Awards Daily talks to Emmy-winning editor A.J. Catoline about the “Mom City” episode of Ted Lasso and the callback moment where Ted decides to move back to the United States.
A lot of people have been positively affected by Ted Lasso, including editor A.J. Catoline, who won an Emmy in 2021 for the Season 1 episode, “The Hope That Kills You.”
“The pressure built for us as editors,” said Catoline. “Season 1, no one knew what the show was. Then it turned into a massive hit, so Season 2 and 3 had that incredible sense of privilege. I have the privilege to have this job and be trusted by Jason [Sudeikis] and our producers and creators Brendan [Hunt] and Joe [Kelly] and the cast. To look at all these dailies that they shoot and think about the possibilities of how it could come together and craft the performance and make choices, oftentimes Jason trusts us, […] and other times we dig into the nuance with him.”
Catoline and Sudeikis worked together to find those nuances, like in the “Mom City” scene where Ted introduces his mother Dottie (Becky Ann Baker) to Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham).
“[In that particular scene] Jason wanted an eye roll to react to Dottie to show that Ted is still fundamentally a good person and believes in kindness and doesn’t like that his mother is being snooty to Rebecca, a person she just met. However, throughout Ted Lasso, so much of the show plays on our cast’s faces. Jason taught us this way back in Season 1. It’s not about joke, joke, joke; it’s about taking these breaths and pauses and seeing the look on these characters’ faces.”
I had a great conversation with Catoline about this penultimate Season 3 episode, how they structured Beard’s heartfelt confession to Nate, the flexibility in hour-long episodes, and what he thinks of TedBecca shippers. Watch below!
