Before Aisling Sharkey became one of the newest faces of AFC Richmond, she was already well acquainted with the stage. The Irish actress has built her career across musical theatre, television and film, with roles ranging from Wendy in Peter Pan and Jo in Little Women to Agnes in Gypsy. Her screen work has taken her from the European fantasy series Heirs of the Night to Jurassic World: Dominion, while years of classical vocal and dance training have made performance less a single discipline than a language she can move between.

Now, Sharkey is entering an entirely different kind of world. In the fourth season of Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso, she joins the series regular cast as one of the footballers on AFC Richmond’s newly formed women’s team, stepping into a show whose warmth, humour and fiercely loyal fanbase have made it one of television’s defining cultural phenomena of recent years.

The move feels less like a departure from where Sharkey began than an expansion of everything she already knows. Theatre taught her how to command an audience; dance gave her an instinct for movement; classical singing taught her discipline and musicality. Ted Lasso, meanwhile, has introduced her to a new creative language – and, unexpectedly, a newfound love of comedy.

As Sharkey looks ahead, she is less concerned with the idea of becoming a star than with the more enduring business of becoming an actor: finding stories that matter to her, creating characters of her own, and building a body of work she can be proud of.

In conversation with 1883, she reflects on finding family on the Ted Lasso set, discovering women’s football, the Irish stories she hopes to tell, and why sometimes a stuffed animal is exactly what you need after a difficult day of filming. 

We have to start with the obvious one. Do you remember where you were when you found out you’d landed Ted Lasso? What did that moment actually look like for you?

So, at the end of my time at drama school, I had just graduated. I went to Lane Theatre Arts in Epsom, and we’d just done our end-of-year show. I was booked to be in the Mamma Mia! UK tour – I’d done my costume fittings and was about to sign the contracts. After the end-of-year show, naturally, there were some pints. I woke up the next day in last night’s clothes, and my housemate was using my iPad downstairs. I was in bed, and I got a call from my agents. She brought the iPad up while I was still half asleep, and that’s how I got the news. 

I’d had an in-person audition and a chemistry read, and then hadn’t heard anything for about a month and a half, so it just came out of nowhere. But I did have this weird feeling when I was standing backstage at the end of the show. I was about to go on for one of my numbers, looking at the stage lights. For some reason, I thought, “I don’t think I’m going to be seeing this image for a while.” And then the next day I got the call. It was so freaky.

Now you’re also joining a show that’s already so beloved around the world, but you’re also helping usher in a brand-new chapter with AFC Richmond’s women’s team. Did that feel more exciting than intimidating, or maybe a bit of both?

Definitely! It felt really exciting, and I think everyone on set made us feel excited about it because they were excited about it – Jason, Juno, Hannah, Brendan. They all, especially Jason, have their own interests in women’s sports and follow them in America. 

For me, I was just afraid while we were filming because the show is so beloved, and the world and the characters are so beloved. It’s difficult to step into something that’s already so loved, especially when those characters aren’t there. I was afraid of there being this sort of feeling of when you take a kid’s toys away or take their sweets away and try to give them some fruit and veg, and they’re like, “What?” But I realised that it’s a completely different thing. I think this new season isn’t a continuation of the first. It’s a new chapter of a world rather than Season Four of a show.

Before Ted Lasso, you’d already built such a strong foundation in theatre, playing characters like Wendy in Peter Pan, Jo in Little Women, and Agnes in Gypsy. Looking back, is there one role that quietly changed you the most as an actor?

And do you know what? It wasn’t even the one I was paid for. At the end of drama school, you do a third-year show, and I did Little Women the Musical. I played Jo, and the director was Hannah, and our choreographer was Lawrence Stroud. I specifically chose that musical because I wanted to be part of it. Jo March is a fountain of knowledge, and the things they taught me about acting were incredible. I’d never led a production in my whole life. I learned about flow, and about earning your performances, especially in theatre, because theatre is so different to TV. 

In TV, you just have to go straight in – no kissing, this person has just died, and you just have to get there. Whereas in theatre, there’s you and an audience that you need to tame, and then you create this bubble of imagination around the production as you go. There’s this little hot potato that you’re passing around everyone, and you need to earn all your big moments. I learned a lot about that from Little Women, and just the confidence of thinking, “Oh, I actually can do this.” 

Speaking of song and dance, I read that you’re classically trained as a soprano, and you’ve also trained extensively in dance. I’m curious – do those disciplines ever sneak into your acting process, or do they live in completely different parts of your creative brain?

I think this is going to sound a bit wanky, but it is like a kind of art. When you have this love of performance, it kind of transcends discipline. For example, in Ted, we’re doing football, right? But we’re not playing football; we’re doing football choreography. I have to remember moves with other people to make football look realistic. And my fitness was up because I’m a dancer. I didn’t have to really work on my stamina in order to do these long days on the football pitch because I already had that.

Being a dancer also comes with a lot of discipline, and that’s something I can transfer to script analysis and things like that. And I only actually sing in the show because we all went to karaoke one evening after a match, and Jason got this video of me and Rex singing “It’s Raining Men.” That’s how we ended up singing in the show. Music inspires people, and it all connects.

When you’re meeting a new character for the first time, what usually comes first for you? Is it the way they move, the way they speak, or is every role a little different?

I think the first thing for me is: what do they want? What is their purpose in this piece?

For my character in Ted, I would read the script and, sure, she’s scrappy, she’s a twin, and she has all this kind of spiciness, but what does she want? What does she have to prove? Those are the first questions I ask. Then usually I do a lot of substitution myself. The technique I’m studying at the moment is called the Chubbuck Technique, and its ethos is basically that if you can bring a little bit of yourself to every character – if every character you ever play lives a bit in you – then you’ll be able to give a performance that no one else can give.

Whether it’s good or bad, or the director likes it or not, it’s your version of that. It’s not paint-by-numbers acting. It comes from a real place because you can’t lie to people. Audiences are too clever. They can tell. They can smell a rat.

One other thing fans love most about the show is the chemistry between the cast. Was there a moment during filming when you thought, “Okay… I really feel like part of AFC Richmond now?” 

We did a three-week football boot camp at the start of everything, which is such a treat for an actor because a lot of the time you just get thrown into the deep end. It was pretty nerve-wracking because I was about to spend six months with these people, and they all kind of knew each other. I remember going to the bathroom and having a little moment. Then, I’d say halfway through the day, the sun shone through the clouds, we all went to lunch, and we just spoke at each other without coming up for breath. I was like, “Oh my God, this is family.” We had the best time. Rex, who plays my twin, is genuinely family now. He’s come to Ireland to visit me, and I spent Father’s Day in their home. It’s been a gorgeous experience.

After working alongside people like Jason Sudeikis and Hannah Waddingham. Was there anything you picked up simply by watching them work that you’ll carry with you into future projects?

So much! Jason and Brendan and all these people are comedy greats, truly, and I love the style of set that they run, where everything’s very live and electric. It can obviously be daunting in the moment because scripts are getting changed every single day and lines are getting changed on the spot, but that’s just how they work. They come from an improv comedy background. Something about that makes me feel alive as an actor. It’s such a treat. 

So often you get handed a script and some lines, and then you regurgitate them. But when someone can hand you a script and a character and go, “Hey, do what you will with that,”– what do you think you would say in this situation? At first, coming from drama school, you’re panicking and just trying to impress. But I think Rex and I especially got into it because a lot of our stuff was together. We had this witty repartee, a good little duo going on to bounce off. We found this gorgeous rhythm and could just have so much fun and keep it alive.

So after all the football training for the show, are you now the person confidently explaining the offside rule to your friends, or are you still happy to let someone else do that?

The boot camp I was talking about was a three-week football boot camp, and our trainers changed the game. They taught me everything I know. But my ex-boyfriend was a referee, so I’d seen and watched an awful lot of amateur and City College football. I could explain the offside rule beforehand. I know about football. I’d just never really played it or particularly found a connection watching it or with a team.

I’ve got six uncles – half of them support Liverpool and half of them support Manchester. All my life, every Christmas, my brother and I would get Manchester and Liverpool jerseys, and they’d fight amongst themselves. I was never able to attach myself to a team. Especially with men’s football, it’s quite political. You need to be all in on one team, and then there are your enemies. Whereas I feel like my gateway into football has actually been through women’s football – the matches we’ve been going to see and the teams I’ve found and followed online.

It’s just about the game. You can support Arsenal Women’s or Chelsea Women’s, but no one’s going out and beating each other up after a women’s game. No one’s crying over a loss because that’s still another team who won. There’s a lot more compassion in the game, I think, and a lot less fouling. Oh my God, I can’t deal with the crying on the pitch with the lads.

The FIFA World Cup has just wrapped up, and it felt like football completely took over the world for a month. After spending so much time in the Ted Lasso universe, did you find yourself watching this year’s tournament any differently?

This was actually the first World Cup that I’ve gotten into really properly, where I’d sit on my laptop and watch at home on my own. Football’s always been quite a social thing for me – going to the pub, having drinks and watching the match. So finding myself watching it on my own was like, “Who the fuck am I now?” 

And then there was this incredible story about a guy called Pico Lopes playing for Cape Verde. I might need to fact-check this, but he was from Crumlin in Dublin, which is quite near me, and he got asked on LinkedIn to play for Cape Verde in the World Cup. He obviously thought it was a scam and ignored it, then got a DM saying, “No, no, seriously. We really need some help. We need someone on the team.” It’s just this guy from Crumlin playing in the World Cup. The whole of Ireland was obsessed with his story. You never really think about the odds of someone DMing you on LinkedIn.

You’ve worked across theatre, blockbuster films, fantasy series, and now one of television’s biggest comedies. Has working in so many different worlds changed the kind of stories you’re drawn to telling?

I think Ted Lasso has opened up a world of comedy for me. I’ve always loved watching comedies, especially classic American sitcoms like Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I grew up watching The Simpsons. I never really sat into the comedy kind of rules until Ted Lasso, through the auditions, and now I’ve been getting a lot of comedy tapes through and I’m realizing I love comedy.

I love listening to comedians like Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast. She does these great interviews with comedy greats like Tina Fey, Steve Carell – who is my favourite actor of all time because he’s the height of comedy and the height of drama – Will Ferrell, Jennifer Lawrence.

I think that’s something I’ve become way more excited about: the escapism that comedy can give you and the lift it can give to your day. I also really like historical things. The film I’m doing at the moment is telling some really important Irish history through a female lens, which is something that’s really important to me. Shows like Say Nothing, which is about the Troubles, are specifically Irish history, and it’s so under the radar usually in pop culture. I think women’s stories, historical stories and comedies are what I’m drawn to at the moment – something with importance and weight behind it.

You’ve grown up and worked across Ireland and the UK before stepping onto projects with a global audience. What parts of home do you feel you carry with you, no matter where you’re working?

I’ve just started cultivating this because I’ve only recently realised how important it is to have your little grounding moments, especially when you’re staying in hotels when you’re filming. I was doing these really heavy scenes and then coming back to a hotel room on my own, thinking, “Okay, how do I feel? How do I feel real?” It’s like, “Okay, how can I bring myself back to baseline and feel like a human?“

I’ve started reverting back to using stuffed animals. [laughs showing him out] This is Milk. When you look at kids, when they need comfort, they carry their little teddy around. I was looking at my baby cousins thinking, “I want what they have.” I don’t smoke, I don’t do any of that, so I need something. If I have Little Milk in my bag, it’s nice to know he’s there.

I also like to bring lavender oil with me, usually a book that I’m reading at the moment, so that it’s not like I get on set and sit in my trailer waiting until the moment I perform, then come out of my dressing room with this whole different presence. No, I’m reading my book, whatever, and then I’m slowly transitioning into this thing. I’m trying to measure my life in segments of the book I’m reading rather than the roles I’m playing, because that can happen a lot as an actor.

This feels like one of those moments where a lot more people are about to discover your work all at once. How are you feeling as you stand on the edge of what’s likely to be a very exciting new chapter?

When I was 14 and I did my first TV show, I thought I was going to be a star. I thought, “Wow, I am the next Millie Bobby Brown.”

There are so many TV shows being made and so many figures and artists. I honestly, genuinely haven’t given it much thought because I believe it when I see it, kind of thing.

All I really care about is getting good auditions and building a profile in order to be able to be part of productions that I want to be part of. You’re taken maybe a little bit more seriously because you’ve got a bit more of a body of work behind you. 

You’ve already explored everything from theatre classics to dinosaurs and now football. Is there a role, genre, or even a dream collaborator that’s still sitting at the top of your creative wish list?

Oh my goodness, that’s such a good question. There’s actually a book called The Bee Sting by Paul Murray that I read, and it’s my favourite book. It’s about this family during the Celtic Tiger in Ireland. When I read it, I was like, “I have to play the daughter.” I was looking up online to see if they had the rights and stuff, and they’ve said they’re adapting it to a screenplay or whatever. It was the first time I’ve ever felt that way about something I’ve read. 

It’s funny because I’ll often read a book and think, “This has to be a movie,” and then I look it up and it is being made. I kind of want to do it all, to be honest. I’d love to do the classics, like Sally Bowles in Cabaret. But what excites me is new work. In theatre, getting to originate a role, getting to create a character. I’d love to do something along the Irish mythology line; or play a musician and have a reason to make music. For the most part, I like to invent a human. That’s fun. Or play an existing human in a biopic. I don’t know who I look like, though. We’ll see. There’s still time. There’s still so much ahead of us.

If your Ted Lasso character had a walk-on song before every match, what do you think would be blasting through the stadium speakers?

I said in another interview, ‘Starburster’ by Fontaines D.C. Do that one, yeah. It’s my business. I think Neve really thinks she’s a gangster. She really does. But she’s a Chihuahua. She’s a yacht Chihuahua, but thinks she’s a gangster. Probably that, or I’d listen to ‘Guilty Conscience’ by Mika a lot on set to get me in a buzz, because it’s such a high-energy track.

And finally, because football has a way of bringing people together – if you could recruit any fictional character from film, television, or literature to your dream five-a-side team, who’s getting the first call and why?

I can pick anyone who’s ever existed, ever? Tonya Harding would do something crazy. I feel like she’d be relentless and she’d snap some tips. Yeah, I’m going to say her. 

Ted Lasso season four is streaming now.

Interview Stanley Kilonzo

Photography Garry Jones

Stylist Millie Cullum

MUA Daisy Holubowics

Hair by Sandra Hahnel at Caren

Location Treehouse London

Thanks Pinnacle PR