A 15-year-old star of Apple TV’s Ted Lasso has revealed she almost skipped her initial audition for the Emmy Award-winning comedy series.

The show follows fictional Premier League football club AFC Richmond after they hire an American college football coach to lead the failing team.

Elodie Blomfield, from Buckinghamshire, began playing Phoebe – niece of grumpy midfielder Roy Kent – when she was just eight years old, but had considered skipping the audition in favour of a mindfulness class hosted by her school.

She said: “I hadn’t got an acting job at that point, and I thought the chances were very slim, but at the last minute I thought, ‘You never know,’ so I went for it.”

When she got home from the audition, her brother, who had been to the class, revealed he had made a stress ball.

She laughed: “I remember being so jealous and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I made the wrong choice. I should have gone to this class.’ I was so jealous of this stress ball that he’d made.

“It’s very funny looking back and thinking about how different my life could have been. I wouldn’t have been in Ted Lasso.”

During filming she developed a closeness with co-star Brett Goldstein, who played her on-screen uncle and wrote some of the episodes.

She said: “He is kind of like an uncle to me. I’ve learnt so much about acting from him just by acting with him, and he’s so incredible.”

Working with the famously foul-mouthed former footballer did present challenges for the production with an eight-year-old girl on set.

She recalled: “In the first season they would try and not swear in front of me as much as possible… He would use filler words like ‘duck’ or something like that.

“My part definitely grew in the second season, so I think they realised I was going to be hearing it anyway and there was nothing they could do about it.”

The show initially wrapped up after its third season in 2023 but was greenlit for new episodes in 2025 with many of the original cast returning.

Because scripts had not been written, it was not immediately clear if her character would be back, but she was thrilled to eventually get the call.

She explained: “When I heard that I was coming back, I was over the moon; I was so excited just to see everyone again.

“I think we’ve created such a family, and I was just so excited to be with my favourite people again.”

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