In Ted Lasso season three, for the first time in the show's run, the football has started to feel a bit like actual football. Not only are the cast and crew shooting in real Premier League stadiums and executing some decently choreographed plays, they've introduced perhaps the most true-to-life player in the enigmatic Zava.
“When I got the breakdown for the role, they described him as a mix between Zlatan Ibrahimović and Eric Cantona,” says Maximilian Osinski, who plays the character. After a bit of mind-gaming from chairman Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), the recently promoted Richmond AFC improbably one of the world's greatest strikers in Zava. His arrival changes the game for Lasso's team, with him pummelling in a slew of worldies in the first few games of the season to catapult Richmond into the title race. As a fan of the show since its debut, Osinski – and his family – were delighted and a bit overwhelmed to land the role. “I remember my wife started crying a little bit too when I found out I got it,” he says.
Here we we speak to Osinski about the inspirations behind the role and getting shredded to look like Ibrahimović.
You made your Ted Lasso debut last week – how has the reaction been?
Oh, it's been overwhelming. My phone's just been blowing up with friends and family from the States, friends I haven't talked to in a while. And on Twitter and Instagram, people are messaging and it seems like people enjoy the character a lot, and I’m grateful for that. You never know what these kinds of roles, especially a personality, like Zava if people are gonna, like, enjoy that kind of role on screen, especially in the world of Ted Lasso, where they're going to turn their noses at him. I'm just grateful. I'm like, riding the coattails of such an amazing show.
How was Zava described in the script?
When I got the breakdown for the role, they described him as a mix between Zlatan Ibrahimović and Eric Cantona, and not an antagonist but an agitator. I just dove into interviews, and I read Ibrahimovic’s book I Am Football, which was fantastic. Robert Lewandowski was another guy who I kind of pulled from. I quickly learned that how they present themselves to the press is not who they are in the locker room with their teammates or in their personal lives. You get a sense that these guys know what the press wants, and the press uses them as much as they use the press. I never viewed them as bad guys or villains. One thing I noticed with these big personalities, especially with Zlatan, is they'll say something really cocky but then give a wink or a smile. You get a sense that they mean what they say in the moment, but they do have charm, too.
Had you played football before?
No. Right after I got the role, I hired a soccer coach, one-on-one and I was training soccer for six weeks to eight weeks. And then I had a Zoom call with the football director Pedro [Romhanyi] and our football assistant director Dan [Parslow]. They said, Listen, man, you take care of the swagger, we'll take care of the ball. Which made me feel a little bit better. And then when I came to set, we rehearsed all those stunt kicks. And I'm actually I'm pretty proud I was able to pull those off.
Did you have to train differently to get in football player shape?
I basically trained like an athlete. Yeah. I worked out four days a week on top of the soccer training and just tried just embody the physique of someone like that. You can't get too bulky and too top-heavy. So we focus the training and the diet to lean in toward a look of a football player who plays 90 minutes a week. I worked with him on that all the time. And along with the nutrition so as far as the physical look. He’s meant to be the best of the best, you have to look like the best of the best.
In episode three there’s the montage, the team goes to Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge… Did you go to any of these actual stadiums in the Premier League and film there? Or was a lot of it done just on a pitch somewhere random?
We actually filmed at Chelsea, it was one of my first days on set. We basically had the whole place to ourselves. It was like, if you walk on the pitch, you're gonna get tackled and killed. Don't walk on the pitch. But we filmed at West Ham and Wimbledon, too. Obviously, they add crowds and stuff like that [with visual effects]. These clubs let us go there, and we were very grateful. And I think it was a little bit easier to ask for that by the time season three rolled around, with the show's popularity. The other stuff we film in Hayes, there's a pitch that we work on.
Who is the best footballer in the cast?
Moe [Hashim] or Kola [Bokinni]. Everyone else plays really well. But those guys – Kola and Moe are just incredible.
New episodes of Ted Lasso season three drop on Apple TV+ every Wednesday.
