Ted Lasso is Apple TV’s biggest flagship hit. The show has won 13 Emmys, garnered millions of fans, and skyrocketed the careers of Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, and Phil Dunster, to name a few. Meanwhile, Juno Temple found Marvel soon after her memorable depiction of fan favourite topless model-turned-PR titan, Keeley Jones.
However, the ‘real’ Keeley, former Page 3 girl Keeley Hazell, will not be tuning in.
Before Ted Lasso was commissioned by Apple TV back in 2019, Keeley, 39, says she was told by her friend, writer and star of the TV show, Jason Sudeikis, that he was working on a football comedy, and claims that he said he’d written a character inspired by – and for – her. (Although Jason has never publicly commented on this.)
‘The character was named and based on me with the intent of me playing myself in the show,’ Keeley explains to Metro.
The model couldn’t believe her luck. Having completed her last Page 3 outing a decade prior and hungry to act, she felt sure that her ‘entire career would have changed’ if she’d been given the part.
However, as production began, Keeley was told it wasn’t guaranteed. She’d need to try out for the part because of ‘the powers that be in the industry’.
‘I had to audition because I didn’t have the resume that would allow me to just be given the part – even though it was named and based on me with the intent of me playing myself,’ remembers Keeley, who’s gearing up to take her first show, Everyone’s Seen My Tits (based loosely on her autobiography), to Edinburgh.
‘During that process, they went out on a direct offer to the actress who plays the part. It was devastating,’ she adds.
That actress was Juno Temple, who had already starred in Atonement, Dirty John, Maleficent, Wild Child, and St Trinians and had grown up around the film industry – even reportedly having Johnny Depp as a babysitter for her film director dad Julien Temple and producer mother Amanda Temple.
‘It stung for a variety of reasons,’ Keeley admits. ‘It was based on her having more experience, and I think when one examines that, the easy answer – and what I think the general public go to – is the devaluing of me and maybe my skill set versus the examining of how Hollywood operates and how one is allowed experience and one gains experience. It’s sort of a catch 22. You know, maybe having parents in the industry as the actress who plays Keeley does.’
As Ted Lasso fans know, that wasn’t the end of Keeley’s relationship with the show, as she went on to star in seven episodes in a more minor role. ‘I have scenes with her [Juno], we’ve met, and she’s a fantastic, wonderful woman,’ adds Keeley. ‘You can’t blame an actress for taking a part. No hard feelings against her at all.’
Even so, losing out on the role still smarts, she admits.
To understand why, it’s worth looking at Keeley’s upbringing and early career. She got into modelling to escape an abusive and turbulent childhood, growing up in a council estate in South East London. While many girls were asking their parents about periods at 13, Keeley tried crack cocaine. At 18, she was in The Sun topless for around 3.9million people, having won their Page 3 Idol competition.
‘We really didn’t have any money. I left school aged 16 to get a job and my prospects were quite slim. So modelling and Page 3 became a route in which I could advance socially and make money that I wouldn’t in any other way,’ she explains.
At the time, Keeley insisted it was empowering, but later revealed she’d lied about her true feelings to keep her male fans and to carry on getting work. The reality was she felt ashamed and objectified.
‘It was fun and exciting in this whole new world that I had never been exposed to, but yet in the same breath, it’s also f**king crazy that there was a topless model on the third page of a newspaper,’ Keeley laughs.
‘I think the objectification that comes with that and the misogynistic messaging it gives out, I struggle with. And also the age. It’s crazy to me that some of these models were 16 and then when I modelled, I had just turned 18. I’m a teenager.
‘In that regard, I think there’s such a profound exploitation – and that’s really hard to reconcile with.’
Page 3 modelling changed how the world perceives Keeley Hazell – a persona crafted largely by men to make money – and this bled into her work, relationships and life. It might have been why it was so hard for Keeley to pivot into acting after her modelling days. While Katie Price had the modelling moniker Jordan to separate her from other pursuits, Keeley Hazell had… Keeley Hazell.
‘People also couldn’t understand in the US. They would Google me and ask “are you a porn star?”’ Keeley remembers. ‘It definitely stopped me getting a lot of jobs because there is just so much stigma against women who are nude or present themself in such a way, and that’s just the misogynistic nature or the reality of being a woman.’
Keeley’s relationship with her body as a result of modelling, is one of detachment, she says.
‘As I’ve gotten older, I understand how much physicality plays into my desirability and so that has had some bearing. Also, just the attention it can render, do I really want that attention?’
Fame was never more distressing than in 2007, when Keeley’s unnamed abusive ex-boyfriend stole a sex tape from her home and leaked it to the press.
In response to this, Keeley decided to be open with the public about her traumas in a bid to reclaim her own narrative.
‘I do sometimes go back and forth on that and wonder if I should be exposing myself in such a way?’ she asks, still toying with the answer. ‘But in order to have agency over one’s life and the things that have happened, you have to speak towards it.’
Given the history of her public persona, it’s understandable why Keeley finds the concept of the Ted Lasso character adopting her name ‘challenging’. Add to this that Keeley was then cast in the show as the relatively minor character of Bex, the girlfriend of playboy Rupert Mannion, played by the late Anthony Head.
Her experience on set wasn’t exactly the fun-loving Lasso-esque locker room the show celebrates, she says.
‘I think [working on the show] was incredibly complicated for me,’ Keeley reflects. ‘It was like having a crumb of a cake, right? Somebody’s got the cake and so my options were to take crumbs and be a part of it or not at all, when it’s going to happen with or without me. So yes, it was incredibly complex, but also what a great experience to be a part of such a phenomenal show.’
Once on set, Keeley was asked if she wanted to talk to Juno about her Keeley and was asked what her accent was and ‘all sorts of things’ to help with characterisation. It was an offer she declined.
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‘‘I was like, you can look me up,’ Keeley says with a chuckle.
Another ‘surreal moment’ was when she was given some gel boob enhancers to pass on to Juno to wear after someone had left them in the costume room.
‘It was a really bizarre experience, because my whole career was based on boobs. And then there were these like chicken fillets, and I was giving them to somebody else for her to emulate me,’ she recalls.
So what was the verdict? Does Keeley see any of herself in Juno’s Keeley?
‘Yes,’ she says, amused. ‘And yes, I find it incredibly irritating. But it’s also just somebody else’s idea, or the sides of me that they have seen, and decided to enhance.
‘Sure, I definitely see elements of myself – even though I find them incredibly annoying.’
While she can identify parts of herself in Lasso’s Keeley, the former glamour model has also been somewhat left behind, while her namesake soars to stardom.
‘A theme of the Edinburgh Fringe show is that there’s a persona created for me that’s out of my control and a character that’s created based on me which is also out of my control, and I’m voiceless with it,’ she says. ‘It’s an exploration of class, identity, and erasure.’
So much so, that Keeley has stopped wearing her favourite necklace after Ted Lasso took that part of her and blew it up on the big screen.
‘The character wears my gold Keeley name necklace that I wore for many, many years,’ she explains, searching for the words to explain why this was problematic for her.
‘The name necklace is a representation of identity based on names that aren’t as common; you can’t get them on mugs when you go places in Spain. Where the name necklace originates from is a very working-class representation. So for it to be on the character, it’s almost like, oh, this is taking something without understanding its meaning.
‘I’m representing something and this character has become almost bigger than me and much more well known – and the actress playing her makes s**t ton of money, is nominated for an Emmy, while the show’s become incredibly wealthy and famous, and I haven’t had the same experience.’
I ask Keeley if she will be watching the new season of Ted Lasso, out on August 5.
‘No, Apple is really expensive, so I don’t think I’m going to be watching it. I mean, you have to be wealthy to have a subscription to Apple, right?’
Metro contacted representatives of Ted Lasso for comment. The representatives did not provide comment before publication.
Keeley Hazell’s debut show Everyone’s Seen My Tits is on at 17.40 throughout August in Bunker Two at Pleasance Courtyard at the Edinburgh Fringe. Tickets here.