"I’ve just been stealing from them for years now"- When Jason Sudeikis made the bold revelation of getting comedic inspiration from friends

Few could look at Jason Sudeikis now and think that he was not naturally hilarious. With roles that have encompassed some of the most iconic comedy movies (and shows), Jason Sudeikis is among the most prominent actors in the genre. Yet, he revealed that this wasn't always the case in an interview that dates back to 2013.

Jason Sudeikis sat down with Michael Keaton for an interview with The Interview Magazine, where he admitted that he had a funny father and funny friends, who really helped him adapt his personality in a way that would be really useful in his line of work. He was asked by Keaton whether he was a funny kid, like most actors in the genre are. Keaton also questioned if he was surrounded by funny people when he grew up.

Sudeikis responded to this, saying:

"Well, my dad is very funny and he introduced me to a lot of stuff. The people he liked, I ended up really liking—except for basketball, because I love Magic and he loved [Larry] Bird. But with everything else, we were right down the line. I also had funny friends. I’ve got videos from, like, sixth grade, and it’s my buddies Ryan Landry, Terry Maher, Matt Bail—I’ve just been stealing from them for years now."

He further explained in this interview how he was the non-funny one in his group in his earlier years. Of course, a lot has changed since, and Jason Sudeikis is now perhaps one of the funniest actors around.

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"I was just the boring one"- Jason Sudeikis on whether he was funny as a kid

Interestingly, though Jason Sudeikis' entire career is based on comedy, he was not the funny kid in his younger years. He did begin his career doing improv comedy and was hired as a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, which brought him mainstream success early in his career, but he was quite different when he was younger.

After admitting that he did borrow a lot of comedic elements from the ones he grew up with, Sudeikis further elaborated on how he was as a youngster. He elaborated in the same interview:

"I was a straight man long before I knew what it was called. I was just the boring one. But they were so clever—and those are my friends who didn’t even choose to go into a life that we call “the arts.” And then I have all the friends that I made in Chicago or in Las Vegas who are funny for a living and could also still blow me away."

Of course, this did not hinder Jason Sudeikis in any way in his later endeavors as he became the lead in many comedy movies like Horrible Bosses (2011), Horrible Bosses 2 (2014), and We're the Millers (2013), among others. He also had a recurring role in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2010–2011), Portlandia (2011–2014), and The Last Man on Earth (2015–2018), among others.

Of course, his most famous role is his rather recent one in Apple TV+'s acclaimed sports comedy series Ted Lasso, which he also co-created.

Ted Lasso has been renewed for a fourth season and will be back soon. It is unclear whether Sudeikis will be back as the titular character, but in all likelihood, he will.