Hannah Waddingham clear her throat. Her voice dey scratchy. Two days before we meet, di star of Ted Lasso host Saturday Night Live UK. She take part for almost all di sketches dat night, from skit about ‘two top-heavy, Reading-based drama teachers’ called Janet, to a musical number about how many glasses of wine to drink at bar, to bit where she play di stern northern leader of speed awareness course. For her opening monologue, she zip through variety of accents and impressions. Range!
We dey tuck away for hidden private dining room of hotel for London, di city where di actor born and raise and where she still live with her young daughter. When Waddingham walk through di lobby, people notice her. She tall, striking, and wear di pulled-down baseball cap wey be actor’s day-off uniform.
During lockdown, Ted Lasso – di amiable football series where she play Rebecca Welton, di owner of fictional team AFC Richmond – make her famous for both sides of Atlantic. For 2021, e win her Emmy award for outstanding supporting actress for comedy series. At 47, after long but unflashy career for stage and screen, dere be sense say her time don come.
I tell her cheerfully, as we exchange pleasantries and settle in, but for years I tink you be northern. I plough on, expanding my theory. ‘You know, you don get northern energy, for barmaid-at-di-Rovers-Return sort of way.’ ‘Oh my God,’ she say, laughing, though di air don take sudden chill. ‘Is dat a compliment?’ E be massive compliment, I say, though I suddenly realise say to her e no sound dat way. Clearly, I don get Waddingham all wrong.
‘I tink dat comes from theatre… I’m just taking a moment.’ I dig myself in deeper. ‘I mean you get kind of brassy campness. E be good thing!’ ‘OK,’ she reply. ‘E be switch-on-able, and switch-off-able, I assure you.’
Now 51, Waddingham dey for her Hollywood era. Over di last few years, she don star for massive feature films like Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, alongside Tom Cruise, and The Fall Guy, with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. She dey here today, enduring me and dis conversation, to talk about di return of Ted Lasso, and about her new series, Ride or Die, a comedy-drama caper where she co-star with Octavia Spencer. For e, Waddingham be undercover assassin wey love drinking and men. For di first episode, she athletically jump out of first-floor window to avoid giving her number to di barman she pick up dat night.
E be lunchtime. We look at di menu. She be real foodie, she say. ‘Oh, doesn’t e all look gorgeous?’ ‘Dat be very camp,’ I joke. E be too soon. ‘Is e?’ She order di tomato and burrata salad.
Having watch her co-present di Eurovision song contest for 2023, having read about all those years for musical theatre, having see her appearance as guest judge for RuPaul’s Drag Race, and her theatrical Christmas revue for Apple TV, you fit see why people like me fit make assumptions about her. ‘Trust me, I would be very bored of myself if I were perpetually camp,’ she say. I be surprised say she be surprised by dis, but to her e be reductive read of her career. Even when e come to di Christmas special? ‘E too simple to say say e be camp, or say I be camp.’ She use her theatre background to pepper her performances with lightness, she explain. ‘You did judge di Rusical (di drag queens’ musical) for RuPaul’s Drag Race…’ ‘Yes. From musical theatre.’ ‘I feel as if I don insult you,’ I say, ‘and dat no be my intention.’ ‘Dere just be a lot more to me dan dat,’ she say. And besides, she add, I no don insult her. ‘E just, I would be sad if people’s perceptions of me were just dat.’
Waddingham grow up among creative people. Her first jobs be for theatre. After years of grafting, of taking small TV roles while performing, and winning awards, for di West End and for Broadway, she get series of breakthrough performances for screen. Dere be her small but mighty role for Game of Thrones, as di ‘shame nun’ Septa Unella, wey ring her bell over shaven-headed Cersei Lannister. E remain popular meme today. For Sex Education, she be parent to di school’s sensitive chief jock, Jackson. Den, during Covid, she join dat small group of actors wey find themselves stuck at home and also suddenly, newly famous for different scale, because dem dey for di shows wey everybody dey watch.
Her show be Ted Lasso. For e, her character take over AFC Richmond as part of divorce settlement with her cheating husband Rupert, played by di late Anthony Head. For di first season, Rebecca set out to destroy her ex’s beloved club by hiring di inept American football coach Ted Lasso, played by Jason Sudeikis. But over di course of three seasons, e grow into di job, and she grow to love di game. Di sweetness of her friendship with Sudeikis’s titular coach/manager give e appealing, big-hearted warmth. Now, e dey back for fourth run, three years later, with women’s football team at e centre.
Was Waddingham as surprised as fans say e dey return? ‘Dere were always rumblings. Of course, we finish with Keeley [Juno Temple] handing Rebecca di women’s team, so I actually tink e go come around quicker dan e don. When e no come, you start to tink, be dat e?’ Di cast, she say, remain ‘thick as thieves’, and dey constantly for touch, but she don begin feel sad about di possibility say she fit never play Rebecca again.
Does she follow women’s football? ‘Karen Carney message me before SNL to wish me luck.’ She meet di Lionesses Leah Williamson and Jill Scott for di early days of Ted Lasso. ‘Dem be such pioneers for my daughter’s generation,’ she say. Her father dey for e mid-80s, and e, too, prefer to watch women’s football. We chat, briefly, about di hostility still aim at female players. ‘I was out with Mary Earps, recently. And she dey say, di amount of grief she get from her autobiography…’ Earps experience considerable backlash, following comments for di book about di England manager Sarina Wiegman and her former international teammate Hannah Hampton. ‘My jaw was on di floor,’ say Waddingham. ‘I get level of incredulity say she [Earps] actually find funny.’
For di subject of hostility, Waddingham, wey get no-nonsense way about her, seem to dey adept at dealing with difficult characters herself. For interview with Glamour for 2023, she talk about modelling for her 20s, being for di receiving end of misogyny, and how she always call e out when she see e. For 2024, she be set to host di annual Olivier awards for London. As she arrive for di red carpet, paparazzo ask her to ‘show leg’. Her response go viral. ‘Oh my god, you’d never say dat to a man, my friend,’ she say, waving finger at di culprit. People dey supportive of wetin look to be stand against sexist double standards, and her response become news story.
‘I know where you dey go with dis,’ she say, warily, when I bring e up. ‘Well, people like say you stand up to him.’ ‘Because I don know him for 20 years and get immense respect for him,’ she say. ‘So dis be another case where public perception and reality no dey align? He be actually friend?’ ‘No, not my friend, but e be someone I don respect as photographer for 20 years, and we dey fine now. E take e on di chin, I call e out, e email me, I email e back.’ ‘So you tink e dey jokey?’ ‘No, I tink e forget e self. Dere be overfamiliarity. I just tink, don’t do dat, because dis be bespoke Marchesa gown. E stop for di mid-thigh, and e get beautiful, diaphanous over-layer,’ she say.
Di others, she say, be di birth of her daughter, being single mother, her Christmas special, ‘and how I hold myself, for younger women.’ Good manners dey important to Waddingham. She mention dem several times during our conversation. ‘Good manners dey more important to me dan work for any form. Manners first, always,’ she say. ‘I dey always mindful say my daughter dey watch.’ Where does she tink dat imperative to stand up for herself come from? ‘Dat just be inherent for how I don be brought up.’ She pause. ‘I just dey aware say we no dey talk about my work as much as my conduct,’ she say, steadily. ‘How you mean?’ ‘Just, di photographer…’ ‘But dis be profile of you,’ I say. ‘I dey try to find out who you be.’ ‘Purposefully so,’ she nod. ‘Wetin I mean by not talking about di work be say e easy to get catch up for – oh, I call people out.’ Again, she explain, she no want to be reduce to something she no be, but also, those good manners do matter to her.
To di work, den. Waddingham grow up for Wandsworth, south-west London, and spend her childhood for and around di theatre. Her father be marketing director and special constable for di river police. Her mother be professional opera singer wey take 11 years off to bring up Waddingham and her brother, den return to work for di chorus at di English National Opera. ‘Which be why I want to film my Christmas special dere,’ Waddingham say. ‘Apple dey say, “Do e at Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, di Royal Albert Hall.”‘ E sound as if e be almost predestined say Waddingham go become performer. ‘I no remember ever wanting to do anything else.’ When she dey younger, she dey obsessed with Whitney Houston and Ella Fitzgerald. She want to be di singer wey people go listen to, for dem Walkmans, with dem heads for dem pillows, having big feelings. ‘And I knew I wanted to be an actor as well. E just happen to turn out dat way. I audition for things, because you go need to get on di ladder and work.’ She dey always homebody. She go to drama school, but choose one two roads over from di house where she grow up. She still live for south-west London. ‘Again, because I dey old-fashioned.’
I ask if she still get her parents. Her father still dey alive, but ‘I no get my mum,’ she say, sadly. Her mother die two Christmases ago, and she don find say she only recently fit talk about her. ‘Tell me if I dey pry.’ ‘No, no, e fine.’ She want to speak about her. ‘E sound as if dem dey very close.’ ‘I suppose dat why I prickle at di idea of “theatrical being big
