Jamie & Roy's Bike Scene In Ted Lasso Season 3 Was Inspired By Jordan Peele
"Ted Lasso" has had a pretty hit-or-miss season so far, but some of its best moments have been small but sweet ones. Whether it's Nate (Nick Mohammed) learning about the cute, geeky origins of his parents' relationship or Danny Rojas (Cristo Fernández) voting to see the tulips in Amsterdam, it's the little touches that have kept me on board through the series' third season. A lot of the show's best little touches unfolded in that Amsterdam-set episode, "Sunflowers," which saw the AFC Richmond squad take a break from football for a night on the town. For Roy (Brett Goldstein) and Jamie (Phil Dunster), that meant a night spent teaching Roy how to ride a bike.
Series co-creator and star Brendan Hunt recently spoke to Uproxx about Roy and Jamie's magical bike-riding moment, and along the way, he revealed that the scene had an unusual inspiration: a bike ride he almost shared with none other than horror mastermind Jordan Peele. According to Hunt, who penned the script for the "Ted Lasso" Amsterdam episode, the occasion took place during his time working at the Boom Chicago improv theater years ago. "We'd had a big party at my theater [Boom Chicago] and I was biking home with my girlfriend along the Lijnbaansgracht," Hunt told the outlet, referencing the city's famed canal.
'Jordan Peele, I insist you get on my bike right now!'
Brendan Hunt continued:
"That was when Jordan Peele was in the cast. And Jordan lived closer than I did, and he didn't like biking very much, so he was walking home. But I passed him and it's like three o'clock in the morning, 'Jordan, let me ride you the rest of the way home!' Because riding on the back of someone's wheel and just grabbing someone by the waist and biking along was common practice."
According to Hunt, Peele initially declined the offer to ride on the back of his bike — an act that, coincidentally, has a ton of different slang names in the U.K. — but Hunt was persistent. "'Jordan. Jordan, let me take you home. Come on. Jordan Peele, I insist you get on my bike right now!'" Hunt recalled saying. "And he did. And I remember it clear as day." Apparently, however, Hunt couldn't keep his balance quite right — he mimed falling over in the interview, and said that "Jordan landed on his back and we both died laughing admitting defeat, I just got back on my bike and biked away."
Jason Sudeikis added the Butch Cassidy reference
Brendan Hunt says he bid Jordan Peele a good night ("See you tomorrow, buddy!") and that was that, but the memory came to mind years later when it was time for the writer to put together Jamie and Roy's scene. "We knew we wanted to have the two of them on a bike ride late at night," Hunt explained, and that led to the sweet, impromptu city tour scene we ended up with. Series co-creators Jason Sudeikis and Joe Kelly are credited with the episode story, and when Hunt described the writing process, he said that the writing team "wanted it to be part of some kind of escapade." Hunt says Sudeikis himself came up with "the Butch Cassidy element of it all," by which I assume he means the reuse of that film's song "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head."
Mainly, though, Hunt said the scene "connected to one very specific memory I have from Amsterdam." By now, Hunt's Boom Chicago days have come up more than once on the press tour: at a panel event with Variety earlier this year, the actor-writer talked about how he and Sudeikis, who also used to work at the club with him in the '90s, bonded over FIFA football games years before they ever thought about making "Ted Lasso." I wonder if Peele ever played!
"Ted Lasso" streams new episodes on Wednesdays on Apple TV+.