'Welcome to Wrexham,' the docuseries about the Welsh football team Reynolds and McElhenney bought, debuts Aug. 24 on FX.
Ryan Reynolds is feeling "really lucky" to have his wife, Blake Lively's, support in living out his Ted Lasso dreams. ET's Kevin Frazier spoke with Reynolds and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star, and Wrexham A.F.C. co-owner, Rob McElhenney, ahead of the premiere of their new docuseries, Welcome to Wrexham, about buying a Welsh football club, and having their "best friends" by their sides for it all.
"I watched so many documentaries," McElhenney shares. "This was over the pandemic and there weren't a lot of sports on television, so I was either going back and watching old games -- I'm a junkie for watching any kind of sport -- so an access point into football at the time, were a series of different documentaries, and Sunderland was one of them, the Maradona documentary was incredible."
"And I just noticed all these commonalities amongst the communities that surrounded the clubs," he continues. "I just felt like I knew those people, I grew up with those people, I was one of those people. I loved the Philadelphia sports teams, as much as I could see that people loved their teams."
While Lively, Reynolds' wife of nearly 10 years, didn't fully get her husband's decision to buy a Welsh team, it all clicked for her after the team's star-studded match at Wembley Stadium.
"We were laying in bed after the Wembley match, and it wasn't even a particularly riveting match -- we lost one one-nil -- it wasn't the outcome we wanted," Reynolds recalled. "We've got Beckham, Will [Ferrell] is there, it's just -- the the atmosphere at Wembley is electric, and you talk to some of these players, and they said their whole lives could go by as a professional athlete, and never enter that stadium, so, it's massively a revered moment."
"But after the match, we were laying [there] and she was like, 'I get it.' I was like, 'What do you mean you get it?' She was like, 'I'm now as obsessed if not more than you are with this club and this community and this town, and everything it represents and where it can go,' and so she's as obsessed as I am," he adds. "She's already, like, looking at the schedules throughout the year, wondering which matches she can attend, so, it's pretty great."
While tradition runs deep in the Welsh community of Wrexham, both Reynolds and McElhenney, told ET that they're doing their best to respect tradition, while also being as honest as possible when it comes to telling this team's story.
"Well, we recognize that was gonna be a part of it," McElhenney says of the Wrexham fans' apprehension and reaction to both their ownership and the show. "The only thing that we can do is continue to be as honest as possible, wear our hearts on our sleeves and where we mess up, we take a responsibility for, but we always make sure we go into every decision recognizing that this is something that we have to hold sacred."
Reynolds adds, "We know we're not authors of this sport. I mean, we understand that there's so many people around us. I mean, your average citizen of Wrexham knows more about this sport in the last hour than we will ever know."
Balancing the ups and downs of owning a league with a Hollywood career and family can be difficult, but Reynolds said having Lively by his side, as his "best friend" and partner, has made it easier.
"I'm paired up with my best friend, and that's -- I know Rob, you and Kaitlin [Olson] are the same way. When that happens, you recognize how unbelievably lucky you are," Reynolds gushes.
Welcome to Wrexham premieres Aug. 24 on FX.
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