in Ted Lasso and was simply working on something else at the time. That something else was the show Intelligence, and he explained why that played into his initial choice, saying:
I just said no to it, because I was busy on Intelligence. I’d auditioned already for another role in it…It’s not that I thought it wasn’t good. I thought it was great. I just sort of thought, ‘Oh, you know, it’s playing kind of a subordinate role and this eccentric American has come over and infiltrated this British institution.’ In my head, that was the same similar setup to Intelligence. Of course, [they’re] completely totally very different shows and all that. But I was knee-deep in that show, and [executive producing] and everything.
For those who don’t know, Intelligence is a British sitcom that Mohammed starred in with David Schwimmer. The Friends actor played an NSA agent who moved to the UK to work for the Government Communications Headquarters on a cybercrime unit, and Mohammed played a computer analyst who worked alongside him.
Sound familiar? Well, it is a fish-out-of-water comedy about an American who moves to the UK to play a pivotal role in an institution that is confused about why he’s there in the first place. However, as Mohammed stated, outside of the general premise, they are quite different.
So, with all that in mind, and considering the Nate actor did create Intelligence, I can see why he wanted to devote his time to it instead of Ted Lasso.
However, the Ted Lasso team was persistent, and they laid out Nate’s whole good-turned-evil-turned-back-to-good arc:
And so I was just like ‘Oh, maybe, maybe not.’ And then they just pushed hard, and said, ‘Look, the character is going to go on this journey,’ and [they] pretty much outlined what was going to happen. I was like ‘Oh, great, that sounds really interesting.’ And my goodness, did they hold true to their word, actually.
They did hold true to their word, and by the end of Ted Lasso Season 3, Nate had been on a full, emotional and redeeming journey. Mohammed loved that too, so he was thrilled to play the part. The success the show found amid all that was just the cherry on top, as he said:
I was delighted, but nobody knew that it was going to be the success that it was.
He’s right, nobody knew the success Ted Lasso would be, and it truly took the world by storm, getting bigger and bigger season after season. Now, Ted Lasso is set to return for Season 4; however, Mohammed doesn’t know if he’ll be back or not just yet.
Although no matter what, he made it clear how grateful he is for the show, and I’m sure he’s very thankful he ultimately said yes to playing Nate the Great.
