Brett Goldstein is funniest when a blunt reply suggests feelings his character would rather not discuss. His Roy Kent helps keep Ted Lasso's cheerfulness tolerable; his writing on Shrinking works too hard to make everyone likeable.
Fi1m perspective
In Ted Lasso (2020), Roy Kent's blunt replies are especially welcome when Ted's cheerfulness begins to wear. Brett Goldstein gives the anger enough feeling for Roy to remain someone worth spending time with, rather than a man employed solely to swear. We laughed with relief at his bluntness because it interrupted the buoyancy without requiring another elaborate joke. Goldstein is good at suggesting that his character has more to say and would prefer not to say it. The performance helps keep the programme's warmth from becoming tiring.
Writing and acting were already connected in SuperBob (2015), which Goldstein wrote and starred in, playing a postman turned superhero. Bill Lawrence subsequently hired him as a writer on Ted Lasso, with a self-taped audition leading to his casting as Roy. He also co-created the relationship anthology Soulmates (2020) with Will Bridges. The recurring interest in men who struggle to express emotion is clearest in Roy, whose anger Goldstein makes funny without pretending it is all there is to him.
Ted Lasso gives him colleagues who understand the value of not answering enthusiasm with more enthusiasm. Hannah Waddingham's Rebecca Welton can get a laugh from a withheld response, while Goldstein gives Roy's replies a harder edge beside Jason Sudeikis's Ted. Jeremy Swift's Leslie Higgins helps the exchanges feel like conversations rather than turns at a microphone. The jokes are uneven and the cultural clashes can be laboured, but this ensemble supplies good reasons to stay. Roy's vulnerability also keeps the profanity from becoming the whole performance.
The writing is less convincing in Shrinking (2023), created by Goldstein, Jason Segel and Lawrence. Its grieving therapist begins breaking professional rules, and the programme keeps trying to make him likeable when it ought to examine his methods. Segel's vulnerability and Harrison Ford's dry comedy make it worth trying, despite the hurried treatment of grief. We wanted the scripts to spend longer examining those broken boundaries, even at the cost of making the company less agreeable. Start with Ted Lasso for Goldstein; try Shrinking if the actors are enough of an attraction.
Biography
Brett Goldstein is a British actor, comedian, writer, producer and podcaster. He was born on 17 July 1980 in Sutton, London, and studied film at the University of Warwick before training in acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
Goldstein is best known for portraying Roy Kent in the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso (2020–present), for which he also wrote episodes and served as executive producer. He received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2021 and 2022 for the role.
He co-created the Apple TV+ series Shrinking (2023–present), in which he also appears as Louis and serves as writer and executive producer.
