#Brett Goldstein says ‘Ted Lasso’ co-star Jason Sudeikis is a ‘superbrain’

The British actor/writer is currently starring in and writes for the Apple TV sports comedy “Ted Lasso.” The series follows Ted (played by show co-creator and “SNL” alum Jason Sudeikis), an American football coach who’s recruited to coach an English Premier League soccer team — despite having little knowledge of soccer or of the UK. Goldstein plays the team’s surly captain, Roy Kent.

Goldstein also co-created “Soulmates,” premiering Oct. 5 on AMC. It’s an episodic anthology set in a near-future where science develops a test enabling people to discover their true loves. He’s also appeared in episodes of “Doctor Who” and “Derek,” the Ricky Gervais series on Netflix.

Goldstein, 40, spoke to The Post about why he finally made his father proud with “Ted Lasso,” working with Jason Sudeikis, “Soulmates” and more.

What drew you to “Ted Lasso”?

I’m a huge fan of [series co-creator] Bill Lawrence. I like that ‘Scrubs’ is very funny and silly and broad, but also emotional and real — sometimes within the same scene. I think that’s very impressive. I hadn’t met Jason before; I had like an hour-and-a-half [FaceTime] meeting with him at 1 in the morning and we got on so well. It was great. [The show] was something I was desperate to do from the very beginning. 

Was it hard to balance being both an actor and a writer on the series?

I loved wearing both hats for this. What I realized is that you sort of have a cheat sheet the other actors don’t have. Because [for] the actors who are also [“Ted Lasso”] writers, we know where it’s going. So it helped to calibrate our performances, if that doesn’t sound too pretentious. It was fun because me and Jason could try out different jokes or different things on the day we were shooting.

How was working with Jason Sudeikis?

Jason is very funny — he’s brilliant and he has such a clear idea of what he wanted for the whole show. He has a real vision for every character. It’s quite amazing…you talk to him and he’s like a superbrain. However, when you’re doing scenes with him, he’d improvise a new line every take, and it made it hard to get through it without laughing. I think he enjoyed surprising everyone. There were many times where I laughed far too much, and my character in particular is not much of a smiler. So any time I smiled it was like, “Oh, well, that take is ruined, we’ll have to start again, sorry everyone!” There was a lot of that.

What did you most enjoy about playing Roy Kent?

The greatest thing for me is that my dad is a football hooligan. He’s an obsessive football fan. And I think he wanted me to be a footballer and I wasn’t. Instead, I probably disappointed him by going into the arts. And so, to be able to send him a video of me leading a football team onto a real pitch…[for the show] we went to Crystal Palace, to the actual stadium, and walked out onto the field. To be able to send my dad that [clip], and for him to finally be proud of me, I’d say that was the highlight.

What can you share about your upcoming AMC show “Soulmates?”

It’s an anthology show I co-created with William Bridges, set 15 years in the future where science has found evidence of the human soul — so now people can be matched with their soulmates. It’s six different stories about six different relationships and how they’re affected living in a world in which this test exists. For example, if you’re single in your late 20s, this test is amazing. But if you’ve been married for 15 years, happily, and you have kids and your life is fine but suddenly you’re told you could find out who your actual soulmate is, it could cause you lots of trouble.

“Soulmates” is more serious than “Ted Lasso.” Do you have a preference as far as what genre you work in?

I’m interested in all of it, but I also do believe that all things should have some comedy in it. If I’m watching a heavy drama and there’s no moment of people laughing, I always think that’s not realistic. Like, people in war zones laugh, humor is a coping mechanism. So anything that I write, I hope would have some humor in it even if it’s dark. One day, I would love to make a horror film.