If you're already dreading the end of Ted Lasso’s Season 2 this October and are in need of your warm, Dani Rojas' personality fix, then Jimmy Kimmel Live has got your back. In an interview with guest host Niall Horan, Cristo Fernández let his hair down and talked about injuries, being starstruck, and meeting one of the most powerful people on the planet.
In Ted Lasso, Fernández is a soccer – or football, as he prefers people to call it – player who loves the sport so much he goes around preaching about it to everyone he meets. Being a former professional football player himself, the actor fit the role like a glove, and his warm enthusiasm made his character a fan-favorite.
In the interview, Fernández reveals his family’s surprise with the success of Ted Lasso, his sister’s obsession with guest host Horan, his stint as a soccer player in his teenage years, and why he stopped playing professionally. He also talks about the transition to an acting career, how he felt when he first met Jason Sudeikis and how he ended up in a picture with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Ted Lasso Season 2 red carpet premiere without realizing who he was:
"I was meeting so many people, and this is something that happened... I was very happy to see all my cast and my friends and catching up again, and then we were taking pictures with this man and he was really kind with me, and kept approaching me and said, 'Chris, I love your work, you're amazing, Dani Rojas is amazing.' ... And he left, and I turned [to] my publicist and I was like, 'Who was that lovely man? He was amazing.' ... I didn't realize it was Mr. Apple Man himself. It was Tim Cook. ... I was so embarrassed, I wanted to die."
Ted Lasso is a sports comedy series that follows an American football coach (Sudeikis) who is recruited to coach AFC Richmond, an English Premier League team, even though he has no experience with soccer. The show became a surprise hit on Apple TV+, and was renewed for Season 2 only five days after the premiere of Season 1. Season 3 has already been greenlit by Apple.
New episodes of Ted Lasso Season 2 are currently airing every Friday on Apple TV+. You can watch the interview below (and yes, Fernández plays a little football at the end):