Jamie's Accent In Ted Lasso Came From Trying To Make Brett Goldstein Laugh
I've always been a big fan of Oasis, the legendary Britpop band built around the warring Mancunian brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, so it's probably no coincidence that Jamie Tartt quickly became my favorite character in "Ted Lasso."
Played with irrepressible comic arrogance and self-regard by Phil Dunster, the actor revealed how Jamie wasn't originally scripted as a Manc but he took inspiration from the belligerent Gallaghers for the cocksure player's swagger and accent. It also makes sense since the Oasis boys are also lifelong fans of Jamie's first club, Manchester City.
While Jamie may be a caricature of a shallow, filthy-rich, style-conscious modern footballer, the script and Dunster's performance contain so many neat details that nail the character completely. Only a preening narcissist with a hidden soft center could pull off a floral tracksuit the way Jamie does; attend a fancy charity gala wearing just a suit jacket over a bare chest; or boast about getting a semi-erection after scoring a goal. And only someone with such immense belief in his own sex appeal would drop out of the sport to appear on a reality TV show called "Lust Conquers All."
All that stuff is great, but there are also hidden depths to his personality and past. His troubled relationship with his abusive father tells us a lot about his behavior, and it makes his transformation from the egotistical villain of the first season to the selfless lynchpin of the team all the more rewarding. Given the show's commitment to niceness and redemptive arcs, we probably didn't expect him to remain the bad boy all the way through, but Dunster's performance helped avoid predictability and make Jamie's emotional development genuinely touching at times. And to top it all off, Dunster adopted that Mancunian accent which suited the character perfectly.
Phil Dunster had a lot of regional accents to choose from for Jamie Tartt
Despite its relatively small size, Britain has one of the most diverse ranges of regional accents in the world. A lot can change in just a short drive; only around 35 miles separate Liverpool and Manchester, but each city has a thick accent that is distinctly different from the other. We're talking about Scouse and Mancunian, and it was the latter that Phil Dunster opted for when trying to capture Jamie Tartt's swagger in "Ted Lasso."
If, like me, you only know Dunster's work from the show, it's a bit of a shock to hear him speak in interviews after watching his performance. The actor was born in Northampton and went to school in Reading, 40 miles from the center of London and almost 200 miles from Manchester. In short, his polite Home Counties accent could barely be more different from Jamie's working-class Manc tones. That is no surprise when you learn a bit about his history; Dunster's upbringing meant he went to a private school and played rugby in his teens, a sport that is often associated with the middle and upper classes while soccer is traditionally the game of the working class.
Dunster's choice of Mancunian just feels right for Jamie, and the actor drew from some solid inspirations for it (via Los Angeles Times):
"You have people like Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher, and Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford, and it's not just that they have the accent... They've got this energy, the persona comes with it. There's an attitude. And also my agent is from Manchester and she's just got this, like, sass. I think there was something in Jamie that's a hardworking person. And he's got a swagger in the same way that someone like Liam Gallagher does."
A lot of Jamie's accent came from horsing around on set
If Phil Dunster's Home Counties accent seems weird after spending time with Jamie Tartt in "Ted Lasso," it's even more of a surprise to hear Brett Goldstein speak in his natural dialect. He sounds even more middle-class, a total contrast to Roy Kent's monotone South London growl. In joint interviews, they're like a pair of posh schoolboys larking around together, and this friendship contributed to how Dunster leaned into certain aspects of the Mancunian accent. Talking to Esquire, he revealed where the linguistic tic of replacing "y" with an "ay" sound came from:
"In particular, poopy -poopay - was because I was trying to make Brett laugh. In between takes I was desperate to try and put him off doing his job. The word written was actually 'poo,' and I said, 'Jason, can I say poopay?' So there was an element of stupidity that inspired it. But it definitely developed along the way, the accent. To begin with, it was a lot more, 'You alright, yeah?' Quite like '90s Manchester. As I found the character more, I found those bits a bit more, too, the idiosyncrasies."
The easy-going chemistry between the two actors makes the love-hate relationship between Jamie and Roy all the more believable, contributing to one of the best character dynamics in the show as they argue, fight over their mutual love interest Keeley Jones, and eventually bond.
The line Dunster is referring to, "It's just poopay. Let it flow," isn't just for laughs, either. In a show where important character beats are often accompanied by moments of silliness, it reflects how Jamie has matured as a person come season 3. Here's hoping that we receive some more Tartt pearls of wisdom if we ever get a spinoff or fourth season of "Ted Lasso."