In a classic case of the internet going full internet, fans of Apple TV+’s hit show Ted Lasso have stumbled upon what appears to be a conspiracy of the highest order: that actor and writer Brett Goldsetin, who plays the curmudgeonly former football player Roy Kent, does not actually exist.
The theory, which had come up multiple times on Reddit and more recently crossed over to Twitter, hedges on the fact that Goldstein, well…looks really fake in some of Ted Lasso‘s footage. Starting in Season 1, Goldstein’s character Roy Kent allegedly looks “100% CGI” because he “glows on the screen” and looks “imported straight from FIFA.”
The theory grew as people added their own “proof” that Roy Kent is CGI with clips of footage from Ted Lasso where he does, admittedly, look like a fake little man who lives in the computer.
“Actor” Brett Goldstein finally responded to the rumors with a video statement on Twitter on Instagram in which he insisted he was a “completely real, normal human man who just happens to live in a VFX house and does normal human basic things like rendering and buffering.” Hm.
In all seriousness, from the perspective of someone who has seen slightly unfinished screeners of many Ted Lasso episodes, the truth behind Roy Kent looking fake is that a lot more of the show’s sets and background are green screen and CGI than one might imagine.
For example, in that damning video above, recall that most of the football fields in the show are just normal fields with green screens set up along the perimeter so the VFX team can add LED billboards and replicated crowds. Even the indoor scenes, especially in some characters’ windowed offices, the “view” of the field is also green screen, so lots of characters have a moment or two where the lighting looks a bit off to the eagle-eyed watcher.
OK, did you all read that? Dope. Let me just grab my phone real quick to accept the huge sum of money a mysterious donor promised to drop into my Apple Pay account if I wrote this article. Easiest money I’ve ever made. (Editor’s note for anyone thinking of going full internet on this comment: Alexis is making a joke.)
