Was there a point when you knew your body could do this?
My dad unfortunately passed away in December and he’s my biggest inspiration of why I’m back playing. Last year, I told him about this crazy dream of coming back, the first thing he said was, “Cristo, you have injuries. Take care of your knees. You’re going to take away all this hard work.” And I explained to him my reasons and talked to him from the heart and how much this means to me and then he was like, “OK, I believe in you. If you say you can do it, I believe in you and I want to watch you play.” And that just stayed on me and with me.
Have your teammates treated you like a celebrity or just another player?
Actually, today we had a training and one of my teammates accidentally hit me with the elbow, bad. I felt dizzy. Everything was all right. I’m good. But then they were being like, “He was acting. He was just making a drama.” I believe in opportunity and I believe preparation leads to success. But in this regard, I really am grateful with my teammates. I am lucky with this type of people and everyone has good vibes here in El Paso with the team.
Dani Rojas is a character known for his infectious energy when he plays. Do you have that same quality?
As an actor, the biggest dream would be to one day perform a role where I completely change myself and I change my accent and even I gain weight or completely transform myself. But what brought me into “Ted Lasso” was the Dani Rojas character was supposed to be an Icelandic man named Gunnar. And actually at my first table read, it said “Gunnar, played by Cristo Fernandez.” And I was like, “How am I going to play an Iceland man? This is going to be a complete failure.” But apparently, they really loved my audition and they made the role of Dani Rojas based on me. And that’s why I say Dani Rojas is a lot like me. I would be joking if I say that I completely changed myself for the role. We are the same guy.
Have you talked to Jason Sudeikis or any of your castmates about this, and what has their reaction been?
We have a WhatsApp group called “Ted Lasso Gang” where we keep in touch and as soon as the news got out, they sent a message, all of them, and they were like, “Dude this is amazing, congrats, felicidades amigo,” just giving me good vibes and congratulating me. I told them that, “This all comes from my family, ‘Ted Lasso.’” I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t because of them. And it all started with them and with the belief. “Ted Lasso” became a big lesson in my life in every single way, not only professionally, but also the aspects of mental health and belief. “Ted Lasso” gave me the feel to become a child again and dream.
