JEWELRY: Alexis Bittar
Photo Credit: David Clerihew
TED LASSO STAR AND EMMY WINNER HANNAH WADDINGHAM, NOW A 3-TIME NOMINEE, HAS ENTERED HER ‘IDGAF’ ERA. THIS IS HOW SHE GOT THERE, AND THIS IS WHERE SHE’S GOING NEXT.
BY LAURA SCHREFFLER
PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID CLERIHEW
STYLIST JAMES YARDLEY
HAIR LEWIS STANFORD
MAKEUP HANNAH MARTIN
SHOT ON LOCATION IN LONDON
SHOES: Christian Louboutin
JEWELRY: Alexis Bi
Photo Credit: David Clerihew
Hannah Waddingham has entered her ‘zero shits’ era, and she has Ted Lasso to thank.
The 49-year-old Brit had a highly successful career in her native U.K. — most notably on the West End — but it wasn’t until Jason Sudeikis tapped her to play AFC Richmond team owner Rebecca Welton, otherwise known as “boss bitch,” on his Apple TV+ smash hit series that her life began to change, with her metamorphosing into someone who, frankly my dear, doesn’t give a damn.
“I think it’s an age thing, you know?” the statuesque blonde (dare I say bombshell — because she truly is) muses from her London home via Zoom on a bright, pre-SAG-AFTRA strike July night. “That’s probably why I’m a single mum. You get to an age — for me, my late 40s — where you’re just done with trying to perfect yourself, when you’re done being a round peg in a round hole, when you’re OK with the fact that you’ve got jagged-y edges and delicious spiky bits that don’t want to be molded into something. It’s very nice to feel like that.”
That’s the level of security Ted Lasso — a sports comedy-drama series revolving around an American college football coach (co-creator and star Sudeikis) who is initially hired to coach an English soccer team with the express secret intention that his inexperience would lead to failure, but whose endlessly sunny optimism actually brings about the opposite result — has given her.
“I was already in a nice place workwise and didn’t want for anything. I didn’t feel an aching urge other than wanting to provide for my daughter and wanting to be seen for [the work] I knew I could do. Pretty incredibly and bizarrely, my career has gone through a gear change. It was moving at a bloody snail’s pace before, but things really changed when I became a single mother and went into my 40s. That’s why I always praise Jason for inviting me into this world, because it’s done that more than I could have ever wished for. The fact that he, Apple, and Warner Bros. went ‘Yeah, we’ll have her’ was an unparalleled turning point in my life and one that I hope that I have nurtured and cherished, because I appreciate that this doesn’t happen to most actors,” she admits.
Waddingham is now in a marvelous metaphorical place, one where she feels strong, self-confident, powerful, and protected — both personally and professionally — which is pretty dang hard to come by for most. She’s entirely pragmatic about it, though, confiding, “When you move into your ‘giving zero shits’ era, I think your palate for things that are less than you would like them to be sharpens, and I’d just rather not bother.”
She can now choose her own path, steer her own ship, and every other independent turn of phrase you can think of. The bottom line: her career is in her hands now. She says as much, sharing, “I’ve been spoilt with the quality of writing [on our show], and a lot of us from the cast would rather wait for something fabulous to come along [than to take roles just because we can],” adding, “The things I’m doing now, I’ve very carefully said yes to, but mostly I say no, because I want to maintain a certain standard of work. Basically, I’m not very good at lending myself to things that I don’t think are fucking great.”
I want to give her a standing ovation, but I’m at my computer and it would look weird. So instead, I give a light golf clap. But anyone that has watched Waddingham, be it on screen or on stage, knows that she deserves so much more. Even the Television Academy knows; its members bestowed its third Emmy nomination in three years on the actress for her role on Ted Lasso on the day following our London shoot.
And rightfully so. In addition to being the most popular show on Apple TV+, Ted Lasso is also one of the most lauded. The third season of the series received a whopping 21 nominations, including nods for stars Sudeikis, Brett Goldstein, Phil Dunster, and Juno Temple, including a third consecutive nomination for outstanding comedy series. And that’s for this season alone; in its inaugural year, the series became the most nominated freshman comedy in the awards’ history, winning seven — including a trophy for Waddingham (who also has two Critics Choice Awards prominently displayed front and center in her South West London home). The show struck gold yet again at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, taking home four.
SHOES: Christian Louboutin
EARRINGS: Ysso
RING: Alexis Bittar
Photo Credit: David Clerihew
Yet, when we discuss the imminent 75th anniversary Primetime Emmy Awards (which was scheduled for September 18 but is now being pushed back due to the current writers’ and actors’ strike led by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA), Waddingham seems genuinely surprised when I firmly declare that she’ll be nominated (of which, giant pat on back but to no one’s surprise, I was right about) — and not in a faux who me kind of way, either.
“I have a very realistic view of things, and that view is this: the [number] of brilliant actors both on stage and on screen that I know that have never been given their just desserts, never got the job that they perhaps deserved but had slightly the wrong look or wrong sounding voice or whatever, is overwhelming. There are so many brilliant performances out there that it would be churlish, foolish, and arrogant of me to entertain [getting nominated]. So, am I saying it wouldn’t be lovely? Am I saying I wouldn’t absolutely lose my shit and run around my garden naked with excitement? Of course I would! But if it doesn’t, I won’t be disappointed. When [Abbott Elementary star] Sheryl Lee Ralph won last year, I was the first up out of my chair because I thought, Do you know how long this woman has been grafting like a lunatic? The quality of her work is incredible. I mean, we all have our moments when we think, Oh, bullocks, I wish that had gone my way or Why did they get it? I could’ve done that. We all do; of course we do. But I also think that you’ve got to take these things in the moment that they happen, and if they don’t, then this is not your moment and you have to jog on. [That being said, if I were to be nominated again], it would be glorious, but everything that has been bestowed upon me already is pretty fucking epic.”
Glory ended up being hers, as we now know, but this latest honor is slightly bittersweet given that it’s likely the last time she’ll receive such an accolade for Ted Lasso. Although there had not, at press time, been a definitive call on whether or not there would be a fourth season, anyone who’s actually watched the latest season senses its finality. Each character’s arc is tied so neatly in a metaphorical bow that there seems to be no way that the show can go on.
While Waddingham vows she personally has not been told and therefore truly doesn’t know which way the wind will blow, she, too, has an inkling that it’s curtain call for Ted & co. “I mean, I think Jason did say that once people see the end of Season Three, they’ll realize that it was always supposed to be a three-season arc. It’s been honored beautifully, and I believe — not meaning to sound corny with that word — but that is it. I genuinely don’t know. A lot of us have been asked this, and I think we’re all quite grateful that we genuinely don’t know, because I, for one, would be like, I don’t know, wink, wink. But I genuinely don’t know, so that’s good,” she declares, disclosing that Sudeikis and co-star and co-creator Brendan Hunt had a set plan for the series from day one. “There was just this air of calm from [Jason] going into Season Three. He was like, ‘We wrote everything before the show even started. Our show is our show, and our story is our story. Our triptych of acts is what it’s always been.”
But if she had a choice? If they all did? “I know for a fact that there’s not a single person in that whole building that wouldn’t want to come back. That’s an amazing way to leave something because, even though it’s three seasons, it’s been like five years of our lives.”
There is one caveat. Semi-spoiler alert here (because if you were going to watch Ted Lasso, you should have done so well before now given that the third season premiered in March): in the final episode, Ted makes a monumental decision. After leading his team to a history-making, feel-good final season, he opts to leave England behind and return to the States for his son. Without its anchor, without its great white hope, AFC Richmond must go on, and it does … but viewers know that without its beating heart, it won’t be easy; something will always feel like it’s missing. And that’s true for the cast, too. So, if there were a spinoff in the works, Waddingham is certain that it wouldn’t be her particular cup of English breakfast. “I don’t know what they might do [in terms of a spinoff], but I personally would feel all at sea without Mr. Lasso himself,” she maintains, noting, “If it were all of us together, maybe, and I know that [co-star Juno Temple] has spoken about this, as well. Both of us would feel a bit odd doing it. Interestingly, that was both of our knee-jerk reactions to it.”
But then, like AFC Richmond, the Ted Lasso cast has become a team, a family — and this particular unit is stronger together. “Everyone’s meant to go to premieres, Q&A’s, panels, and all these things, but when we then leave those, I’ll take my false lashes off, get my trainers on, and we’ll all go out and have burgers and fries somewhere low-key. We choose to be there without having it be a contractual thing, and it’s gorgeous. We’re a real, proper family.”
Apparently, they always have been, and from day one, too, when Sudeikis and Hunt, the only Americans in the bunch, descended upon the South West London borough of Richmond upon Thames, where much of the series was actually filmed.
“Before we even started shooting Season One, we all went to the pub. It was the summer, and everyone was very chilled. Jason’s children came, my girl came, and it was gorgeous,” she recalls, sharing that she and Sudeikis grew close during filming due to their ages and that they both had young children and, over the three seasons, would embark on different cultural outings with their kids. “One week, it was going to football; the next week, going to see a musical, which we’re both passionate about because we were both taken to shows by our parents when we were little. Also, our kids are of similar ages and get on brilliantly, so it was a natural thing for us [to hang out]. We’re just good pals.”
Yet, it wasn’t just Sudeikis that became her ride-or-die. Their characters followed a similar trajectory to the vibe AFC Richmond cultivated over the past three years — including frequent co-star Jeremy Swift [Leslie Higgins]. “It became quite a thing,” Waddingham says. “We’d all go out and do karaoke, or we’d all meet up in some lovely hotel for dinner. If you think about it, we have a very cosmopolitan kind of cast — [actors from] Mexico, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, including Jason, of course, Brendan, and Juno, who was displaced somewhat because she had been living in [Los Angeles]. So, it was our job — myself, Brett Goldstein, Nick Mohammed, Jeremy Swift — to take them in, give them a snuggle.”
In the words of the great Ted Lasso, “If you care about someone, and you got a little love in your heart, there ain’t nothing you can’t get through together.”
SHOES: Christian Louboutin
JEWELRY: Alexis Bi
When you’ve been nominated for three Olivier Awards and have 20 years of West End experience under your belt, a booze-soaked karaoke night is total amateur hour. But, like, in a good way … most of the time.
After showing me her Emmy (at my request), which she calls “my beautiful golden-winged lady,” Waddingham talks with me about some of the Ted Lasso cast’s most unruly nights out on the town. Which, yes, included the aforementioned karaoke.
If anyone could nail “Don’t Stop Believin’” or “Let It Go” (a case of art imitating life, given that she actually performs this during an onscreen karaoke night in Ted Lasso), it’s Waddingham. But, as the songbird of her generation, karaoke doesn’t quite cut it when she’s trying to show off her musical chops.
“My karaoke song is anything that’s really shit and easy to sing, because then I don’t actually have to bother. I can just have a drink instead because I don’t like karaoke. Now, Brendan Hunt will tell you that he thinks I doth protest too much, but I genuinely don’t [like it] — not least of which because the mics are always rubbish,” she says.
I foolishly protest, “But you have that voice … ,” upon which Waddingham interrupts me patiently to ask, “Laura, why would you want to do karaoke on a really shit mic when you’ve sang on the very best in the world?”
OK, OK, fair. Point to Hannah. And indeed, she is correct: not only has she scored Olivier nominations (aka the most prestigious theater award in the U.K.) for her roles in Kiss Me, Kate; A Little Night Music; and Monty Python’s Spamalot (which she also reprised on Broadway), but she’s also starred in other popular productions, including Grease, The Beautiful Game, and Lautrec.
Her other notable credits include seasons One and Two of the Netflix series Sex Education; the Warner Bros. series Krypton for E4/SyFy; the television adaptation of 12 Monkeys for SyFy; 2019’s The Hustle with Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson; PBS Masterpiece and ITV’s Tom Jones; and Disney’s Hocus Pocus 2. Many, however, will recognize her best as Septa Unella, the “Shame Nun,” in HBO’s groundbreaking series Game of Thrones. (Fun fact: she counts Lena Headey, who played Cersei, as one of her close friends. The two women turned some heads during a recent breakfast-turned-clothes shopping date in the West Village, of which Waddingham amusingly notes, “It’s very funny when people realize that it’s me and her because of how she and I met, which wasn’t the warmest of environments … you know, with me torturing her and then her waterboarding me to death. But from that spewed the most beautiful, undoubtedly lifelong companionship.”)
All of which have led to her next big project: the Apple TV+ Christmas special Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas, filmed at the London Coliseum. That’s right, a headlining gig. And what’s more, her Ted Lasso co-stars are coming on stage to support her, including Jamie Tartt himself, Phil Dunster. For 40 minutes, Waddingham will warble her favorite old-school seasonal songs, backed by a big band and armed with her own strong, fierce voice … and a holiday tipple or two.
But her Christmas wish special isn’t the only project Waddingham has in the pipeline post-Lasso: she’ll also be starring in Fox’s animated series Krapopolis; action film The Fall Guy, alongside Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson; the animated adaptation of Garfield; and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two with Tom Cruise, all of which are slated to be released next year.
Given that Waddingham has cherry-picked all of her recent projects, it’s unsurprising that she has nothing but good things to say about each and every one. Of Krapopolis she’s all, “I’ve had a really lovely time playing a really fantastical asshole, an utterly revolting goddess, [who behaves like] a cow just because she’s immortal but has absolutely no moral compass at all”; The Fall Guy was “the best fun” thanks to co-stars Gosling and Blunt, whom she refers to as “very cool cats”; and the best praise of all is reserved for one death- (and age-) defying Mr. Tom Cruise of Mission: Impossible fame.
JEWELRY: Alexis Bittar
Photo Credit: David Clerihew
Waddingham confesses to being impressed by Cruise’s capacity for adventure and the crazy-ass risks he takes doing his own stunts. “I literally said to him the other night, ‘What would you do if you spin out of control in one of these things that you do?’ And do you know what his response was? He went, ‘Yeah, that’s not good.’ I mean, that’s quite the understatement. He laughed.” She widens her eyes theatrically, but smiles. “But really, it was lovely being around him, because he knows the magnificent weight and responsibility he carries on his shoulders, and he makes everybody feel seen when you’re on set with him.”
It sounds a bit like old TC has that Ted Lasso magic. I say this because it’s true and because, truly, everything in Waddingham’s present can be directly routed to the series that gave her the big career boost she needed and so very much deserved (including a potential album, of which she “can’t be specific, but it’s all bubbling”). It changed her life, after all, and she’s one to give credit where it’s due.
“I was having a very lovely high-end career as it was, but this has very much taken it into warp speed, and I will always be eternally grateful for it. I think it’s important to acknowledge that always,” she says. It’s equally important that she return the favor to people who might not have had the leg up she has had, many of which you’ll see on her Christmas special this winter. “I definitely think you need to acknowledge the people with you that I know have worked as hard as I have, which is why I’ve chosen to have certain people [in my special], as well, to give them that boost that I feel from Apple.”
That leads me to ask about her own personal Lasso-ish mantra. It isn’t “believe” or “be a goldfish,” but it’s close. “I live by ‘kindness is key’ and ‘treat others as you wish to be treated.’ I’m quite old school with that,” she admits, continuing, “I’m not down with ever being unkind or spiteful. In fact, whenever something negative about anyone comes out of my face, I feel it, I hear it, I acknowledge it, and I choose to move on from it always. It’s not my bag to be like that, because I fully believe in karma and manifestation, and I think you draw things to you. If you start getting into that acidic way of behaving, that bleeds from life into work, as well. That’s why a show like Ted Lasso absolutely struck a chord with me when I first started it, because I like that way of being — [aka] it can only bring good to you if you radiate positivity and kindness.”
It’s something that she’s reminded of every single time she looks at her “beautiful golden-winged lady”: how kindness — both to herself and others — led her here, to this picture-perfect moment in time. “I look at [my Emmy] every day and just think, What a beautiful thing that is. I don’t just look at her in terms of a pat on the back; I look at her as a moment in my life that stemmed from a magnificent gear change. [Right now, I feel] immensely privileged and calm and happy, and that’s a luxury I don’t take for granted.”
JEWELRY: Alexis Bittar
Photo Credit: David Clerihew
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