Juno Temple Excels at the Comedy, Drama in Keeley Jones for AppleTV’s ‘Ted Lasso’

It’s difficult to believe that Emmy-nominated actress Juno Temple had never really done comedy prior to AppleTV’s Ted Lasso.

Given the accolades showered upon her since the series debuted in 2020, it appears that Temple is doing something right. Her season two arc as publicist Keeley Jones sees her balancing between comedy and drama, and she offers intensely memorable moments in both genres across the season. But Temple believes her journey into comedy mirrors her Keeley’s own trajectory within AFC Richmond.

“As the season has progressed, [Keeley] has had her eyes open to seeing herself in a different way through somebody that she really respects and looks up to and has become great friends with. That’s Rebecca [Hannah Waddingham]. It’s kind of mirroring how I felt when I first signed on to the show and was terrified at the idea of being a part of comedy series, considering I just literally had never really done comedy before in my life,” Temple admits. “I sort of feel like me and Keeley went through a slightly similar situation in the sense that I’m not saying I’m entirely comfortable in the comedy world yet, but I definitely feel that it’s a place that I don’t have to be terrified anymore. That when I’m around people I trust and that also have faith in me that I maybe can be funny. So I think the performance element of me feeling more comfortable in the universe and Keeley also finding a new way of seeing herself are two things that have sort of mirrored each other and, hopeully, people see in the performance.”

In fact, Temple and co-star Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent) have the most broadly comic subplot of a Ted Lasso season that dips into some pretty heavy subject matter. In the fan-favorite episode “Carol of the Bells,” Keeley and Roy embark on a Christmas Day quest to solve  Roy’s niece Phoebe’s chronic halitosis. It’s a deeply funny sequence that, while appearing on the surface as a traditional family sitcom subplot, challenges the viewers by unabashedly making Phoebe (the wonderful Elodie Blomfield) the target of many jokes.

But it also ends in a traditionally sweet call-back to the new Christmas classic Love Actually that only Ted Lasso could pull off. Temple, too, was a huge fan of that sequence and the episode itself.

“To be truly honest with you, it was one that was actually quite hard to keep a straight face for because us just playing with reactions to her breath was something that off-camera people were finding it quite hard to keep a straight face for. So, on camera, there were moments with us just being like, ‘Oh, wait, I’m sorry. We’re gonna have to go again because we were just completely cracking up’,” Temple laughs. “Also the whole thing of Roy [Goldstein] swearing and then that whole continued conversation of him wanting to go beat up a child. But there’s also the sweetness of [Keeley and Roy] fixing all of this for her. I just thought that was a heavenly heavenly episode.”

But season two was not all moments of sweetness and levity for Temple’s Keeley Jones.

The writing team handled Temple two significant moments of real drama that would challenge the most seasoned of actors. The first occurs during a photo shoot for Keeley’s magazine profile. Keeley and Roy both shared difficult truths about their relationship, not moments of actual infidelity but cracks that, if not properly discuss, could become ruinous. At the end of the sequence, the photographer snaps away while Keeley and Roy stare blankly into the void.

It’s a powerfully dramatic moment that Temple interprets as a moment of deep love and understanding.

“What it means to me when you really love somebody, it means that when they tell you information, good or bad, you understand it. Sometimes it means that you have to let people go. Sometimes it means you have to cling on to them tighter,” Temple explains, “but in that moment, I think it’s comes from a profound love. That means that he is understanding and, when you have a connection like that, words aren’t needed.”

A second, shatteringly dramatic moment happens at the end of the season. Roy surprises Keeley with a romantic holiday to a tropical isle, but she, overwhelmed with the responsibilities of a new career, politely declines. The moment is unexpected, mildly brutal, and honest.

It was a challenging scene to nail between director Declan Lowney, writers Jason Sudeikis and Joe Kelly, and co-star Goldstein.

“I found it very emotional personally. Being a part of a TV show as an actor, you don’t have control entirely of where your character is going or what they’re going to do or what their next step is, which is kind of what makes it a little bit like real life. You can’t predict what’s going to happen in 10 minutes or in two weeks. The kind of unknowingness of that leaves a kind of open-ended emptiness, whether it’s going to be they have to part ways or whether they are going to be able to work through it,” Temple reveals. “Where that beat we just talked about with the moment in the photoshoot where there’s a bit of understanding, this moment is a bit of misunderstanding. That’s what made it heartbreaking to me. I found it very difficult in the sense that I believe that Keeley and Roy really do understand each other. That was a moment where it was a miscommunication and a misunderstanding because I don’t think she was saying no. I think she was saying I can’t do that because of [her job]. So I think that’s where it was really heartbreaking to me, and it was hard to shoot. I’m not gonna lie.”

But pull it off beautifully, along with those surprising moments of brilliant comedy, Temple does.

Ted Lasso streams exclusively on AppleTV+.