Jason Sudeikis Officially Broke From His 'Ted Lasso' Formula in This Twisty Psychological Thriller

Jason Sudeikis has cultivated a public image of playing likable and goofy characters. So much so that he won two Emmys for his performance as Ted Lasso — a character who, even if someone hasn't seen the show, probably associates with the image of Sudeikis' smiling face. While he hasn't tied himself to exclusively playing characters like Ted Lasso, there's a consistent affability that he brings to his comedic roles that make him easy to like.

All this will make it eye-opening for some fans to learn that he tried his hand as a villain back in 2017's Colossal, starring Anne Hathaway. While Hathaway's performance maintains her streak of quality in everything she's in—she is the Princess of Genovia, after all—the standout of the film is the against-type on-screen presence of Sudeikis in his first antagonistic role. And it's one that's made more interesting by being an early example of the toxic "Nice Guy" trope that seems to be making its rounds in 2026 films.

Anne Hathaway plays Gloria, a hard drinker and out-of-work writer who gets kicked out of her apartment by her fed-up boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens). Upon returning to her hometown to get away from everything, she runs into her childhood friend, Oscar (Sudeikis), who offers her a job at his bar as a way to get back on her feet. Things escalate quickly when, after a night of boozing and rekindling, Gloria sees a news report about a kaiju monster that has appeared in South Korea, and realizes its movements match her own when she goes to a neighborhood playground. Now she and Oscar are trying to figure out how to solve this problem, only to realize that Oscar is also a monster (in more ways than one).

Oscar is a "Nice Guy"

The "Nice Guy" trope has gotten loads of attention this year, following the release of Obsession. Characters like this are becoming more prevalent as anti-heroes and villains in films, where surface-level kindness hides deeper and potentially darker motives, even if the characters don't see themselves that way. Sure, everyone pounded their seats in the theater like Cameron Frye in his car in Ferris Bueller's Day Off out of seething frustration when being privy to Bear's lack of initiative to tell Nikki that he liked her. But his deep-seated complacency regarding the real Nikki's autonomy being stripped away gave the film added layers and revealed him to be the real villain of the story (see: Cinema Wins' Everything Great About 'Obsession'). Instead of characters like Bear being sitcom characters or male leads that might just be misguided, especially with a modern lens, they're portrayed as overtly threatening and predatory, especially to hide deeper insecurities.

Sudeikis' performance as Oscar is prescient of this trope almost ten years ahead of the trend. Oscar is a menacing villain because the film doesn't immediately present him as one. He starts out like a character you'd expect Sudeikis to play; he's charismatic with a dry sense of humor, and seems happy to reconnect with Gloria and help her out considering she's at a low point in her life. He also wears denim jackets, which, if you don't know, is the outerwear of cool people. So much so that they even make Martin Sheen's jacket flip look cooler.

Jason Sudeikis at His Scariest

Image vie NEON

Oscar's true nature comes to the surface once it's revealed that he's also capable of spawning a kaiju robot. While he's a good friend on the surface, he's also quietly manipulative and quick to use his knowledge of his friends to belittle them and make himself feel above them. He's domineering, insecure about how his life turned out, and projects his frustration onto Gloria, who, by comparison, has had a more flashy and noteworthy existence. He throws out a couple of strays early on, like referencing how Gloria always won the short story contests growing up, and saying they were better than his when she tried to be humble about it. Or, how he followed her career and commended her for being one of the few who "actually made it out of here and did something special for once." Out of context, his remarks are harmless, but once they both share something unique in the form of their monsters appearing, it reveals his resentment of her and his own self-loathing. Gloria puts it best when she tells him, "I used to think you wanted to possess me, but it's so much simpler than that. You hate yourself. You can't stand that your life feels so small."

This is where Jason Sudeikis' casting elevates the character. He's so unassuming and inherently likable that you wouldn't expect him to be a bad guy. But once he has a little bit of power over other people, he flaunts it while still keeping a smile on his face like nothing's wrong. For a movie that has kaiju monsters on its poster, the best scene is simply Oscar sitting and talking with Gloria and Tim at the bar. Oscar poses a question about the most irresponsible thing that's ever happened in his bar and brings out a massive firework he's had for years. The scene is practically Hitchcockian in its tension, because at this point, Gloria (and by extension, we as the audience) knows that Oscar is unhinged, but Tim doesn't. And while Oscar tells a nostalgic story about how he got the firework and his tone is jovial and light, he becomes more aggressive as he clears the room, and it becomes clear that he's going to set the firework off inside the bar. It's an unsettling scene and shows the lengths that he'll go—wrecking his own place of business—all to show that Gloria is under his control.

While a typical audience might not guess that Jason Sudeikis has the capacity to be an imposing threat, Oscar was a surprisingly intimidating villain who doesn't get brought up enough as reference point for times when an actor played against type. While the character has notes of what the actor is known for, he's a far cry from characters like David from We're the Millers and especially Ted Lasso. And the character also changed what could've just been a quirky comedy into an intense drama that just so happens to have giant monsters in it. The moral of Oscar is that when the chips are down, no matter how well you think you know someone, they may in fact have a giant robot inside them, too.

Colossal is streaming on Paramount+.

Release Date April 6, 2017

Runtime 109 minutes

Director Nacho Vigalondo

Producers Dominic Rustam, Nahikari Ipiña, Nicolas Chartier, Russell Levine, Zev Foreman