Hannah Waddingham is a great example of a jobbing actor who got their biggest break later in their career, and they appreciate every single minute of what they’re doing. That’s what I always think whenever I see Hannah at an event or doing promo, that she’s just enjoying herself thoroughly and that she’s going to wring everything she can out of her newfound A-list status from Ted Lasso. Hannah covers The Zoe Report and most of the interview is just Hannah talking about how grateful she was to work on so many musicals on the London stage, and how much she’s enjoying herself right now. The only complaint she has is that she’s so busy, she sometimes misses seeing her 8-year-old daughter for days. Some highlights:
‘Ted Lasso’ never had to shutdown from a Covid outbreak: “When every show was falling on its arse… It was impressive that this massive juggernaut kept running so smoothly. The cast were so respectful of not threatening our beautiful, isolated bubble.”
No arseholes: “I’m in a job that I will struggle to beat. When I say there’s not an arsehole in [the cast], that is true. It’s a very happy camp. They have a ‘no arseholes’ policy, apparently.”
She’s a third-generation performer: “Musical theater people don’t get into it for money or fame. It’s in your blood; it’s in your bones; it’s a vocation… I don’t remember ever not wanting to sing or act — I remember the opposite. Finding out some people’s parents worked in offices, I was like, ‘What do you mean? Doesn’t everyone sing and dance for a living?’”
The Musical Theater Girl: “You take the work you are offered, and I do it with my full heart… I had long accepted the fact that I was seen as a ‘musical theater’ girl, even if it was some kind of derogative perception: ‘Oh no, they’re musical theater.’ I had accepted that so much that it was a shock to me when suddenly anybody was interested in me, screen-wise. It happens all the time.”
Her small part on Game of Thrones: “It almost opens a floodgate. Somebody has to take a punt on you, and then suddenly people go, ‘Oh, [she] must be all right then.’ I only get recognised as Septa Unella when I haven’t got any make-up on.”
What ‘Ted Lasso’ has taught her: “It encourages people to think the best of others, to know that everyone’s going through their sh-t. And I think society has gotten very used to funny things that are derogatory about people. Ted encouraged people to be warm and to be kind and be funny to each other, not bitchy.”
People come up to her and thank her: “Do you know what’s lovely? The thing most people say to me is thank you. Imagine what that’s like all the time. People going, ‘My God, you got me through a horrendous, horrible time.’ Someone came up to me once and said, ‘Can I just give you a squeeze?’”
Her drink of choice: “I like an old fashioned first — there’s something slightly medicinal about it — and then I’m usually a margarita kind of gal.”
Meeting Sheryl Lee Ralph and Lisa Ann Walter at the Emmys. Brainstorming with Walter on how to get her on the show, Waddingham pitched a hapless substitute teacher, but Walter told her, “‘You have to come in as the biggest boss bitch of all. I was like, ‘What, because I’m English and tall?’” She thinks incompetence might play better: “It’s funnier if I’m inept, and don’t know the curriculum, and I’m also very British.”
She’s so proud of Sheryl Lee Ralph: “For many, many years, she and I were working our backsides off under the radar, her on Broadway, me here in London. We said that we both feel like different versions of the same person going, ‘Hello? Hello? Can you please see me as something else?’ That’s why I was first up out of my chair going, ‘F–k yeah!’ for her — because I know that feeling, and I know how bloody hard and bloody brilliantly she has worked for so many years.”
[From The Zoe Report]
When I first started Ted Lasso, I didn’t even associate her with Game of Thrones and the “shame!” bell-ringer. I just knew Hannah seemed familiar and that I’d probably seen her somewhere. It’s incredible that this American guy (Sudeikis) arrived in England and decided to cast a musical-theater lady as this football boss. She was thrilled. And honestly, she’s one of the best parts of the show. I also didn’t realize that she’s a third-generation performer – that’s insane!
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Covers & IG courtesy of The Zoe Report.
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