The EMMY-nominated British actor James Lance who plays the brilliantly-named TRENT CRIMM, the hard-nosed sports writer from The Independent who gives TED LASSO a tough time when he arrives from America to coach AFC Richmond, is slowly won over by the positive and inspirational attitude of upbeat Ted played by show creator and writer Jason Sudeikis. 

James Lance grew up in Westbury-sub-Mendip and has appeared in the TV series Black Mirror, Marie Antoinette and Absolutely Fabulous but has achieved a new global fame through the Apple TV+ series, currently filming Series Three. 

To his surprise, he was nominated for an Emmy award for his portrayal of Trent Crimm in the series and he is happy to share his delight and pride with NUB NEWS as well as giving a unique insight into the background of his TV character.

At the Emmys ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday night Ted Lasso scooped four more awards including Outstanding Comedy Series and, for the second year running, Sudeikis won the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

UP CLOSE with James Lance

Congratulations for being nominated for an Emmy for Ted Lasso in the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for 2022 – what does that mean to you after all the work you have done?

James: "My initiation reaction is that I was delighted because it's a huge honour to be an Emmy nominee and it's genuinely such a surprise. I didn't see this coming at all. Something slightly curious has happened to me in terms of my inner reaction to it in that I have been flooded with this very warm sense of kindred feeling with my fellow actors that I have been doing this professionally for the last 37 years. I was 10 years old when I did my first job with Warren Clarke in a film called The Russian Soldier. I fell completely and utterly in love with making films and my ability has declined ever since! I just knew that it was one million percent the place I wanted to be, being part of a cast and a crew, a team, a company. Usually you are working with wonderful people. I am more even more in love with it now as a forty seven year old man. To receive an Emmy nomination at this particular point when I love doing what I do is wonderful and such a lovely surprising gift. I just feel so chuffed that I am still in the game and hopefully long may it last I am still here.

How did you get the job?

James: I got the part by auditioning for it in a room with a casting director. I read the script before the audition to see if there was anything in there I felt I might be suitable for and I saw the name Trent Crimm and it had such an energy to it that it excited me. I thought who the devil is Trent Crimm? I mean there is something about that name that's interesting and he had some very juicy dialogue. I thought it was only a day play or half day play or one scene and I just said to my manager please let them know I'd like to come in and play that guy if they would have me and six months later the script came in and they offered me the role. It turned out to be a few more episodes and then he was going to pop up in season two and then season three and the an Emmy nomination, so it has been quite a thing.

The name Trent Crimm is such a fantastic and memorable name and sounds almost like a character in his own right from a detective series or something similar? Do you know where it came from?

James: Crimm, the surname comes from somebody that Jason Sudeikis knows. There was a Crimm in his life. I have done my own research on the background to the name too but it really feels like a Dickensian character, the sort of character who could be working in some funeral parlour in 1864 in Bethnal Green.

Trent Crimm from The Independent interrogates Ted Lasso at a Press Conference

Trent has a very distinctive look and style, very cool and rakish with a very individual taste in clothes. Where did that all come from?

James: I can give two very distinctive references points and influences to the background of his louche look and character – the writers and columnists Will Self and Christopher Hitchens. It was that confidence in their own thinking that drew me to them and Trent Crimm almost had in his name. To me, he sounds like a man who knows or thinks he knows what he is talking about and in the way Will Self could rattle off a shopping list in way that would be so verbose and acerbic. It has so much attitude that it lends itself to comedy. The energy of those guys and that way of communicating suited my idea of who Trent Crimm was.

The costume came together off the back of that vibe. He's kind of loose. I have this personal back story for Trent Crimm, which is nothing to do with the show, that Trent was in private school and has an overbearing father who wanted him to go to Millfield School where they are all brilliant sports people and that he went there and he didn't last and it didn't work out because he just wasn't that way inclined athletically and he got booted out for being crap physically. From there he went from there to the local comp' and he got the s**t kicked out of him there because he was a posh speaking, hoity toity drop-out from boarding school so I have really given him a good kicking from his childhood and school life and that's how I have ended up with him wearing corduroy and tee-shirts. I actually think he also nicks a few items from father's closet, a few jackets he's whipped from his dad because he's about the same size but he's quite a magpie in the way he gathers his threads together.

Will Self, author, journalist and political commentator helped James shape the look and attitude of Trent Crimm.

How did Jason envisage the character of Trent Crimm? As an American he wouldn't be aware of writers like Will Self and Christopher Hitchens would he?

James: I wouldn't ever underestimate the crazy radar that Jason Sudeikis has! I wouldn't be surprised if he's read all of Will Self and Christopher Hitchens. In all honesty the man has an encyclopaedic, extraordinary archive of references that is really, really unusual. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he absolutely knows who these people are. I think they are both theatrical in their own way in the way they carry themselves, deliver their ideas and their controversial punch is really juicy and that appealed to me personally. I've read a lot of Hitchens. When Will Self does his lectures at colleges and universities he doesn't stand there with any notes and he will deliver a two hour lecture completely off the top of his head and they are absolutely remarkable.

Are you a newspaper reader in real life?

James: I have read most papers at one time or the other but I am not a regular daily newspaper reader or online reader. I do subscribe to the New York Times and I get regular updates on things I am interested in like keeping an eye on President Zelensky and the Ukraine situation and his amazing work. I dive in deep for a while and it gets too much then I run away from it because it can be quite overwhelming. I think that in the show it's more of a nod to the Independent newspaper as we know but it's not the actual Independent newspaper.

You were very tough on Ted Lasso when he first arrived at AFC Richmond and basically thought he was a joke and then you were won over by his honesty, his kindness and authenticity. That doesn't sound very much like a hard-nosed, cynical journalist?

James: Trent Crimm was there to completely lacerate Ted Lasso and it was like CoCo the Clown had come in from America to manage this team – a team that really means something to the fans and to the game. Trent also likes the beautiful game and he was all ready to tear him to pieces as you can see when he says in the press conference 'Is this a f******* joke?' in that very first scene. And then he asks him about the offside rule to try to catch him out. He is going for him. As we see in the show Trent spends the day with him for an in depth interview organised by the Club owner Rebecca Welton Trent suddenly realises this is a lovely human being who means what he says and has a really warm open, loving, really loving and kind compassionate heart and it's everything Trent Crimm wishes he had experienced in his life and when he was at school.

Trent comes from a combative, adversarial, one-upmanship, superiority, complex stiff-upper lip b******t society where you can't show how or what you feel, but that isn't who Trent really is. He's a product of his environment so when Ted says to him 'I don't really care about the winning or losing, it's about these boys being the best versions of themselves on and of the pitch' that blow the doors off of Trent's heart and then at the end of Season Two we see the response to that.

It was a quiet explosion that happened in Trent. You don't see but it happened and it changed him and I think he decided to stop being this stuffy, obnoxious, cynical, superior git and start to become who he really is and that's what is really going on in the background for Trent. 

Actor James Lance who plays journalist Trent Crimm with Ted Lasso star and creator Jason Sudeikis.

If this was slowed up, the pin being pulled out the grenade happened in episode 3 of Season One where Trent says 'I can't help but root for the guy'. The explosion happens when he reveals the anonymous source. It changes Trent's life because he decided he wants to be a good human being and is brave enough to do that as opposed to being a law abiding journalist. The beauty of it is that although Trent thinks like a journalist he was very happy to blow up that persona anyway and the only way to get out of his stifling situation was to blow it up and what better way to do that than to be a good friend to someone, who you admire which was more important to Trent at that point.

What other research did you do about journalism or journalists – did anyone else give you inspiration apart from Will Self and Christopher Hitchens?

James: In truth, I work best as someone who's got paper in his hand. I am an avid book person so I get lots of books on whatever subject I am researching and I cross-reference them and mark them all up. The physical writing of things and turning the corners of pages suits me so I tend to do my research on books. I also use YouTube which is extraordinary and you can go everywhere with. There's a thing I have discovered called Masterclass which was set up by Christine Aguilera's husband – they have got masters of all professions, such as Scorsese on film-making giving masterclasses and the one I watched was Bob Woodward, the American investigative journalist who exposed Watergate with Carl Bernstein and there was a lot of info, attitude and approach which I thought he was amazing.

Watergate investigative journalist Bob Woodward (l) and Carl Bernsetin. Woodward's masterclass also inspired the Trent Crimm character.

Trent Crimm was fired or resigned from his job at The Independent in Series Two for revealing his sources and said farewell to Ted at the ground, but we know you will be back in Series Three. The speculation is that you might replace Keeley and do the PR job for the Club or come back as journalist writing a book about the Ted Lasso story? Can you enlighten us, just a little teaser?

James: No! I am aware of all those great theories which are online as well and they are really fun to read. They are great. The buzz, the chatter and speculation about it is great for the show. But I do think that if I was to say anything it might diminish people's enjoyment and the last thing I would want to do is that. So, I think maybe keeping it up in the air as the series has obviously wanted to do all along is probably the morally right thing to do here. But also just as in terms of a piece of entertainment I think it's better to leave anyone is wondering to let them carry on wondering. All I can says is that I hope people will be delighted to see Trent back in Series 3 and no-one is more delighted than me!

Finally, a lot is written about the quality of the writing of the show with Jason, Brendan, Joe Kelly and Brett Goldstein all contributing as well as others. What makes it so brilliant?

James: Firstly, obviously I am not in the writer's room so I don't see how these guys put this all together but by all accounts they go through quite a process. What is definitely unusual about being on this set is that this is not the way that I have experienced things being done in the UK like when the script is locked down the script is truly locked down. This is different, this is like a bit of magic. What I think I have noticed is that as things evolve and as the series evolves maybe what was down on paper has changed ever so slightly or maybe quite a lot when it was filmed and what these guys seems to do and understand is they can build upon it in a way so they get it at a critical moment, so what might have been absolutely the best thing a month ago or a day ago or six months ago when they planned it may no longer resonate now with what happened in the world or the scene before so they are just open to addressing the end of the moment at the very final moment. That's one of the reasons why the show is so extraordinary. It like the show itself has an appetite for something and these guys know what to feed it at the right moment.