March 31, 2023 • 51 mins
Welcome to the Crown & Anchor, Greyhounds! In this episode Marisa, Christian, and Brett have a conversation with the man behind the myth behind the Zava – Maximilian Osinski!
We chatted with Max about how he came to be involved with Ted Lasso and asked him questions about Zava's persona, his wardrobe, and how Max was able to embody such a mysterious and enigmatic character. We also discussed the similarities between Zava and other iconic footballers like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo, and Eric Cantona.
For you Marvel fans, we also got into a bit of Max's experience playing Agent Davis in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And, as an added bonus, we heard the story of Max's Polish folk-dancing performance for Pope John Paul II when he was a teenager. Trust us, this is one y'all don't want to miss!
For those of you who aren't caught up on season 3 of Ted Lasso - this is your official spoiler alert, as there are some light spoilers (about episodes that have already aired) contained within this episode.
More extensive show notes can be found on our website: https://www.tedlassopod.com/maximilian-osinski-zava-ted-lasso
Richmond Til We Die is an episode-by-episode conversation about the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso, where we explore the characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make us laugh until we can hardly breathe one moment and then feel with the deepest parts of our hearts the next. When you're here, you're a greyhound!
We chatted with Max about how he came to be involved with Ted Lasso and asked him questions about Zava's persona, his wardrobe, and how Max was able to embody such a mysterious and enigmatic character. We also discussed the similarities between Zava and other iconic footballers like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo, and Eric Cantona.
For you Marvel fans, we also got into a bit of Max's experience playing Agent Davis in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And, as an added bonus, we heard the story of Max's Polish folk-dancing performance for Pope John Paul II when he was a teenager. Trust us, this is one y'all don't want to miss!
For those of you who aren't caught up on season 3 of Ted Lasso - this is your official spoiler alert, as there are some light spoilers (about episodes that have already aired) contained within this episode.
More extensive show notes can be found on our website: https://www.tedlassopod.com/maximilian-osinski-zava-ted-lasso
Richmond Til We Die is an episode-by-episode conversation about the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso, where we explore the characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make us laugh until we can hardly breathe one moment and then feel with the deepest parts of our hearts the next. When you're here, you're a greyhound!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Welcome to the crown On InCor Greyhounds. This is Richmond Till We Die,
a conversation about the Apple TV Plusshow ted Lasso, where we explore the
characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make us
laugh until we can hardly breathe onemoment and then feel with the deepest parts
of our hearts the next. I'mBrett and I've been tasked with you in
(00:35):
the intro and altro for this episodeby myself because apparently I work with two
pre madonnas. Joe's kidding all jokesaside, Marissa, Christian and I are
so excited to present this episode's guestactor, Maximilian Osinski. Y'all know him
for his work as Zava on tedLasso, the newest and most enigmatic member
(00:57):
of our beloved AFC Richmond. Thosewho aren't familiar with the soccer world may
not know that Zava bears a wholelot of resemblance, both physically and in
personality, to the iconic and largerthan life Swedish footballer named Zlatan Ibrahimovich og
Marvel. Fans may also recognize Maxfrom his role as Agent Davis in the
ABC show Agents of Shield, oras Dennis Graham in The Walking Dead World
(01:19):
Beyond. Max has also made appearanceson the NYC theater scene and has both
the writing and producing credit for workthat he did on the TV miniseries Hollywood
Hitman, which he also starred in. We've loved the energy, no the
aura that Max has brought to thisthird season of ted Lasso, and we're
excited that we can all get thischance to get to know him and Zava
(01:41):
a little better. So Greyhounds pleasejoin us as we give a warm welcome
to Maximilian Osinski. Thank you forbeing on the show. Max. Hello,
everyone listening, Thank you guys forhaving me. Yeah, thanks for
being here. How did you cometo be involved with ted Lasso and specifically
when you audition did you know youwere auditioning for us a lot on the
(02:04):
character. Oh yeah, well,it kind of all happened, and it
was magic in a way because meand my wife, after the pandemic,
we found we've lived in la forten years plus and we kind of just
wanted to get out after everything startedopening up, and so we're like,
why don't we just rent our houseand go to London for three months,
(02:25):
and I was like what. Shewas like, yeah, let's just,
you know, go on an adventure. So I agreed. I said that
sounds great. So we did andcome out here. We rented the house
and then we came out. ButNovember third, I remember, and about
a month in I got this selftape request for the show. And I
(02:45):
remember getting the tape and I waslike, there's a breakdown for the role
and it said, you know,one of the top scores in the world
based on several like famous soccer playersor a football players. Yeah, And
then I was like, I can't. I don't play soccers, must be
able to soccer. Please send aclip of yourself doing some soccer tricks.
(03:08):
I'm like, I'm an immigrant.I came here when I was eight weeks
old from Poland, but I didn'tgrow up with a football tied to my
ankle like a lot of the kidsdo here right in London, man,
there they look like many messies atfour years old. And so I almost
I almost kind of psyched myself outbecause I thought the role was really fun
(03:31):
and I thought I could do it, but the whole soccer thing, because
I had seen Christo on the showand I just want to preface this.
Me and my wife were huge fansof the show, like everyone else in
the stage, right, I lovethe show. We felt good watching it.
All our friends loved it. Soyou get the tape and then request
(03:52):
and you see that and I kindof almost psyched myself out because I don't
like, I suck it football.I don't mean to disappoint any of the
fans of the show. Um whatyou're an actor? Shocked? Yeah,
um and then um psyching myself out. You know, I almost turned down
(04:13):
the table. I remember I waslike that day, I was gonna call
my manager. But like, guys, it's it's ted Lasso, it's season
three. For this role, theycan cast anyone. They could literally I
thought they could literally call it anyPremier League player and say do you want
to play this role? Right,because Peo wouldn't want to be on the
show by then. Um, andlast minute, my wife was like,
(04:34):
just why don't you call our friendDamian Bodie's he's a friend of ours and
he lives in Australia and he's likea super positive guy. He's almost like
a Ted Lasso. And I gavehim a call and he was like,
what, oh Max did lasso.Oh no, you gotta do it.
Just do like, show them whatyou got, don't show them what you
(04:55):
don't got. Um, it's probablya terrible Australian accident. I'm so sorry.
Yeah. He just said, dude, you you look the part.
You're in shape. Um you can. You can smash the tape and then
just go to the park, takeyour shirt off, exercise as the character
and maybe do some slow motion kicksand it's gonna look badass. And I
(05:15):
took his advice and I said,all right, yeah, all right,
I'll try. So I felt betterand I did the actual tape the size
that came with it, um thanme and my own wife. In character,
we improvised like an interview with Zava, Yes, and I spoke a
little bit of Polish in there,just to like, you know, show
them what I got basically, youknow, highlight what I can do and
(05:36):
not what I can't. And thenwe went to the park and like I
probably looked like, um, likean household because I took off my shirt
and I started doing crazy stuff.I was doing push ups in character,
like style soccer or football warm ups. You see the guys do on the
(05:57):
field, pull ups on a tree. I was squatting at this big log,
winking to the camera, and thenslow motion like me terribly running up
trying to kick the ball up high, and like doing some knee knee juggling
and dribbling, and then like aheader and slow motion and we put it
to music and I just tried tohave joy and fun with the tape.
(06:21):
And it was a lot of fun, and the tape was fun to make
and it was fun to look at. And then I just sent it off
and I said, you know,that's what I got, So that's the
guy if I was going to dothem. And it took about a month
from when I sent the tape towhen my reps called and said I got
it. And unbeknownst to me,my reps were basically like keeping it really
(06:46):
low key that my tape was gettingtraction and moving up the food shape.
And they called me like a weekout before the official offer and they're like,
or no, I just think Iactually know. I just like pinged
my manager. I was like,hey, did we ever get any feedback
or about the last thing, becausethey were laughing at the table when I
sent there. I was like ohyeah, yeah, yeah, um,
it's gone up pretty high. We'rejust waiting for Jason to approve the tape
(07:08):
and I was like, what,it's a good bit of first news.
Yeah, I was like, JasonSadakis is like yeah, yeah, yeah,
they just sent the tape to himand I was like, oh my
god, we should know by theend of the week. And I was
like is this really possible. I'mlike really, And then we were out
there dinner with my wife and thein laws who were here to visit.
Um. I think it was likeDecember eighteenth, and my my agent manager
(07:30):
called and said your your Zava andit was very exciting, a bit surreal.
H the best Christmas gift a guycould ask for. Yeah, And
I remember my wife. My wifeteared up a little bit because she loved
the show and cried and I crieda little too hard because I was wondering,
did you not did you believe?But yeah, that's kind of how
(07:59):
it came to be, in theprocess of me trying to how I taped
for and what I what I broughtto the to the tape and the read
So yeah, it was. Itwas fantastic news, very just I'm so
lucky. It was like really juststupid luck, you know, and I'm
I got hired as an actor fromthis, Like they weren't looking for actors
in the States. They were lookingfor like globally everywhere else but America apparently.
(08:24):
So it's kind of like, good, you just made the cut.
I just made the cut and itworked out. It worked out, which
then kept us here until and liketill end of the July. Because of
the show, Marissa of the threeof us, has the most illustrious soccer
career. I think it peaked.When did it peaked, Marissa? Around
middle school? Yeah, that soundsabout right, Christian. Yeah, and
(08:48):
since then, you know, now, none of the three of us are
gonna trick anybody into thinking we're professionalfootballers. But we watch a lot of
soccer. And so the minute thatwe out of like heard your character being
described on screen and then saw you, it was very clear that you were
based off of Zlatan Ibrahimovich. Inspiredby lat Ibrahimovich. How where were you
(09:11):
of him before you auditioned for therole, and then how did you prepare
to play him? Because he isvery well known, enigmatic and specific in
how people understand him. Yeah,well, I mean, the Breakdown referenced
um Eric Cantona references lats On Ibrahimovich, and they didn't say that he's like
(09:35):
a villain. They described him moreas like an agitator. And I had
no idea coming from the States who'slot On Ibrahimovich was. But after getting
the part, I just I watchedsome interviews and stuff for the audition to
get kind of the sense of someof these guys. But once I got
the part, I kind of justdove into that world. I read tons
(09:56):
of books and bios, watched hoursof like documentaries and interviews. I read
Zlatan's book I Am Football Right,which is amazing. He didn't entitle it's
Laton as football, but whatever.Yeah, but I'll be honest with you
guys, I I fell in lovewith Latan Ibrahima. That's like I really
(10:18):
got to know who the guy was, like not just from like the YouTube
clips you see, but like hitthe book he wrote, and then the
interviews and hearing other people talk abouthim. I really admire the guy.
And I think Jason and Brendan saidthe same thing interview, like they're huge
fans of his and I became ahuge fan of his and I kind of
(10:39):
learned that these guys, the waythey present to the public and the press
is they're completely different in the lockerroom and with friends and family, and
some of them present in a Xavaesque way, some of them a lot
more quiet, or you can sayhumble, like a messy or you know,
a Zaidan. There's Canton All too, who was a big kind of,
(11:01):
I think, an influence for thewriters of the show. So yeah,
it was just a lot of tryingto understand why these guys behave the
way they do and why they change. And I think you kind of see
that in episode three a little bitwhen he finally gets to meet the team
and everyone. The charisma and thereis a genuineness when they're talking to you.
(11:26):
They are talking to you there inthe moment. There's no one else
of concern. It's like, I'mtalking to you. And I remember like
that, and I kind of comparedit to him. I had a friend
who's a costume designer and she workedwith Tom Cruise on a movie, and
you know, you're like, oh, it's Tom Cruise. He's coming in
and once you're in the room withhim, he's in the room with you.
(11:48):
He knows your name, he knowswhat you do, he's interested in
what you're doing, and he's humbleand he wants to work together. And
I think I thought that was somethinginteresting to bring to him if I could
in helping tell the story, youknow, like at the end of the
day, it's their guy, theirshow, their story, and they you
know, I'm just there to helpfacilitate the vision they want right for the
(12:09):
season. So I usually I'll dowhatever they need with the character. But
as an actor, I kind ofprepared it like I was playing a biopic,
you know. I didn't want togo in like doing a bad impression
of someone, and I wasn't tryingto do an impression of any individual soccer
player. I know people are sayingthere's a lot of similarities, but that
(12:31):
wasn't my intention. And the waywhere I come from, I thought it
was interesting if he did sound likeyou can't figure out where he's from,
right, you know, I'm Polish. I didn't want to sound I didn't
want to have a Polish accent.I didn't want to have a Russian accent,
Swedish, French. But these guysare international, They've lived everywhere.
Ye because black Time's lived everywhere.You know, he has his moms from
(12:54):
one place, his dad's from acomplete other place, grew up here,
speak several languages. I thought itwas just interesting if you can't point where
I don't know where he's from,I can't tell, right, Yeah.
I think the you've mentioned that andsome other interviews like kind of the work
you did to sort of add somemystique, even more mystique to the character
through a sort of unidentifiable like he'snot clearly Russian or Polish or something like
(13:16):
that. He's just kind of vaguelyEuropean metropolitan, you know, like it's
a it's a really it's a brilliantchoice, I think, And I think
that's one of the reasons that peoplejust have that strong point of reference to
a player like Latan, because youknow, he kind of carries that same
sort of mystique, like he's justhe's a he's an enigma, like he
(13:37):
is what he is. And Ithink Brendan Hunt sort of succinctly said that
when he was like Zava merely isZava, Like he has no regard for
the small things that a coach mighttry to do, but he has no
disregard. He's just a force untohimself essentially, you know, he's and
I think that's one of the thingsyou see in in episode three is that
when we very first meet Zava,it's almost like, oh, is this
(13:58):
just like a Jamie Tart one pointzero on steroids? Like a diva who
only cares about himself, And thenas you get into episode three you realize
this is a very different thing.Like they're both hugely talented, and of
course Zava's a little bit of adiva as well, but like you said,
the charisma and the way that heattracts people to himself as something that
one point oh Jamie never had.So you know what was the process of
(14:22):
for you and the writers and thecreative team of just like making sure,
okay, this is distinct enough,Like this is a different this is not
just a Jamie one point oh retread. Yeah, well, the thing is
like it was like, it's twothings. I remember Brendan m The first
day I kind of really got tolike even just chat with him about Zava
was the day I showed up tofilm the Veggie Dog Vigilante scene and he
(14:46):
says something to me there that kindof like was like, oh, yeah,
yeah, that makes sense, hesaid. You know, like like
like Michael Jordan when he retired frombasketball and then went to go play for
the White Sox, he was likehe was part of the team. He
wrote the team bus, but hishotel was different, you know other players,
(15:07):
that's right, Like Jamie's at adifferent place in his career than Zava.
Like like Brendan said, Zava's climbedthe mountaintop several times, you know
one trophy. Yeah, yeah,it was a legacy already. Yeah.
Yeah, he doesn't he doesn't needto prove himself to anyone anymore. Um,
you know, for him, he'sI think he's just looking for a
(15:31):
new challenge in his in his lifeand at this point as a career,
which I read a lot with alot of these guys when they've peaked and
they've been at a peak for along time, like they kind of for
them like family matters at that pointa lot. What where can I play
that makes my family happy? Youknow, I've made my money, I've
created a name for myself. Andsometimes you're like not to get to like
(15:54):
psychoanalytical, but like these players,sometimes they're made to can feel like,
you know, you've played for solong that you end up just being like
this piece that people want to trade, right be on a team, and
you know, when you're starting outthat's exciting. You want everyone to want
you and fight for you. Butonce you've you've done everything you've ever dreamt
(16:17):
of and you've reached this glorious likepinnacle in your sports career, you know
that game doesn't fill you up withanything, and the stuff that grounds you
in life is what really matters.And that kind of like it kind of
helped me like ground the character andhis motivation and why he would say this,
some of the stuff he would say, why he would behave the way
he would behave, why he wouldjump through different from all these different teams
(16:41):
as they describe him, because itfor me it was really like the role
is so funny. You read allthis stuff and on the surface you get
it, and on the surface thepublic when you hear people like Zlatan and
all these other players Ronaldo, they'reswitching teams. That's just what the headlines
say. So for me his act, I was like, all right,
that's what I would think too,but like why why they act that way?
(17:03):
What's something, what's a little deepermeaning behind why they would do that,
you know. So that's kind ofhow it helped, just to find
ground the role for myself and howthe audience perceives it and how you guys
feel about it. That's entirely truefor your experience. And it's none of
my business to tell you how tofeel about him, you know, like,
I'm hopefully you're entertained by him,whether you love him or you hate
him, or you're like you don'tknow what you want to think about him,
(17:26):
that's that's true for you. SoI try not to judge them the
character at all. You guys cando that, and we still we're still
going to get to know him alot more to write. And I think
your portrayal is very honest, andyou're acting it so well, because he
could be just a caricature or thiscartoon or just come off as a villain.
(17:47):
But yeah, I think as theaudience gets to know him, there
is something very lovable and endearing andcharming about him that isn't just one note
of you know, the diva that'scoming in just or all the goals there.
You know, clearly the team hassome admiration for him, and I
think that goes a long way forthe audience too, because it is a
(18:07):
show that's so heavily based on thisdynamic of the ensemble. Right So,
coming into this show that was sowell gelled, I guess as an ensemble,
was that something you felt like wasparticularly difficult or was there someone who
kind of made you feel like aliteral part of the team right away?
Well, in general, it's alwaysas an actor who comes in to Rick
(18:32):
her a guest st are and somethingthat's one of the hardest jobs to do
because you come in and there's aregular cast that's been on the show,
even just one full season lettle intwo or three, and with this show
specifically two amazing seasons with you know, adulation and awards and everything. So
it's always a come in. It'slike that that second third removed cousin who
(18:53):
gets invited to thanks coming in.The room's kind of quiet. But so
I've I've I've experienced that before,but coming onto this show was nothing like
that. Like I was a littlebit like, all, I wonder what
everyone's gonna be like, and youknow, they all seem really great on
the show, and you hear himand interviews or podcasts, they seem really
(19:17):
lovely, but you never know,You never know, do you know what
I mean? Yea? And Icame in and like I started going on
the costume fittings first, and Istarted meeting everyone in, like all the
guys from the team, like Philand to Heab and Caller and Billy and
Christo. They like knocked down mydressing room door introduced themselves and we're like
so pumped to meet the guy who'sgonna plead playing Zava and we were all
(19:41):
like laughing about the clothes. Itjust felt very welcoming and like there was
no egos. There was no like, oh, who's this guy who was
playing this guy, you know,one of the top strikers in the world
on the show, Like what doeshe think he is? It was everyone
was as nice as they come offon the show, to the point where
I came home. I think Itold the story a few times where I
came home and told my wife,Babe, everyone is really nice. Asshole
(20:08):
ahole you know, like when you'replaying poker and you can't find the sucker
at the table, that means you'rethe sucker. So I couldn't have felt
more welcomed and just comfortable. Hannahwas wonderful the first time I met her.
A funny story, we were filmingthat Chelsea scene and we hadn't really
chattered and said hi to each otherat all, but I had filmed a
(20:30):
zavo walking into the stadium with thehands up, and then they were doing
the reaction, and after we wrappedthat, we were just a little video
village, and you know, Ijust said, Hey, I'd like to
induce myself. You know, Iterrific work on the show. We've been
fans and you deserve all the accolades. You've gotten a pleasure to work with
you. And she was like,oh, Darling. At this point,
(20:52):
I just come to said and Ijust hope please don't fuck it up.
You know that. I sure,you know the third season now to two
seasons of awards and everything, sothat no one is resting on their laurels.
You know, they're all words asif this is day one on episode
one, season one, like everyonewants to do the best they can.
(21:14):
It's everyone top from Jason all theway down to the pas grabbing coffee,
like everyone's just happy to be thereand enjoying everything. Walk us through the
your experience at the premiere a littlebit, because you come and you do
the blue carpet thing and people aretaking your pictures. A lot of the
guests impress at that point, youknow, probably don't know exactly what your
role is going to be or entail. The lights go down, everybody watches
(21:37):
the first two episodes and they watchit like on a movie screen, and
so it's this different experience. Andyou get to the end of episode two
and you've had at least two likereally memorable important scenes. The lights come
up, and now like everybody recognizesyou as, Oh, you're that guy.
What's going through your head as you'retalking to all of these strangers beforehand?
(22:00):
And then what's the experience like aftereverybody gets to see those first two
episodes. Actually, when I didthe press line, the actual press got
four episodes, I think the firstfour, so they already knew who I
was playing and I had seen it, so that kind of actually made that
whole blue carpet thing way easier.Instead of just showing up, They're like,
(22:22):
why are we taking photos of thisguy right to talk to him?
So that that made a little bitmore relaxing because everyone's like, oh,
hey, you know you're this,like, tell us about that. And
I was just nervous because I hadno idea what like like they told me.
But I was just like, Idon't know how much I can talk
about And people are telling you,like this, this outlet knows they've seen
(22:45):
the first four episodes. You cantalk to them. This one's only seen
the first two. Don't mention anythingabout the three and there's but you know,
reporters ask and they dig. SoI was just more nervous about not
ruining anything. But yeah, whenthe lights came up, that was that
was That was fun too, becausea lot of people in the audience maybe
didn't really know who I was becausethey hadn't seen for the episodes, and
(23:06):
it seemed like people really enjoyed,enjoyed them the first two episode of the
season and the character. And youknow, if you can make a room
full of people laugh, you're justlike you can breathe easy a little bit.
Especially with a role like this,you're like Jesus, you know,
I just hope it doesn't fall flat. Um, But and again, how
could it, Like you work withguys like Jason Brett and Brendan like they
(23:30):
don't want to let anyone fail,you know, and if you just trust
them, then you know, letit happen. So yeah, it was.
It was great. It was surrealto be at the premiere to answer
your question quickly, and the bluecarpet was a little easier because people had
known why I was standing on theblue carpet. But yeah, there's definitely
a different effect once it's aired.Where people saw on the after party.
(23:53):
Was it was nice? It wasnice. Well, I want to circle
back to kind of what Christian mentionedabout the You have kind of these two
major scenes in episode two, andI would say, just based on the
internet reaction alone, the urinal sceneis going to pass into like television lore
as like one of the most powerful, like hilarious scenes, and especially like
you have Hannah Wattingham. She's justa force, right, And I had
(24:15):
read somewhere I think that originally therewas more dialogue for Zava in that moment,
but once you all filmed it,like the day of filming, maybe
someone came, maybe Jason came andsaid like, hey, actually, like
just don't say anything. She's justgonna like kind of steamroll you. And
then leave, and so what wasit like kind of experiencing that because that's
like sort of Zava's first big momentand then you know, your dialogue disappears,
but it adds this wonderful bit ofmystery. But kind of what was
(24:38):
that situation? Like, yeah,no, that's a great story. So
Jason came like on paper. WhenI got the script, I read that
scene and now I was like dying, especially with the pe underneath the scene,
and I was just pinching myself onmy arm. So lucky that I
get to work with. These guysare brilliant. This is hilarious, and
(25:00):
the and the dialogue between them wasreally funny. And the day we were
filming the Chelsea stuff was actually theday before the bathroom scene, so this
is a day ahead. We filmedthe Chelsea stuff. And then Jason came
up to me, um, youknow, and he has that ted lapso
mustache and stuff, and he's alwayslike he's very focused as as like a
(25:21):
creator of the show and all aboutthe work, which actually put me at
ease because you forget who you're talkingto and who you're around. It's just
like boom, we jump into thework. But he came up and he
was like, hey, man,I was thinking like, maybe we keep
his off a bit bit more ofa mystery, and I kind of just
I'm thinking, Hannah should just likesay this whole thing and you don't say
(25:44):
anything. This is I think thisis like day one or day two of
me filming, because previously I didthe Leggie Dog would you lan anything?
Which is pretty quick, and inmy head, I'm like, oh Jesus,
and you know, to Jason,I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah absolutely. In my head,I'm like, fun, you think
I sucked. We didn't even rehearseit him, give him giving us a
(26:04):
shot to like say it all out. You know, maybe I just maybe
I'm somehow. But I went homeand I looked at the they sent the
provided stuff, and I was like, this is actually better. You know.
I think Show Don't Tell is likeone of the main things you talk
(26:25):
about when you're doing film and TVum and when we filmed it, it
just felt great, like why wouldhe say anything? And I think it
keeps a him really mysterious. Hestill has his status and it gives in
Hannah just nailed that that speech,and the whole time I was just trying
(26:45):
to keep it together, and especiallyin that asparagus line. Yeah, but
when I saw in the theater forthe first time, when I saw EP
two, I was like, asa brilliant choice, Like he doesn't need
to say hey, anything, andHannah's it's Hannah's moment. It's like Hannah's
time to like, you know,grab grab him by the balls and like
(27:07):
tell him the truth. And youknow, it still works. It still
motivates him to go to Richmond,and it still keeps him high status and
a bit mysterious because you know,I got the glasses on and everything.
So I thought it was like thebest choice because on paper things are funny,
right, But when I put himin real life and you do him
and these see them on screen likeit, it might not work. And
(27:29):
I think that's the brilliance of theseguys, is Jason. All these guys
know that, and they keep everythingflexible and they leave room the day of
filming for some magic and inspiration tohappen. So a lot of the stuff
you've seen in the show, whichI discovered quickly, like, is discovered
and played with while you're shooting,sometimes in between takes. And I think
(27:51):
that was like something I've never experiencedthat on a set before, you know,
and you can chalk it up toJason's snel experience and the writer's room
and experience, but yeah, Iloved I thank god they cut my lines.
I know that. I never thinkI'd say it out loud, but
yeah, well, and it takes. It takes a cast of people who
you know are sort of humble enoughto serve the content, you know,
(28:14):
are to serve the story being told. And that's like, I think that's
something that you know, we've talkedto a handful of cast and creative folks
from the show now, and thatjust that seems to be an overarching kind
of echoing thing that we hear islike yes, like those things happen,
and in the moment you're kind oflike okay, like hope it works.
And then you see the finished productand you're like, yes, like brilliant
because I assume we are going tosort of find out Zava's motivations and it's
(28:37):
going to be in a way that'sway more interesting. But then you just
get this, like you find thesecond laugh right, like we are laughing
at the asparagus line, and thenZava liked to have this beat and then
sniffs, which is like killed me. I died, so like like you
get the extra laugh anyway, youknow, so good? Thank you?
Yeah, yeah, I know itwas yeah Hannah. I mean that's all
Hannah's work. I just had tostand there and try not to laugh not
(29:03):
to laugh. Yeah, you mentionedcostuming earlier. How fun was it to
do costuming for Zambo and did youget to have any input into his personal
style? Costume? Was a lotof fun, and I like, very
luckily I did get to have alittle bit of input into the costuming.
(29:26):
Jackie what the Jackie Levy, thecostume designer, was fantastic to collaborate with.
She wanted to. She asked me, what do you think, Like,
here's some options. What are youfeeling like? We were texting different
looks for him, especially the firststep, and a lot was changing.
I remember in the original episode two, the way they interest Zamba wasn't the
(29:48):
veggie dog vigilante. It was likehe was doing like some watch commercial with
the shirt open and stuff. Sowe were fitting that and then next day
it changed, and then we suddenlyfound ourselves looking for something like that made
sense for the vigie dog vigilanti,veggie dog vigilante part of me. But
like the yellow shoes, I'm wearingthe high top shoes that I brought that
(30:11):
idea in because I bought these,the short top version of those, and
I was in Paris and I justthought these kind of work. And I
saw the high tops and I waslike, Jackie, what do you think
of these? But the high topsfor Zava like the kind of flashy,
They're very bright, and she broughtthem. She brought the idea to the
guys and they signed off and theyloved it. And then we were trying
(30:32):
on these different jackets. I rememberI tried on this like really bright colored
purple rainbow which fur coat, andI told Jackie, this feels more like
mc lemore to me, that youknow, And then we found that jacket
um and I loved the fur collar. I thought of him as like this
lion, viewed himself as like alion. I love the sheep. And
(30:56):
you know, Jackie loved it,and she brought it to the guys and
they they thought it was great.I think I read somewhere that the guys
kind of said, like they liketo let the actress kind of their instincts
kind of guide where the clothing takesthem. And it felt that way to
me when I walked down the show, and Jackie being kind enough to like
want to hear out my ideas wasreally nice. Um, so it felt
(31:18):
really collaborative and like I had alittle bit of input as to what Zavo
might wear when and even how I'mlooking forward to the drop of the Zava
and Zava and Zava and Zava Tshirt, Like I'm for sure buying one
of those when that happens, andif not, we're buying a cricket and
(31:40):
making our you guys notice those shirts. That's great. Yeah, we had
deposit well to your point too aboutthe costuming, is I think I before
season three. This might have beenbetween season one and two or maybe two
and three, but I have seenJackie Levy in an interview say you know
that they sort of asked them ofthose initial core group of players to like
(32:01):
think about a footballer that inspired themor that they felt some sort of connection
too, and then they were ableto sort of draw from that. And
so especially these days, there's awealth of fashion to choose from when it
comes to looking at footballer, Sothat's yeah, you know, and I
don't wear yeah, I don't wearVersacci shirts and stuff like that, like
you know, I'm like black shirts. He should kind of guys. So
(32:22):
that was a lot of fun tojust you know, Jackie Plant, what
about this Versacci shirt or this youknow name the designer top and the coat.
And I was like, geez,yeah, sure, yeah, high
fashion. It was nice. Itwas fun. It's fun and when you
get to play role like that,you just lean into it and you just
try to own it. You know. I always told myself, I gotta,
(32:44):
you know, for this role,like I, I have to wear
the coat. The coat can't wearmeat, you know. So you don't
want to look like an actor inthe costume. I look like the character.
That's the coat he wants to wear, and he rocks it, you
know, right. Part of thecost doing is, you know, the
shirt comes off in one of yourmost iconic bits and we see the giant
(33:07):
tattoo on your back. Brett isdying to know if you know, whose
idea was to use Jesus Christ superstarin that scene for the music? Yeah,
I don't know. You don't wanta script usually though, in this
in this show. In the script, they would say, you know,
this is happening, and underneath wehave like six differentists, different songs they
(33:29):
possibly want to use for it,and it was funny and other ones I
think they use in the montage,and three was actually on in the script
again like they'll change it based onwhat fits as the as the show gets
formed. I don't know whose ideathat was wasn't mine. I loved it,
(33:49):
yeah yeah. And the tattoo,yeah, I remember. The tattoo
was a big thing because I originallywanted to have, um, some sleeves
tattoo sleeves here and stuff, andthen we would have the tattoo on the
back. But I just I thinkthey like those two things. It's less
time in the chair for me,right, So I don't want to do
the sleeves. And I think theywanted to do that reveal of the tattoo
(34:12):
on the back, like make itcount right, make it once, and
make it special, which I thinkthen I'm just paid off, which was
hilarious. Oh boy, did it? Yeah? Yeah yeah. And so
we were working on the design ofthe tattoo, you know, kind of
like I was pitching some ideas andthen I think Brendan was working on some
ideas, if I'm not mistaken,And then NICKI Austin costume, Aaron makeup,
(34:37):
help help execute it. And youknow, I'm glad you guys liked
it a brilliant You mentioned that youspeak some Polish. You're also skilled enough
in folk dance to have folk dancedfor Pope John Paul. The second,
how did you get that opportunity?Why are you bringing that up? Well,
first of all, I'm not skilledenough to go dance for Poke.
(35:00):
Done that? That gave grown upguy. We gotta cut the interview short.
That's it, all right, sovery quickly. I grew up in
Chicago. It is a very heavyPolish neighborhood. My mom, because we
immigrated, wanted to make sure thathe was in touch with my Polish roots.
So I went to Polish school.You know, I did the Polish
(35:21):
Boy Scouts. You know, theymade me play piano like every Polish kid.
Yet it was to learn. Andthen when I was in the boy
Scouts, I met a friend andhe was like, hey, man,
do you want to meet some girls. There's a lot of girls in this
Polish folk dance group. And wedon't have enough. Guy. I think
I was like thirteen fourteen. Iwas like, yeah, yeah, let's
do it. And before I knewit, I was wearing a folk costume
(35:45):
with an ostrich feather sticking out ofme and black leather boots to my knees,
like dancing away. And this folkgroup kind of had a bit of
like a footprint in Chicago, andI have no idea how they finagled this,
but we got to travel to Rometo do like a pilgrimage that was
(36:06):
Israel. Sorry, we traveled toIsrael after that. But we went to
Rome and we danced in like thisgeneral audience with the pope you know when
he does masks, and in theVatican with one hundred thousands of people.
And then the head of the groupknew one of the cardinals or bishops,
and she requested if we could doa private dance for him in his home
(36:29):
in kester Gundorfo And like two dayslater he says, yes, he would
love to have you guys over.So like fourteen years old, I'm going
to the pope out John Paul,you know, is famous Polish pope,
and we found ourselves. We didtwo dances for him, and he was
(36:50):
so funny and he was cracking jokesabout Chicago, and he shook everyone's hand
and we got to meet him andwe took photos with him. So it
wasn't necessarily like you have to auditionfor the group like group and then the
group has the audition. It wasI don't know. I don't know who
she knew to ask and how hedid it, but I know that we
were like the third Polish folk dancegroup in history to dance for him,
(37:15):
and our pictures somewhere in the VaticanMuseum. That's like my little that's my
little, like you know, iceBreaker. When I meet do interviews or
meeting new people and they're like,did you folk dance for the Pope?
I'm like, one of the reasonsjust to meet girls. One of the
(37:35):
reasons I asked the question is becauseTom Hendrick, who plays O'Brien on ted
Lasso, he is quite the accomplishedPolish folk dancer and I saw today on
his Instagram he's at like a UKPolish folk festival and he's like in the
outfit and dancing and everything. Didthe two of you find occasion to have
a dance off at any point betweenscenes. Is that's something he lunched two,
(38:00):
Yeah, we did, and wewe pitched it to Jason and he
loved it, and we filmed thescene with Zava and his character folk dance
off in the locker room and thenthey just cut it. You can't wait
till we get that blooper reel.We could not have. We did hit
it off the right away, likeI can. We you know, I
(38:22):
think he can tell from my lastname Ossinski And he was like, hey,
you know, brother, do youspeak Polish? And I was like
yeah, and I started speaking Polishand he started speaking Polish and we were
just it was nice. And thenyou know, he told me he folk
dance and I was like, ohmy god, I did that too.
You know, I stopped stopped aboutsixteen. But I think you should ask
him. He's like the professional folkdancer that he probably should have been at
(38:45):
the Pope's house, not me.But he's terrific. He's a wonderful guy.
And yeah, he lives in London, so we keep in touch.
It's interesting how your stories your introductionsto folk dance line up too, because
when we talked to him, Ithink he expressed that his family also wanted
him to stay connected to his Polishroots, and that he also like sort
(39:06):
of he was like, it wasa great way to meet girls when you
were like a teenager. So youknow that's you know, there you go,
who do Polish folk dancing? Whoare you? Yeah? I mean
I don't think I got a girlfriendout of it. Poulse advertising that they
weren't interested in the guys, andyou know Ostrich feather Caps shocker. Yeah,
(39:28):
You've mentioned your wife teaching a coupleof times, and y'all worked together
on Agents of Shield And now you'reboth in Apple TV plus shows. You're
in Tulasso and she is in Severance. Which one of you landed with Apple
TV Plus first? She got Severance, Um, yeah, I think we're
(39:50):
still in la like just coming outof lockdown. So she got that first,
um right around and she was stillto film Jurassic World. Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, Soshe was first. And then obviously
yeah, I told you guys,Yeah, I didn't get it till a
year. I didn't get it onto the last until a year or later.
The two shows are maybe opposite intone, but one of the things
(40:13):
that they both really hinge on ourreveals and surprises and so what's it like
to watch your respective shows with eachother knowing that your spouse is going to
be surprised by something a secret thatyou're holding onto. I mean, I'm
just gratitude first of all. LikeI pinched myself, like you're on an
(40:34):
amazing Apple show that like people areexcited to talk about, and I'm on
an amazing Apple show that people areexcited to talk about. We just go
like we just try to remain likegrateful and happy and we pinch ourselves and
it's fantastic. I remember being oneted last and when the show premiered and
then like Jeremy was welcome. Didyou guys see that show? Severing's like
I really like it, and I'mlike my wife's on it, and he
(40:58):
like his face lit up, likeoh really, who is she? You
know She's like, oh my goodness, I love it so much, and
you know, like it was alittle bit surreal. Um. We try
not to spoil things for each other, uh, you know, like I
tried not to. I mean,I mean she knew kind of what I
was filming for for Zava. Shewould stay with me and like, you
(41:19):
know, you come home like,how was your day. I'm not gonna
say, I can't tell you whereto tell me everything? And I would
say do you want to know?Or do you want to ruin it for
you? But it still hasn't takenthe joy from her, like watching it
on like come together and she yeah, for like, I didn't know.
(41:40):
I didn't know how Severance was ending. So when I saw that, it
was fantastic and I was so happyfor her. Um, yeah, and
I'm really excited about season two.I haven't I haven't asked about what the
scripts are doing, you know,I just kind of know when they call
her out when they're filming her,I was like, how's your day is,
like, oh, we have toshoot this thing or something. I
(42:00):
was like, okay, but kindof just want to I don't I want
to be surprised, you know.Yeah, yeah, no spoilers here,
but that that reveal at the endof Separate season one is like one of
my all time faves right now,and I get I guessed so loud.
I couldn't catch my breath. Iwas like, what, Oh my gosh,
it was Yeah, I'll take thatas a compan I am ready.
(42:22):
I am like I feel like theycould go so many I've tried to avoid
like reading too much about season two, which there's not a ton anyway,
but I'm like, I they couldgo so many places. I just want
to come into it like I cameinto the first season knowing really nothing,
you know, like not knowing whatwas going to happen, kind of what
the mystery was, and just lettingit all kind of like play out.
Yeah, And to piggyback on thatquestion, like what we're really great for
(42:45):
is like Ben Stiller in season onethat was like his baby and it lasts
was Jason's baby. Yeah. Thefact that we get to work with like
these two guerrillas of of comedy anddrama and directing, and you know,
I mean, I know Jason doesn'tfeel that way but about himself, but
I mean he's he's so talented andmultifaceted. You know, he can direct,
(43:09):
he can act, he can write, And they're both like I remember
me and Deach and talking to eachother, like they're both very specific and
meticulous about their projects, irrespectively.And you get a sense from that um
and it kind of and everyone elsefeeds off of that and you kind of
(43:29):
just have to go with the waythey work. While it might be very
different, but they're very specific people. And you know, she would tell
me these stories about working with Benand then I would tell his stories about
working with Jason. I was like, oh my god, these you know,
there's some similarities into it about them, even though they're very different people.
But that's what's probably more crazier thanwe on Apple shows is that we
(43:51):
get to work with you know,she worked with him, and I got
to work with Jason and Brendan andBrett Like, yeah, it's just spit
lucky, Like I don't know howthat works. Yeah, I think this
is true. A lot of AppleTV shows and streaming shows is just like
the handmade sort of nature of thestories that we're just getting to experience as
viewers now, Like it just there'sso many Yeah, you're just well you're
(44:15):
just seeing lots of different experiences reflectedthrough the people who write them and who
are working on the shows, andit's it's just like, yeah, everything
feels like we can We've there's somuch TV now that we can be more
personal and kind of tell more specificstories, and that's I think it's it's
even it's enrichening that's not a word. It's making the storytelling more rich.
Yeah, it gives you, youknow, I think these streamers are allowing
(44:36):
some of these creators to explore deeper, meaningful stories. You know, ted
Lasso's supposed to be a comedy,but it's running at forty five fifteen minutes
now, and is it a comedy? Sometimes it's not a comedy. Yeah.
After season two premier, someone waslike, I don't know when ted
Lasso went from a half hour comedyto an hour long drama, but I
hope it wins both awards, likeyou know something like that. Right,
(44:58):
I think that's nice. I thinkthat's nice. I think, um,
you know, I mean that's that'slife. Man. Sometimes life is funny
and then sometimes life is not funny. And I think when it's you know,
I get it while you want totune into a multicam and just have
a good time. Absolutely, Ithink shows like this resonate because you have
room to like, like Jamie isgreat, Like his acting is fantastic and
(45:21):
that you know, like first seasonyou beat him was like, oh,
this guy's kind of a hole.And he has that moment in the locker
room with its father, you know, and then like, holy shit,
you know that resonates with people.You You asked like, what are your
favorite scenes? Like when Ted forgivesRebecca for for that article, that's amazing.
(45:43):
Biscuits, no barbecue sauce, it'son the dark. That scene you
know that you can't really you can'tput your thumb on that's like that's a
comedy scene. That's a thing.But you know, when they do choose
to do comedy, it's funny,like episode two when they're all trying to
feel like who's on first? Thatthe locker room bit also is an amazing
(46:06):
to write a book about Trick krimdied. Oh my god, that was
the best moment. It's so good. It's Yeah. The project that you
and each and worked together on Agentsof Shield probably doesn't get enough credit for
kind of how influential it's been,Like it was the first of the weekly
(46:28):
Marvel shows that then kind of fedinto and interacted with the Marvel movies.
To now have wrapped that show andto see everything that all these Marvel shows
have become, what's your kind ofreflection on where Marvel's at and the opportunity
that y'all had to be a partof that in the early stages of what
(46:51):
we now know is the Marvel Universetoday. I mean, I'm grateful that
that that show. I've done someconventions and stuff and met fans, and
you know, you film a showand you're in a you're kind of in
a bubble. You're on set withthe cast, and you go home and
you come back and you're on setwith the cast, and you can tend
(47:12):
to kind of forget who you're filmingit for and who's watching it and how
they feel about it. And thenmeeting the fans and just seeing how much
it's meant to them and how muchaffection they have for these characters, and
like even me, I would surpriseme. It means a lot, and
you kind of, you know,I think that's a whole Like a lot
of these Marvel shows are like theworld is fantastical. I think part of
(47:37):
the success with some of the showsand the movies is, like, you
know, people can still find away to relate to them on a human
level, and I think that's whatadds to their success. So being a
part of that early Marvel TV showwas, you know, it was a
blessing. It filmed in La.So I got to go home and see
my my wife and kid, andI had just had my daughter when I
(48:00):
started on that show. So thatjob has a lot of special places in
my heart, you know, likea job being on that show getting to
those people, and the creators andthe writers did a fantastic job. So
yeah, I'm grateful, and it'sexciting to see how it's evolved to the
movies and all the other shows.I mean, what do you how do
you guys feel? Are you guys, are you guys tired of all the
(48:22):
Marvel shows? Is it too much? You know, I always know the
people still respond to the show todayif it came out versus when it did.
Yeah, I mean it's kind ofdifferent because the seasons are longer and
focuses on a bunch of different characters. But I know for me, like
I have adolescent kids, and whereasnot every Marvel movie is for them yet,
(48:45):
Like they're not ready for that yet, right, Agents of Shield and
Agent Carter, like those are greatintros into the Marvel world until they are
ready for all of the movies andthe more serious show. And so you
know the Agents of Shield and Lostwhich came before that, those to me
(49:06):
and my experience, were two ofthe first show that was like, Okay,
we have to figure out how torecord this because I don't want to
miss it, Like this is somethingthat I don't want to miss every single
week otherwise I'll be out of theloop. And those were some of the
first shows that, yeah, likeyou do check out the message boards and
people are talking about what's going tohappen. And it was a little bit
different too because the spoilers. Likethe Internet, you could talk to a
(49:30):
bunch of people, but the spoilerystuff wasn't leaking as much yet, and
so it really was more community based, whereas now, I know, even
for us until Lasso, like,we're kind of careful. We don't treading
to read it that much anymore becauseyou never know what you're going to find
there, and we do want toexperience the show and we try to make
sure that we don't spoil things.Yeah, like I have a sentimental attachment
(49:52):
to Agents of Shield and look forwardto now watching it with my kids.
It'll be fun. Well, Max, thank you so much for coming on
the show. It has been sucha blast talking to you about your character
and Ted Lasso, and we justso appreciate you man. Thank you,
guys, thank you for having me. I hope but in ran too long,
But I'm flattered. You guys arefans of the show and I'm a
(50:13):
fan of the show too, andit's fantastic to talk about a part that
people are excited about and entertained with. So thank you. We absolutely are
and cannot wait to see where Zavagoes this season. So thank you and
take care. Thank you guys,have a good one, and that is
our show. We had a greattime chatting with Max about his work on
(50:36):
ted Lasso, as well as someof his other projects. You can find
links to his social media and morein the show notes on our website ted
lassopod dot com. We'll be backsoon with more ted Lasso goodness, but
you can keep the conversation going withus on Twitter and Instagram in the meantime.
Our handle on both platforms is atted Lasso Pod. This episode of
Richmond Till We Die It is broughtto you by Gin and Kerosene Productions.
(50:59):
It was produced by Marissa Christian andme. If you're enjoying our show,
please take thirty seconds to subscribe toour feed and give the show a five
star review on Apple Podcasts or afive star rating on Spotify. Heck,
if you're feeling generous, you couldeven do both. As always, we
appreciate all the ways y'all share yourlove and support for the pod. Okay,
I'm Brett signing off for Marissa Christianand Maxosinski. Thanks for listening.
(51:22):
Until next time, Cheers y'all.N Core nine
Welcome to the crown On InCor Greyhounds. This is Richmond Till We Die,
a conversation about the Apple TV Plusshow ted Lasso, where we explore the
characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make us
laugh until we can hardly breathe onemoment and then feel with the deepest parts
of our hearts the next. I'mBrett and I've been tasked with you in
(00:35):
the intro and altro for this episodeby myself because apparently I work with two
pre madonnas. Joe's kidding all jokesaside, Marissa, Christian and I are
so excited to present this episode's guestactor, Maximilian Osinski. Y'all know him
for his work as Zava on tedLasso, the newest and most enigmatic member
(00:57):
of our beloved AFC Richmond. Thosewho aren't familiar with the soccer world may
not know that Zava bears a wholelot of resemblance, both physically and in
personality, to the iconic and largerthan life Swedish footballer named Zlatan Ibrahimovich og
Marvel. Fans may also recognize Maxfrom his role as Agent Davis in the
ABC show Agents of Shield, oras Dennis Graham in The Walking Dead World
(01:19):
Beyond. Max has also made appearanceson the NYC theater scene and has both
the writing and producing credit for workthat he did on the TV miniseries Hollywood
Hitman, which he also starred in. We've loved the energy, no the
aura that Max has brought to thisthird season of ted Lasso, and we're
excited that we can all get thischance to get to know him and Zava
(01:41):
a little better. So Greyhounds pleasejoin us as we give a warm welcome
to Maximilian Osinski. Thank you forbeing on the show. Max. Hello,
everyone listening, Thank you guys forhaving me. Yeah, thanks for
being here. How did you cometo be involved with ted Lasso and specifically
when you audition did you know youwere auditioning for us a lot on the
(02:04):
character. Oh yeah, well,it kind of all happened, and it
was magic in a way because meand my wife, after the pandemic,
we found we've lived in la forten years plus and we kind of just
wanted to get out after everything startedopening up, and so we're like,
why don't we just rent our houseand go to London for three months,
(02:25):
and I was like what. Shewas like, yeah, let's just,
you know, go on an adventure. So I agreed. I said that
sounds great. So we did andcome out here. We rented the house
and then we came out. ButNovember third, I remember, and about
a month in I got this selftape request for the show. And I
(02:45):
remember getting the tape and I waslike, there's a breakdown for the role
and it said, you know,one of the top scores in the world
based on several like famous soccer playersor a football players. Yeah, And
then I was like, I can't. I don't play soccers, must be
able to soccer. Please send aclip of yourself doing some soccer tricks.
(03:08):
I'm like, I'm an immigrant.I came here when I was eight weeks
old from Poland, but I didn'tgrow up with a football tied to my
ankle like a lot of the kidsdo here right in London, man,
there they look like many messies atfour years old. And so I almost
I almost kind of psyched myself outbecause I thought the role was really fun
(03:31):
and I thought I could do it, but the whole soccer thing, because
I had seen Christo on the showand I just want to preface this.
Me and my wife were huge fansof the show, like everyone else in
the stage, right, I lovethe show. We felt good watching it.
All our friends loved it. Soyou get the tape and then request
(03:52):
and you see that and I kindof almost psyched myself out because I don't
like, I suck it football.I don't mean to disappoint any of the
fans of the show. Um whatyou're an actor? Shocked? Yeah,
um and then um psyching myself out. You know, I almost turned down
(04:13):
the table. I remember I waslike that day, I was gonna call
my manager. But like, guys, it's it's ted Lasso, it's season
three. For this role, theycan cast anyone. They could literally I
thought they could literally call it anyPremier League player and say do you want
to play this role? Right,because Peo wouldn't want to be on the
show by then. Um, andlast minute, my wife was like,
(04:34):
just why don't you call our friendDamian Bodie's he's a friend of ours and
he lives in Australia and he's likea super positive guy. He's almost like
a Ted Lasso. And I gavehim a call and he was like,
what, oh Max did lasso.Oh no, you gotta do it.
Just do like, show them whatyou got, don't show them what you
(04:55):
don't got. Um, it's probablya terrible Australian accident. I'm so sorry.
Yeah. He just said, dude, you you look the part.
You're in shape. Um you can. You can smash the tape and then
just go to the park, takeyour shirt off, exercise as the character
and maybe do some slow motion kicksand it's gonna look badass. And I
(05:15):
took his advice and I said,all right, yeah, all right,
I'll try. So I felt betterand I did the actual tape the size
that came with it, um thanme and my own wife. In character,
we improvised like an interview with Zava, Yes, and I spoke a
little bit of Polish in there,just to like, you know, show
them what I got basically, youknow, highlight what I can do and
(05:36):
not what I can't. And thenwe went to the park and like I
probably looked like, um, likean household because I took off my shirt
and I started doing crazy stuff.I was doing push ups in character,
like style soccer or football warm ups. You see the guys do on the
(05:57):
field, pull ups on a tree. I was squatting at this big log,
winking to the camera, and thenslow motion like me terribly running up
trying to kick the ball up high, and like doing some knee knee juggling
and dribbling, and then like aheader and slow motion and we put it
to music and I just tried tohave joy and fun with the tape.
(06:21):
And it was a lot of fun, and the tape was fun to make
and it was fun to look at. And then I just sent it off
and I said, you know,that's what I got, So that's the
guy if I was going to dothem. And it took about a month
from when I sent the tape towhen my reps called and said I got
it. And unbeknownst to me,my reps were basically like keeping it really
(06:46):
low key that my tape was gettingtraction and moving up the food shape.
And they called me like a weekout before the official offer and they're like,
or no, I just think Iactually know. I just like pinged
my manager. I was like,hey, did we ever get any feedback
or about the last thing, becausethey were laughing at the table when I
sent there. I was like ohyeah, yeah, yeah, um,
it's gone up pretty high. We'rejust waiting for Jason to approve the tape
(07:08):
and I was like, what,it's a good bit of first news.
Yeah, I was like, JasonSadakis is like yeah, yeah, yeah,
they just sent the tape to himand I was like, oh my
god, we should know by theend of the week. And I was
like is this really possible. I'mlike really, And then we were out
there dinner with my wife and thein laws who were here to visit.
Um. I think it was likeDecember eighteenth, and my my agent manager
(07:30):
called and said your your Zava andit was very exciting, a bit surreal.
H the best Christmas gift a guycould ask for. Yeah, And
I remember my wife. My wifeteared up a little bit because she loved
the show and cried and I crieda little too hard because I was wondering,
did you not did you believe?But yeah, that's kind of how
(07:59):
it came to be, in theprocess of me trying to how I taped
for and what I what I broughtto the to the tape and the read
So yeah, it was. Itwas fantastic news, very just I'm so
lucky. It was like really juststupid luck, you know, and I'm
I got hired as an actor fromthis, Like they weren't looking for actors
in the States. They were lookingfor like globally everywhere else but America apparently.
(08:24):
So it's kind of like, good, you just made the cut.
I just made the cut and itworked out. It worked out, which
then kept us here until and liketill end of the July. Because of
the show, Marissa of the threeof us, has the most illustrious soccer
career. I think it peaked.When did it peaked, Marissa? Around
middle school? Yeah, that soundsabout right, Christian. Yeah, and
(08:48):
since then, you know, now, none of the three of us are
gonna trick anybody into thinking we're professionalfootballers. But we watch a lot of
soccer. And so the minute thatwe out of like heard your character being
described on screen and then saw you, it was very clear that you were
based off of Zlatan Ibrahimovich. Inspiredby lat Ibrahimovich. How where were you
(09:11):
of him before you auditioned for therole, and then how did you prepare
to play him? Because he isvery well known, enigmatic and specific in
how people understand him. Yeah,well, I mean, the Breakdown referenced
um Eric Cantona references lats On Ibrahimovich, and they didn't say that he's like
(09:35):
a villain. They described him moreas like an agitator. And I had
no idea coming from the States who'slot On Ibrahimovich was. But after getting
the part, I just I watchedsome interviews and stuff for the audition to
get kind of the sense of someof these guys. But once I got
the part, I kind of justdove into that world. I read tons
(09:56):
of books and bios, watched hoursof like documentaries and interviews. I read
Zlatan's book I Am Football Right,which is amazing. He didn't entitle it's
Laton as football, but whatever.Yeah, but I'll be honest with you
guys, I I fell in lovewith Latan Ibrahima. That's like I really
(10:18):
got to know who the guy was, like not just from like the YouTube
clips you see, but like hitthe book he wrote, and then the
interviews and hearing other people talk abouthim. I really admire the guy.
And I think Jason and Brendan saidthe same thing interview, like they're huge
fans of his and I became ahuge fan of his and I kind of
(10:39):
learned that these guys, the waythey present to the public and the press
is they're completely different in the lockerroom and with friends and family, and
some of them present in a Xavaesque way, some of them a lot
more quiet, or you can sayhumble, like a messy or you know,
a Zaidan. There's Canton All too, who was a big kind of,
(11:01):
I think, an influence for thewriters of the show. So yeah,
it was just a lot of tryingto understand why these guys behave the
way they do and why they change. And I think you kind of see
that in episode three a little bitwhen he finally gets to meet the team
and everyone. The charisma and thereis a genuineness when they're talking to you.
(11:26):
They are talking to you there inthe moment. There's no one else
of concern. It's like, I'mtalking to you. And I remember like
that, and I kind of comparedit to him. I had a friend
who's a costume designer and she workedwith Tom Cruise on a movie, and
you know, you're like, oh, it's Tom Cruise. He's coming in
and once you're in the room withhim, he's in the room with you.
(11:48):
He knows your name, he knowswhat you do, he's interested in
what you're doing, and he's humbleand he wants to work together. And
I think I thought that was somethinginteresting to bring to him if I could
in helping tell the story, youknow, like at the end of the
day, it's their guy, theirshow, their story, and they you
know, I'm just there to helpfacilitate the vision they want right for the
(12:09):
season. So I usually I'll dowhatever they need with the character. But
as an actor, I kind ofprepared it like I was playing a biopic,
you know. I didn't want togo in like doing a bad impression
of someone, and I wasn't tryingto do an impression of any individual soccer
player. I know people are sayingthere's a lot of similarities, but that
(12:31):
wasn't my intention. And the waywhere I come from, I thought it
was interesting if he did sound likeyou can't figure out where he's from,
right, you know, I'm Polish. I didn't want to sound I didn't
want to have a Polish accent.I didn't want to have a Russian accent,
Swedish, French. But these guysare international, They've lived everywhere.
Ye because black Time's lived everywhere.You know, he has his moms from
(12:54):
one place, his dad's from acomplete other place, grew up here,
speak several languages. I thought itwas just interesting if you can't point where
I don't know where he's from,I can't tell, right, Yeah.
I think the you've mentioned that andsome other interviews like kind of the work
you did to sort of add somemystique, even more mystique to the character
through a sort of unidentifiable like he'snot clearly Russian or Polish or something like
(13:16):
that. He's just kind of vaguelyEuropean metropolitan, you know, like it's
a it's a really it's a brilliantchoice, I think, And I think
that's one of the reasons that peoplejust have that strong point of reference to
a player like Latan, because youknow, he kind of carries that same
sort of mystique, like he's justhe's a he's an enigma, like he
(13:37):
is what he is. And Ithink Brendan Hunt sort of succinctly said that
when he was like Zava merely isZava, Like he has no regard for
the small things that a coach mighttry to do, but he has no
disregard. He's just a force untohimself essentially, you know, he's and
I think that's one of the thingsyou see in in episode three is that
when we very first meet Zava,it's almost like, oh, is this
(13:58):
just like a Jamie Tart one pointzero on steroids? Like a diva who
only cares about himself, And thenas you get into episode three you realize
this is a very different thing.Like they're both hugely talented, and of
course Zava's a little bit of adiva as well, but like you said,
the charisma and the way that heattracts people to himself as something that
one point oh Jamie never had.So you know what was the process of
(14:22):
for you and the writers and thecreative team of just like making sure,
okay, this is distinct enough,Like this is a different this is not
just a Jamie one point oh retread. Yeah, well, the thing is
like it was like, it's twothings. I remember Brendan m The first
day I kind of really got tolike even just chat with him about Zava
was the day I showed up tofilm the Veggie Dog Vigilante scene and he
(14:46):
says something to me there that kindof like was like, oh, yeah,
yeah, that makes sense, hesaid. You know, like like
like Michael Jordan when he retired frombasketball and then went to go play for
the White Sox, he was likehe was part of the team. He
wrote the team bus, but hishotel was different, you know other players,
(15:07):
that's right, Like Jamie's at adifferent place in his career than Zava.
Like like Brendan said, Zava's climbedthe mountaintop several times, you know
one trophy. Yeah, yeah,it was a legacy already. Yeah.
Yeah, he doesn't he doesn't needto prove himself to anyone anymore. Um,
you know, for him, he'sI think he's just looking for a
(15:31):
new challenge in his in his lifeand at this point as a career,
which I read a lot with alot of these guys when they've peaked and
they've been at a peak for along time, like they kind of for
them like family matters at that pointa lot. What where can I play
that makes my family happy? Youknow, I've made my money, I've
created a name for myself. Andsometimes you're like not to get to like
(15:54):
psychoanalytical, but like these players,sometimes they're made to can feel like,
you know, you've played for solong that you end up just being like
this piece that people want to trade, right be on a team, and
you know, when you're starting outthat's exciting. You want everyone to want
you and fight for you. Butonce you've you've done everything you've ever dreamt
(16:17):
of and you've reached this glorious likepinnacle in your sports career, you know
that game doesn't fill you up withanything, and the stuff that grounds you
in life is what really matters.And that kind of like it kind of
helped me like ground the character andhis motivation and why he would say this,
some of the stuff he would say, why he would behave the way
he would behave, why he wouldjump through different from all these different teams
(16:41):
as they describe him, because itfor me it was really like the role
is so funny. You read allthis stuff and on the surface you get
it, and on the surface thepublic when you hear people like Zlatan and
all these other players Ronaldo, they'reswitching teams. That's just what the headlines
say. So for me his act, I was like, all right,
that's what I would think too,but like why why they act that way?
(17:03):
What's something, what's a little deepermeaning behind why they would do that,
you know. So that's kind ofhow it helped, just to find
ground the role for myself and howthe audience perceives it and how you guys
feel about it. That's entirely truefor your experience. And it's none of
my business to tell you how tofeel about him, you know, like,
I'm hopefully you're entertained by him,whether you love him or you hate
him, or you're like you don'tknow what you want to think about him,
(17:26):
that's that's true for you. SoI try not to judge them the
character at all. You guys cando that, and we still we're still
going to get to know him alot more to write. And I think
your portrayal is very honest, andyou're acting it so well, because he
could be just a caricature or thiscartoon or just come off as a villain.
(17:47):
But yeah, I think as theaudience gets to know him, there
is something very lovable and endearing andcharming about him that isn't just one note
of you know, the diva that'scoming in just or all the goals there.
You know, clearly the team hassome admiration for him, and I
think that goes a long way forthe audience too, because it is a
(18:07):
show that's so heavily based on thisdynamic of the ensemble. Right So,
coming into this show that was sowell gelled, I guess as an ensemble,
was that something you felt like wasparticularly difficult or was there someone who
kind of made you feel like aliteral part of the team right away?
Well, in general, it's alwaysas an actor who comes in to Rick
(18:32):
her a guest st are and somethingthat's one of the hardest jobs to do
because you come in and there's aregular cast that's been on the show,
even just one full season lettle intwo or three, and with this show
specifically two amazing seasons with you know, adulation and awards and everything. So
it's always a come in. It'slike that that second third removed cousin who
(18:53):
gets invited to thanks coming in.The room's kind of quiet. But so
I've I've I've experienced that before,but coming onto this show was nothing like
that. Like I was a littlebit like, all, I wonder what
everyone's gonna be like, and youknow, they all seem really great on
the show, and you hear himand interviews or podcasts, they seem really
(19:17):
lovely, but you never know,You never know, do you know what
I mean? Yea? And Icame in and like I started going on
the costume fittings first, and Istarted meeting everyone in, like all the
guys from the team, like Philand to Heab and Caller and Billy and
Christo. They like knocked down mydressing room door introduced themselves and we're like
so pumped to meet the guy who'sgonna plead playing Zava and we were all
(19:41):
like laughing about the clothes. Itjust felt very welcoming and like there was
no egos. There was no like, oh, who's this guy who was
playing this guy, you know,one of the top strikers in the world
on the show, Like what doeshe think he is? It was everyone
was as nice as they come offon the show, to the point where
I came home. I think Itold the story a few times where I
came home and told my wife,Babe, everyone is really nice. Asshole
(20:08):
ahole you know, like when you'replaying poker and you can't find the sucker
at the table, that means you'rethe sucker. So I couldn't have felt
more welcomed and just comfortable. Hannahwas wonderful the first time I met her.
A funny story, we were filmingthat Chelsea scene and we hadn't really
chattered and said hi to each otherat all, but I had filmed a
(20:30):
zavo walking into the stadium with thehands up, and then they were doing
the reaction, and after we wrappedthat, we were just a little video
village, and you know, Ijust said, Hey, I'd like to
induce myself. You know, Iterrific work on the show. We've been
fans and you deserve all the accolades. You've gotten a pleasure to work with
you. And she was like,oh, Darling. At this point,
(20:52):
I just come to said and Ijust hope please don't fuck it up.
You know that. I sure,you know the third season now to two
seasons of awards and everything, sothat no one is resting on their laurels.
You know, they're all words asif this is day one on episode
one, season one, like everyonewants to do the best they can.
(21:14):
It's everyone top from Jason all theway down to the pas grabbing coffee,
like everyone's just happy to be thereand enjoying everything. Walk us through the
your experience at the premiere a littlebit, because you come and you do
the blue carpet thing and people aretaking your pictures. A lot of the
guests impress at that point, youknow, probably don't know exactly what your
role is going to be or entail. The lights go down, everybody watches
(21:37):
the first two episodes and they watchit like on a movie screen, and
so it's this different experience. Andyou get to the end of episode two
and you've had at least two likereally memorable important scenes. The lights come
up, and now like everybody recognizesyou as, Oh, you're that guy.
What's going through your head as you'retalking to all of these strangers beforehand?
(22:00):
And then what's the experience like aftereverybody gets to see those first two
episodes. Actually, when I didthe press line, the actual press got
four episodes, I think the firstfour, so they already knew who I
was playing and I had seen it, so that kind of actually made that
whole blue carpet thing way easier.Instead of just showing up, They're like,
(22:22):
why are we taking photos of thisguy right to talk to him?
So that that made a little bitmore relaxing because everyone's like, oh,
hey, you know you're this,like, tell us about that. And
I was just nervous because I hadno idea what like like they told me.
But I was just like, Idon't know how much I can talk
about And people are telling you,like this, this outlet knows they've seen
(22:45):
the first four episodes. You cantalk to them. This one's only seen
the first two. Don't mention anythingabout the three and there's but you know,
reporters ask and they dig. SoI was just more nervous about not
ruining anything. But yeah, whenthe lights came up, that was that
was That was fun too, becausea lot of people in the audience maybe
didn't really know who I was becausethey hadn't seen for the episodes, and
(23:06):
it seemed like people really enjoyed,enjoyed them the first two episode of the
season and the character. And youknow, if you can make a room
full of people laugh, you're justlike you can breathe easy a little bit.
Especially with a role like this,you're like Jesus, you know,
I just hope it doesn't fall flat. Um, But and again, how
could it, Like you work withguys like Jason Brett and Brendan like they
(23:30):
don't want to let anyone fail,you know, and if you just trust
them, then you know, letit happen. So yeah, it was.
It was great. It was surrealto be at the premiere to answer
your question quickly, and the bluecarpet was a little easier because people had
known why I was standing on theblue carpet. But yeah, there's definitely
a different effect once it's aired.Where people saw on the after party.
(23:53):
Was it was nice? It wasnice. Well, I want to circle
back to kind of what Christian mentionedabout the You have kind of these two
major scenes in episode two, andI would say, just based on the
internet reaction alone, the urinal sceneis going to pass into like television lore
as like one of the most powerful, like hilarious scenes, and especially like
you have Hannah Wattingham. She's justa force, right, And I had
(24:15):
read somewhere I think that originally therewas more dialogue for Zava in that moment,
but once you all filmed it,like the day of filming, maybe
someone came, maybe Jason came andsaid like, hey, actually, like
just don't say anything. She's justgonna like kind of steamroll you. And
then leave, and so what wasit like kind of experiencing that because that's
like sort of Zava's first big momentand then you know, your dialogue disappears,
but it adds this wonderful bit ofmystery. But kind of what was
(24:38):
that situation? Like, yeah,no, that's a great story. So
Jason came like on paper. WhenI got the script, I read that
scene and now I was like dying, especially with the pe underneath the scene,
and I was just pinching myself onmy arm. So lucky that I
get to work with. These guysare brilliant. This is hilarious, and
(25:00):
the and the dialogue between them wasreally funny. And the day we were
filming the Chelsea stuff was actually theday before the bathroom scene, so this
is a day ahead. We filmedthe Chelsea stuff. And then Jason came
up to me, um, youknow, and he has that ted lapso
mustache and stuff, and he's alwayslike he's very focused as as like a
(25:21):
creator of the show and all aboutthe work, which actually put me at
ease because you forget who you're talkingto and who you're around. It's just
like boom, we jump into thework. But he came up and he
was like, hey, man,I was thinking like, maybe we keep
his off a bit bit more ofa mystery, and I kind of just
I'm thinking, Hannah should just likesay this whole thing and you don't say
(25:44):
anything. This is I think thisis like day one or day two of
me filming, because previously I didthe Leggie Dog would you lan anything?
Which is pretty quick, and inmy head, I'm like, oh Jesus,
and you know, to Jason,I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah absolutely. In my head,I'm like, fun, you think
I sucked. We didn't even rehearseit him, give him giving us a
(26:04):
shot to like say it all out. You know, maybe I just maybe
I'm somehow. But I went homeand I looked at the they sent the
provided stuff, and I was like, this is actually better. You know.
I think Show Don't Tell is likeone of the main things you talk
(26:25):
about when you're doing film and TVum and when we filmed it, it
just felt great, like why wouldhe say anything? And I think it
keeps a him really mysterious. Hestill has his status and it gives in
Hannah just nailed that that speech,and the whole time I was just trying
(26:45):
to keep it together, and especiallyin that asparagus line. Yeah, but
when I saw in the theater forthe first time, when I saw EP
two, I was like, asa brilliant choice, Like he doesn't need
to say hey, anything, andHannah's it's Hannah's moment. It's like Hannah's
time to like, you know,grab grab him by the balls and like
(27:07):
tell him the truth. And youknow, it still works. It still
motivates him to go to Richmond,and it still keeps him high status and
a bit mysterious because you know,I got the glasses on and everything.
So I thought it was like thebest choice because on paper things are funny,
right, But when I put himin real life and you do him
and these see them on screen likeit, it might not work. And
(27:29):
I think that's the brilliance of theseguys, is Jason. All these guys
know that, and they keep everythingflexible and they leave room the day of
filming for some magic and inspiration tohappen. So a lot of the stuff
you've seen in the show, whichI discovered quickly, like, is discovered
and played with while you're shooting,sometimes in between takes. And I think
(27:51):
that was like something I've never experiencedthat on a set before, you know,
and you can chalk it up toJason's snel experience and the writer's room
and experience, but yeah, Iloved I thank god they cut my lines.
I know that. I never thinkI'd say it out loud, but
yeah, well, and it takes. It takes a cast of people who
you know are sort of humble enoughto serve the content, you know,
(28:14):
are to serve the story being told. And that's like, I think that's
something that you know, we've talkedto a handful of cast and creative folks
from the show now, and thatjust that seems to be an overarching kind
of echoing thing that we hear islike yes, like those things happen,
and in the moment you're kind oflike okay, like hope it works.
And then you see the finished productand you're like, yes, like brilliant
because I assume we are going tosort of find out Zava's motivations and it's
(28:37):
going to be in a way that'sway more interesting. But then you just
get this, like you find thesecond laugh right, like we are laughing
at the asparagus line, and thenZava liked to have this beat and then
sniffs, which is like killed me. I died, so like like you
get the extra laugh anyway, youknow, so good? Thank you?
Yeah, yeah, I know itwas yeah Hannah. I mean that's all
Hannah's work. I just had tostand there and try not to laugh not
(29:03):
to laugh. Yeah, you mentionedcostuming earlier. How fun was it to
do costuming for Zambo and did youget to have any input into his personal
style? Costume? Was a lotof fun, and I like, very
luckily I did get to have alittle bit of input into the costuming.
(29:26):
Jackie what the Jackie Levy, thecostume designer, was fantastic to collaborate with.
She wanted to. She asked me, what do you think, Like,
here's some options. What are youfeeling like? We were texting different
looks for him, especially the firststep, and a lot was changing.
I remember in the original episode two, the way they interest Zamba wasn't the
(29:48):
veggie dog vigilante. It was likehe was doing like some watch commercial with
the shirt open and stuff. Sowe were fitting that and then next day
it changed, and then we suddenlyfound ourselves looking for something like that made
sense for the vigie dog vigilanti,veggie dog vigilante part of me. But
like the yellow shoes, I'm wearingthe high top shoes that I brought that
(30:11):
idea in because I bought these,the short top version of those, and
I was in Paris and I justthought these kind of work. And I
saw the high tops and I waslike, Jackie, what do you think
of these? But the high topsfor Zava like the kind of flashy,
They're very bright, and she broughtthem. She brought the idea to the
guys and they signed off and theyloved it. And then we were trying
(30:32):
on these different jackets. I rememberI tried on this like really bright colored
purple rainbow which fur coat, andI told Jackie, this feels more like
mc lemore to me, that youknow, And then we found that jacket
um and I loved the fur collar. I thought of him as like this
lion, viewed himself as like alion. I love the sheep. And
(30:56):
you know, Jackie loved it,and she brought it to the guys and
they they thought it was great.I think I read somewhere that the guys
kind of said, like they liketo let the actress kind of their instincts
kind of guide where the clothing takesthem. And it felt that way to
me when I walked down the show, and Jackie being kind enough to like
want to hear out my ideas wasreally nice. Um, so it felt
(31:18):
really collaborative and like I had alittle bit of input as to what Zavo
might wear when and even how I'mlooking forward to the drop of the Zava
and Zava and Zava and Zava Tshirt, Like I'm for sure buying one
of those when that happens, andif not, we're buying a cricket and
(31:40):
making our you guys notice those shirts. That's great. Yeah, we had
deposit well to your point too aboutthe costuming, is I think I before
season three. This might have beenbetween season one and two or maybe two
and three, but I have seenJackie Levy in an interview say you know
that they sort of asked them ofthose initial core group of players to like
(32:01):
think about a footballer that inspired themor that they felt some sort of connection
too, and then they were ableto sort of draw from that. And
so especially these days, there's awealth of fashion to choose from when it
comes to looking at footballer, Sothat's yeah, you know, and I
don't wear yeah, I don't wearVersacci shirts and stuff like that, like
you know, I'm like black shirts. He should kind of guys. So
(32:22):
that was a lot of fun tojust you know, Jackie Plant, what
about this Versacci shirt or this youknow name the designer top and the coat.
And I was like, geez,yeah, sure, yeah, high
fashion. It was nice. Itwas fun. It's fun and when you
get to play role like that,you just lean into it and you just
try to own it. You know. I always told myself, I gotta,
(32:44):
you know, for this role,like I, I have to wear
the coat. The coat can't wearmeat, you know. So you don't
want to look like an actor inthe costume. I look like the character.
That's the coat he wants to wear, and he rocks it, you
know, right. Part of thecost doing is, you know, the
shirt comes off in one of yourmost iconic bits and we see the giant
(33:07):
tattoo on your back. Brett isdying to know if you know, whose
idea was to use Jesus Christ superstarin that scene for the music? Yeah,
I don't know. You don't wanta script usually though, in this
in this show. In the script, they would say, you know,
this is happening, and underneath wehave like six differentists, different songs they
(33:29):
possibly want to use for it,and it was funny and other ones I
think they use in the montage,and three was actually on in the script
again like they'll change it based onwhat fits as the as the show gets
formed. I don't know whose ideathat was wasn't mine. I loved it,
(33:49):
yeah yeah. And the tattoo,yeah, I remember. The tattoo
was a big thing because I originallywanted to have, um, some sleeves
tattoo sleeves here and stuff, andthen we would have the tattoo on the
back. But I just I thinkthey like those two things. It's less
time in the chair for me,right, So I don't want to do
the sleeves. And I think theywanted to do that reveal of the tattoo
(34:12):
on the back, like make itcount right, make it once, and
make it special, which I thinkthen I'm just paid off, which was
hilarious. Oh boy, did it? Yeah? Yeah yeah. And so
we were working on the design ofthe tattoo, you know, kind of
like I was pitching some ideas andthen I think Brendan was working on some
ideas, if I'm not mistaken,And then NICKI Austin costume, Aaron makeup,
(34:37):
help help execute it. And youknow, I'm glad you guys liked
it a brilliant You mentioned that youspeak some Polish. You're also skilled enough
in folk dance to have folk dancedfor Pope John Paul. The second,
how did you get that opportunity?Why are you bringing that up? Well,
first of all, I'm not skilledenough to go dance for Poke.
(35:00):
Done that? That gave grown upguy. We gotta cut the interview short.
That's it, all right, sovery quickly. I grew up in
Chicago. It is a very heavyPolish neighborhood. My mom, because we
immigrated, wanted to make sure thathe was in touch with my Polish roots.
So I went to Polish school.You know, I did the Polish
(35:21):
Boy Scouts. You know, theymade me play piano like every Polish kid.
Yet it was to learn. Andthen when I was in the boy
Scouts, I met a friend andhe was like, hey, man,
do you want to meet some girls. There's a lot of girls in this
Polish folk dance group. And wedon't have enough. Guy. I think
I was like thirteen fourteen. Iwas like, yeah, yeah, let's
do it. And before I knewit, I was wearing a folk costume
(35:45):
with an ostrich feather sticking out ofme and black leather boots to my knees,
like dancing away. And this folkgroup kind of had a bit of
like a footprint in Chicago, andI have no idea how they finagled this,
but we got to travel to Rometo do like a pilgrimage that was
(36:06):
Israel. Sorry, we traveled toIsrael after that. But we went to
Rome and we danced in like thisgeneral audience with the pope you know when
he does masks, and in theVatican with one hundred thousands of people.
And then the head of the groupknew one of the cardinals or bishops,
and she requested if we could doa private dance for him in his home
(36:29):
in kester Gundorfo And like two dayslater he says, yes, he would
love to have you guys over.So like fourteen years old, I'm going
to the pope out John Paul,you know, is famous Polish pope,
and we found ourselves. We didtwo dances for him, and he was
(36:50):
so funny and he was cracking jokesabout Chicago, and he shook everyone's hand
and we got to meet him andwe took photos with him. So it
wasn't necessarily like you have to auditionfor the group like group and then the
group has the audition. It wasI don't know. I don't know who
she knew to ask and how hedid it, but I know that we
were like the third Polish folk dancegroup in history to dance for him,
(37:15):
and our pictures somewhere in the VaticanMuseum. That's like my little that's my
little, like you know, iceBreaker. When I meet do interviews or
meeting new people and they're like,did you folk dance for the Pope?
I'm like, one of the reasonsjust to meet girls. One of the
(37:35):
reasons I asked the question is becauseTom Hendrick, who plays O'Brien on ted
Lasso, he is quite the accomplishedPolish folk dancer and I saw today on
his Instagram he's at like a UKPolish folk festival and he's like in the
outfit and dancing and everything. Didthe two of you find occasion to have
a dance off at any point betweenscenes. Is that's something he lunched two,
(38:00):
Yeah, we did, and wewe pitched it to Jason and he
loved it, and we filmed thescene with Zava and his character folk dance
off in the locker room and thenthey just cut it. You can't wait
till we get that blooper reel.We could not have. We did hit
it off the right away, likeI can. We you know, I
(38:22):
think he can tell from my lastname Ossinski And he was like, hey,
you know, brother, do youspeak Polish? And I was like
yeah, and I started speaking Polishand he started speaking Polish and we were
just it was nice. And thenyou know, he told me he folk
dance and I was like, ohmy god, I did that too.
You know, I stopped stopped aboutsixteen. But I think you should ask
him. He's like the professional folkdancer that he probably should have been at
(38:45):
the Pope's house, not me.But he's terrific. He's a wonderful guy.
And yeah, he lives in London, so we keep in touch.
It's interesting how your stories your introductionsto folk dance line up too, because
when we talked to him, Ithink he expressed that his family also wanted
him to stay connected to his Polishroots, and that he also like sort
(39:06):
of he was like, it wasa great way to meet girls when you
were like a teenager. So youknow that's you know, there you go,
who do Polish folk dancing? Whoare you? Yeah? I mean
I don't think I got a girlfriendout of it. Poulse advertising that they
weren't interested in the guys, andyou know Ostrich feather Caps shocker. Yeah,
(39:28):
You've mentioned your wife teaching a coupleof times, and y'all worked together
on Agents of Shield And now you'reboth in Apple TV plus shows. You're
in Tulasso and she is in Severance. Which one of you landed with Apple
TV Plus first? She got Severance, Um, yeah, I think we're
(39:50):
still in la like just coming outof lockdown. So she got that first,
um right around and she was stillto film Jurassic World. Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, Soshe was first. And then obviously
yeah, I told you guys,Yeah, I didn't get it till a
year. I didn't get it onto the last until a year or later.
The two shows are maybe opposite intone, but one of the things
(40:13):
that they both really hinge on ourreveals and surprises and so what's it like
to watch your respective shows with eachother knowing that your spouse is going to
be surprised by something a secret thatyou're holding onto. I mean, I'm
just gratitude first of all. LikeI pinched myself, like you're on an
(40:34):
amazing Apple show that like people areexcited to talk about, and I'm on
an amazing Apple show that people areexcited to talk about. We just go
like we just try to remain likegrateful and happy and we pinch ourselves and
it's fantastic. I remember being oneted last and when the show premiered and
then like Jeremy was welcome. Didyou guys see that show? Severing's like
I really like it, and I'mlike my wife's on it, and he
(40:58):
like his face lit up, likeoh really, who is she? You
know She's like, oh my goodness, I love it so much, and
you know, like it was alittle bit surreal. Um. We try
not to spoil things for each other, uh, you know, like I
tried not to. I mean,I mean she knew kind of what I
was filming for for Zava. Shewould stay with me and like, you
(41:19):
know, you come home like,how was your day. I'm not gonna
say, I can't tell you whereto tell me everything? And I would
say do you want to know?Or do you want to ruin it for
you? But it still hasn't takenthe joy from her, like watching it
on like come together and she yeah, for like, I didn't know.
(41:40):
I didn't know how Severance was ending. So when I saw that, it
was fantastic and I was so happyfor her. Um, yeah, and
I'm really excited about season two.I haven't I haven't asked about what the
scripts are doing, you know,I just kind of know when they call
her out when they're filming her,I was like, how's your day is,
like, oh, we have toshoot this thing or something. I
(42:00):
was like, okay, but kindof just want to I don't I want
to be surprised, you know.Yeah, yeah, no spoilers here,
but that that reveal at the endof Separate season one is like one of
my all time faves right now,and I get I guessed so loud.
I couldn't catch my breath. Iwas like, what, Oh my gosh,
it was Yeah, I'll take thatas a compan I am ready.
(42:22):
I am like I feel like theycould go so many I've tried to avoid
like reading too much about season two, which there's not a ton anyway,
but I'm like, I they couldgo so many places. I just want
to come into it like I cameinto the first season knowing really nothing,
you know, like not knowing whatwas going to happen, kind of what
the mystery was, and just lettingit all kind of like play out.
Yeah, And to piggyback on thatquestion, like what we're really great for
(42:45):
is like Ben Stiller in season onethat was like his baby and it lasts
was Jason's baby. Yeah. Thefact that we get to work with like
these two guerrillas of of comedy anddrama and directing, and you know,
I mean, I know Jason doesn'tfeel that way but about himself, but
I mean he's he's so talented andmultifaceted. You know, he can direct,
(43:09):
he can act, he can write, And they're both like I remember
me and Deach and talking to eachother, like they're both very specific and
meticulous about their projects, irrespectively.And you get a sense from that um
and it kind of and everyone elsefeeds off of that and you kind of
(43:29):
just have to go with the waythey work. While it might be very
different, but they're very specific people. And you know, she would tell
me these stories about working with Benand then I would tell his stories about
working with Jason. I was like, oh my god, these you know,
there's some similarities into it about them, even though they're very different people.
But that's what's probably more crazier thanwe on Apple shows is that we
(43:51):
get to work with you know,she worked with him, and I got
to work with Jason and Brendan andBrett Like, yeah, it's just spit
lucky, Like I don't know howthat works. Yeah, I think this
is true. A lot of AppleTV shows and streaming shows is just like
the handmade sort of nature of thestories that we're just getting to experience as
viewers now, Like it just there'sso many Yeah, you're just well you're
(44:15):
just seeing lots of different experiences reflectedthrough the people who write them and who
are working on the shows, andit's it's just like, yeah, everything
feels like we can We've there's somuch TV now that we can be more
personal and kind of tell more specificstories, and that's I think it's it's
even it's enrichening that's not a word. It's making the storytelling more rich.
Yeah, it gives you, youknow, I think these streamers are allowing
(44:36):
some of these creators to explore deeper, meaningful stories. You know, ted
Lasso's supposed to be a comedy,but it's running at forty five fifteen minutes
now, and is it a comedy? Sometimes it's not a comedy. Yeah.
After season two premier, someone waslike, I don't know when ted
Lasso went from a half hour comedyto an hour long drama, but I
hope it wins both awards, likeyou know something like that. Right,
(44:58):
I think that's nice. I thinkthat's nice. I think, um,
you know, I mean that's that'slife. Man. Sometimes life is funny
and then sometimes life is not funny. And I think when it's you know,
I get it while you want totune into a multicam and just have
a good time. Absolutely, Ithink shows like this resonate because you have
room to like, like Jamie isgreat, Like his acting is fantastic and
(45:21):
that you know, like first seasonyou beat him was like, oh,
this guy's kind of a hole.And he has that moment in the locker
room with its father, you know, and then like, holy shit,
you know that resonates with people.You You asked like, what are your
favorite scenes? Like when Ted forgivesRebecca for for that article, that's amazing.
(45:43):
Biscuits, no barbecue sauce, it'son the dark. That scene you
know that you can't really you can'tput your thumb on that's like that's a
comedy scene. That's a thing.But you know, when they do choose
to do comedy, it's funny,like episode two when they're all trying to
feel like who's on first? Thatthe locker room bit also is an amazing
(46:06):
to write a book about Trick krimdied. Oh my god, that was
the best moment. It's so good. It's Yeah. The project that you
and each and worked together on Agentsof Shield probably doesn't get enough credit for
kind of how influential it's been,Like it was the first of the weekly
(46:28):
Marvel shows that then kind of fedinto and interacted with the Marvel movies.
To now have wrapped that show andto see everything that all these Marvel shows
have become, what's your kind ofreflection on where Marvel's at and the opportunity
that y'all had to be a partof that in the early stages of what
(46:51):
we now know is the Marvel Universetoday. I mean, I'm grateful that
that that show. I've done someconventions and stuff and met fans, and
you know, you film a showand you're in a you're kind of in
a bubble. You're on set withthe cast, and you go home and
you come back and you're on setwith the cast, and you can tend
(47:12):
to kind of forget who you're filmingit for and who's watching it and how
they feel about it. And thenmeeting the fans and just seeing how much
it's meant to them and how muchaffection they have for these characters, and
like even me, I would surpriseme. It means a lot, and
you kind of, you know,I think that's a whole Like a lot
of these Marvel shows are like theworld is fantastical. I think part of
(47:37):
the success with some of the showsand the movies is, like, you
know, people can still find away to relate to them on a human
level, and I think that's whatadds to their success. So being a
part of that early Marvel TV showwas, you know, it was a
blessing. It filmed in La.So I got to go home and see
my my wife and kid, andI had just had my daughter when I
(48:00):
started on that show. So thatjob has a lot of special places in
my heart, you know, likea job being on that show getting to
those people, and the creators andthe writers did a fantastic job. So
yeah, I'm grateful, and it'sexciting to see how it's evolved to the
movies and all the other shows.I mean, what do you how do
you guys feel? Are you guys, are you guys tired of all the
(48:22):
Marvel shows? Is it too much? You know, I always know the
people still respond to the show todayif it came out versus when it did.
Yeah, I mean it's kind ofdifferent because the seasons are longer and
focuses on a bunch of different characters. But I know for me, like
I have adolescent kids, and whereasnot every Marvel movie is for them yet,
(48:45):
Like they're not ready for that yet, right, Agents of Shield and
Agent Carter, like those are greatintros into the Marvel world until they are
ready for all of the movies andthe more serious show. And so you
know the Agents of Shield and Lostwhich came before that, those to me
(49:06):
and my experience, were two ofthe first show that was like, Okay,
we have to figure out how torecord this because I don't want to
miss it, Like this is somethingthat I don't want to miss every single
week otherwise I'll be out of theloop. And those were some of the
first shows that, yeah, likeyou do check out the message boards and
people are talking about what's going tohappen. And it was a little bit
different too because the spoilers. Likethe Internet, you could talk to a
(49:30):
bunch of people, but the spoilerystuff wasn't leaking as much yet, and
so it really was more community based, whereas now, I know, even
for us until Lasso, like,we're kind of careful. We don't treading
to read it that much anymore becauseyou never know what you're going to find
there, and we do want toexperience the show and we try to make
sure that we don't spoil things.Yeah, like I have a sentimental attachment
(49:52):
to Agents of Shield and look forwardto now watching it with my kids.
It'll be fun. Well, Max, thank you so much for coming on
the show. It has been sucha blast talking to you about your character
and Ted Lasso, and we justso appreciate you man. Thank you,
guys, thank you for having me. I hope but in ran too long,
But I'm flattered. You guys arefans of the show and I'm a
(50:13):
fan of the show too, andit's fantastic to talk about a part that
people are excited about and entertained with. So thank you. We absolutely are
and cannot wait to see where Zavagoes this season. So thank you and
take care. Thank you guys,have a good one, and that is
our show. We had a greattime chatting with Max about his work on
(50:36):
ted Lasso, as well as someof his other projects. You can find
links to his social media and morein the show notes on our website ted
lassopod dot com. We'll be backsoon with more ted Lasso goodness, but
you can keep the conversation going withus on Twitter and Instagram in the meantime.
Our handle on both platforms is atted Lasso Pod. This episode of
Richmond Till We Die It is broughtto you by Gin and Kerosene Productions.
(50:59):
It was produced by Marissa Christian andme. If you're enjoying our show,
please take thirty seconds to subscribe toour feed and give the show a five
star review on Apple Podcasts or afive star rating on Spotify. Heck,
if you're feeling generous, you couldeven do both. As always, we
appreciate all the ways y'all share yourlove and support for the pod. Okay,
I'm Brett signing off for Marissa Christianand Maxosinski. Thanks for listening.
(51:22):
Until next time, Cheers y'all.N Core nine
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