Phil Dunster’s (Man In The Orange Shirt, The Devil’s Hour) Emmy nomination for the character of Jamie Tartt in the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso was his first nomination. Dunster discussed the nomination and his character in the show in an interview with Deadline.
“I think Jamie experienced this sort of slow growth and he’s this interesting benchmark for Ted,” Dunster said. “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.”
Dunster further discussed his perception of the role. “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 said. “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.”
With the future of Ted Lasso uncertain, Dunster has begun work on the production of the Apple TV+ series Surface.
“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.”
The third season of Ted Lasso is streaming on Apple TV+.