Ted Lasso star "so honoured" to take on Colin's gay footballer storyline

Episode 3 saw journalist Trent Crimm discover Colin's sexuality, and some fans worried that this was leading up to Trent outing the footballer. However, episode 6 has now revealed that Trent himself is gay, and merely wanted to speak with Colin and impart some personal thoughts and advice.

RadioTimes.com spoke exclusively with Harris about his character's arc this season and asked when the actor found out from the show's writers that his character was gay.

Harris said: "Obviously I know that Ted Lasso is a show that has been tackling amazing storylines from the beginning with all sorts of characters. But with regards to this it was season 2.

"Obviously, we get the scripts weekly so they’re still in the writing process, even whilst we're filming. And then it was around the time Colin was going to therapy, and I wanted to know why Colin was in therapy, what was being said in the room. And then it was also around the time of the Grindr line that Colin said."

The line Harris is referring to occurred in season 2 episode 3, Do the Right-est Thing, in which Colin referred to the gay dating app Grindr, comparing its name to Bantr, the app Keeley was promoting.

Harris continued: "So I kind of then put two and two together and I thought, 'Is this why he's in with Dr Sharon? Is this why he's going to therapy?' and then the writers were like, 'Yes, that is and that's something we're going to go into more detail with in season 3.'

"And then Dylan Maron and Chuck Hayward were two writers that came in for season 3, to basically just be focusing solely on the Colin storyline."

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RadioTimes.com also spoke with Harris about his response upon learning about the storyline, to which he said he was "honoured".

He said: "I think even from season 1, seeing where the show was going and how it touched on toxic masculinity and mental health, it wasn't just a comedy about football. And it was really something I thought early on that the show could and should tackle. So when they asked me of course I was so honoured and I was really just looking forward to season 3.

"And then because the Grindr line came in season 2, what was amazing was to see people talking about it on Twitter. And what was lovely is that you really got a sense that people were loving that their favourite show was going to represent them in some sort of way and they were like, 'Wow, this is going to be the first gay Ted Lasso character.' So I was honoured."

Brendan Hunt previously told RadioTimes.com that the writing team had "known for a while that Colin was gay" and that it was "just a matter of when we were going to finally get to that".

He said: "It's still a taboo in football, but there are more active players who are coming out. There was Josh Cavallo in Australia last year, Jakub Jankto in Czech Republic this year, and Jake Daniels at Blackpool.

"It's just part of what's happening in football. We may be a fake football club, but we're trying to show a little bit of football reality here."

Ted Lasso seasons 1-2 are streaming now on Apple TV+ and season 3 episode 6 arrives today (Wednesday 19th April), with new episodes weekly – you can sign up to Apple TV+ here.

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