Hannah Waddingham clears her throat. Her voice sounds a little rough. Two days before we meet, the Ted Lasso star hosted the UK version of Saturday Night Live. She appeared in nearly every sketch that night—from a bit about two top-heavy drama teachers from Reading named Janet, to a musical number about how many glasses of wine to order at a bar, to a scene where she played a stern northern leader of a speed awareness course. In her opening monologue, she raced through a range of accents and impressions. “You see?” she said to the cheering crowd. “Range. Range.”
I should have remembered that line when making small talk. We’re tucked away in a hidden private dining room at a hotel in London, the city where the actor was born and raised and still lives with her young daughter, Kitty. When Waddingham walks through the lobby, people notice her. She’s tall, striking, and wearing a pulled-down baseball cap—the standard day-off uniform for an actor. During lockdown, Ted Lasso—the friendly football series where she plays Rebecca Welton, the owner of a fictional team called AFC Richmond—made her famous on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2021, it won her an Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series. At 47, after a long but low-key career on stage and screen, it felt like her moment had finally come.
It’s funny, I tell her cheerfully as we exchange pleasantries and settle in, but for years I thought you were from the north. “No, really?” she replies, playing along. “Well, my mum was from the Isle of Man, so that might be why.” I keep going, expanding on my theory. You know, I continue brightly, you’ve got northern energy—like a barmaid at the Rovers Return. “Oh my God,” she says, laughing, though the mood suddenly turns a bit chilly. “Is that a compliment? I don’t think so.” It’s a huge compliment, I say, though I suddenly realize it doesn’t sound that way to her. Clearly, I’ve got Waddingham all wrong. “I think that comes from theatre… I’m just taking a moment. I don’t think anyone’s ever said that.” I dig myself in deeper. I mean, you have a kind of brassy campness. It’s a good thing! “OK,” she replies. “It’s something I can turn on and off, I promise. It’s just about wanting to make people smile and laugh.”
Now 51, Waddingham is in her Hollywood era. Over the last few years, she’s starred in big films like Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning alongside Tom Cruise, and The Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. She’s here today, putting up with me and this conversation, to talk about the return of Ted Lasso and her new series, Ride or Die—a comedy-drama caper where she co-stars with Octavia Spencer. In it, Waddingham plays an undercover assassin who loves drinking and men. In the first episode, she jumps out of a first-floor window to avoid giving her number to a barman she picked up that night.
It’s lunchtime. We look at the menu. She’s a real foodie, she says. “Oh, doesn’t it all look gorgeous? Obviously, I’m going to have the shrimp cocktail.” That’s very camp, I joke. It’s too soon. “Is it? I just like shrimp.” She orders the tomato and burrata salad.
“It bothers me when people say I’m camp, or that I’m a northern barmaid. We’re all made up of different parts.” Having watched her co-host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023, read about her years in musical theatre, seen her as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, and watched her theatrical Christmas special for Apple TV, you can see why people like me might make assumptions. “Trust me, I’d get bored of myself if I were always camp,” she says. I’m surprised she’s surprised by this, but to her, it’s a shallow reading of her career. EvenWhen it comes to the Christmas special? “It’s too simple to say it’s camp, or that I’m camp. What I wanted for my Christmas special was a timeless example of my voice, and something to make people smile.” She explains that she draws on her theatre background to bring lightness to her performances. “Even my monologue the other night was trying to create something light and joyful, something that takes people away from the routine of everyday life.” You did judge the Rusical (the drag queens’ musical) on RuPaul’s Drag Race… “Yes. From musical theatre. What I’m saying is, it’s too easy to just label me as camp, or as a northern barmaid.”
I feel like I’ve insulted you, I say, and that wasn’t my intention. “There’s just a lot more to me than that,” she says. And besides, she adds, I haven’t insulted her. “It’s just, I’d be sad if people only saw me that way. We’re all made up of different parts.”
Waddingham grew up around creative people. Her first jobs were in theatre. After years of hard work—taking small TV roles while performing, and winning awards in the West End and on Broadway—she had a series of breakthrough screen performances. There was her small but powerful role in Game of Thrones as the “shame nun” Septa Unella, who rang her bell over a shaven-headed Cersei Lannister. It’s still a popular meme today. On Sex Education, she played the parent of the school’s sensitive star athlete, Jackson. Then, during Covid, she joined that small group of actors who found themselves stuck at home and suddenly famous on a whole new level, because they were in the shows everyone was watching.
View image in fullscreen: With Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso. Photograph: Michael Becker/Apple TV
Her show was Ted Lasso. In it, her character takes over AFC Richmond as part of a divorce settlement with her cheating husband Rupert, played by the late Anthony Head. In the first season, Rebecca sets out to destroy her ex’s beloved club by hiring the inept American football coach Ted Lasso, played by Jason Sudeikis. But over three seasons, he grows into the job, and she grows to love the game. The sweetness of her friendship with Sudeikis’s title character gave the show an appealing, big-hearted warmth.
Now, it’s back for a fourth season, three years later, with a women’s football team at its center. Was Waddingham as surprised as fans that it was returning? “There were always rumors. Of course, we finished with Keeley [Juno Temple] handing Rebecca the women’s team, so I actually thought it would come back sooner than it did. When it didn’t, you start to think, is that it? Is it fading away?” The cast, she says, are still “thick as thieves” and constantly in touch, but she had started to feel sad about the possibility of never playing Rebecca again. “It sounds silly and theatrical, but if you’ve really felt a bond with them, losing a character is like losing a friend.”
Does she follow women’s football? “I’m more into women’s football than men’s.” Karen Carney messaged her before SNL to wish her luck. She met the Lionesses Leah Williamson and Jill Scott in the early days of Ted Lasso. “They are such pioneers for my daughter’s generation,” she says. Her father is in his mid-80s, and he also prefers to watch women’s football. We chat briefly about the hostility still aimed at female players. “I was out with Mary Earps recently. And she was saying, the amount of grief she got from her autobiography…” Earps faced a significant backlash after comments in the book about England manager Sarina Wiegman and her former international teammate Hannah Hampton. “My jaw was on the floor,” says Waddingham. “I had a level of disbelief that she [Earps] actually found funny. Maybe I’m naive, but I…”She found the things she was saying hard to believe.
When it comes to hostility, Waddingham—who has a no-nonsense attitude—seems skilled at handling difficult people herself. In a 2023 interview with Glamour, she talked about modeling in her 20s, facing misogyny, and always calling it out when she saw it. In 2024, she was set to host the annual Olivier Awards in London. As she arrived on the red carpet, a paparazzo asked her to “show leg.” Her response went viral. “Oh my god, you’d never say that to a man, my friend,” she said, wagging a finger at him. “Don’t be a dick, or I’ll move off.” People praised her for standing up against sexist double standards, and her reaction made headlines. “I know where you’re going with this,” she says cautiously when I bring it up.
[Image: Photograph by Felicity McCabe/The Guardian]
I was about to host an entire evening live, and what upset me was that it got reduced to that one photographer’s comment.
Well, people liked that you stood up to him. “Because I’ve known him for 20 years and have a lot of respect for him,” she says. So is this another case where public perception doesn’t match reality? “That’s why I said, at the end of my sentence, ‘You wouldn’t say that to a man, my friend.’” Was he actually a friend? “No, not my friend, but he’s someone I’ve respected as a photographer for 20 years, and we’re fine now. He took it well, I called him out, he emailed me, I emailed him back. I said, ‘Dude, that’s not cool,’ and to his credit, he apologized. I told him, ‘You can’t do that.’”
So do you think he was joking? “No, I think he forgot himself. There was too much familiarity. I just thought, don’t do that, because this was a custom Marchesa gown. It ended mid-thigh, with a beautiful, sheer overlay,” she says. “I was about to host an entire evening live, and what saddened me at the time was that [the evening] got reduced to that, instead of my live performance right after, which is one of the greatest achievements of my life.” The others, she says, are the birth of her daughter, being a single mother, her Christmas special, “and how I carry myself, for younger women. The flip side is calling out moments that need to be stopped.”
Good manners matter a lot to Waddingham. She brings them up several times during our conversation. “Good manners are more important to me than any kind of work. Manners first, always,” she says. “I’m always aware that my daughter is watching. So I try to be elegant and have a firm kindness about myself.” Where does she think that drive to stand up for herself comes from? “It’s just part of how I was raised. It’s old school—if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” She pauses. “I just notice that we’re talking more about my behavior than my work,” she says calmly.
What do you mean? “Just, the photographer…” But this is a profile of you, I say. I’m trying to understand who you are. I don’t think people know much about you. “On purpose,” she nods. “What I mean by not talking about the work is that it’s easy to get caught up in—oh, I call people out. Yes, I do, and I’m proud of that.” Again, she explains, she doesn’t want to be reduced to something she’s not, but those good manners are still important to her. “We, as the older women in society, need to encourage the younger ones, to make sure we’re respected, because it’s too easy for us to just take it on the chin.”
[Image: As Septa Unella in Game of Thrones. Photograph: HBO]In her latest show, Ride or Die. Photograph: Dušan Martinček/Prime
Now, onto the work. Waddingham grew up in Wandsworth, south-west London, and spent her childhood around the theatre. Her father was a marketing director and a special constable in the river police. Her mother was a professional opera singer who took 11 years off to raise Waddingham and her brother, then returned to work in the chorus at the English National Opera. “That’s why I wanted to film my Christmas special there,” Waddingham says. “Apple suggested Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall. I said, ‘No, it has to be the London Coliseum, because I’ve been running around there since I was a little girl.'”
It sounds almost inevitable that Waddingham would become a performer. “I don’t remember ever wanting to do anything else. I don’t know if I would have been very good at anything else.” When she was younger, she was obsessed with Whitney Houston and Ella Fitzgerald. She wanted to be the singer people listened to on their Walkmans, with their heads on their pillows, feeling big emotions. “And I knew I wanted to be an actor too. I didn’t really plan to do both on stage.” It just worked out that way. “I auditioned for things because you need to get on the ladder and work. And it just snowballed.”
I always defend theatre people, because they’re certainly not in it for money or fame, and that’s where I come from.
She was always a homebody. She went to drama school, but chose one just two streets away from the house she grew up in. She still lives in south-west London. “Again, because I’m old-fashioned. I feel strongly about being near my parents while I still have them, and then I’ll move.” I ask if her parents are still alive. Her father is, but “I don’t have my mum,” she says sadly. Her mother died two Christmases ago, and she’s only recently been able to talk about her. Tell me if I’m prying. “No, no, it’s fine. It’s good, because she should be celebrated.” She wants to talk about her. “I know I’m known as a spokesperson for theatre too, but that comes from her. It’s good that I talk about her, and I don’t mind getting upset, because it’s still the love you feel for someone.”
It sounds like they were very close. “I think that’s why I bristle at the idea of ‘theatre being over-the-top’ or whatever,” she says. “Being an opera singer, I used to tease her—they’d all come out and stagger, sing, stagger, drama, everything huge. But she was a very quiet, humble, wonderful, gentle, soft, incredibly talented woman. And she was pure theatre.” Later, she repeats that she feels protective of the theatre world. “I always defend theatre people, because they’re certainly not in it for money or fame, and that’s where I come from,” she says. Suddenly, the sharper edges of our conversation start to make more sense.
View image in fullscreen
Styling: Jodie Nellist. Makeup: Charlie Duffy using Dior Forever foundation and Dior Capture le Serum. Hair: Lewis Pallett at Eighteen Management using GHD. Nails: Jasmin Samavati at One Represents using Essie and Joonbyrd. Tailor: Eleanor Williams. Styling assistant: Lily Chebabo-Manning. Hannah Waddingham wears: gold disc dress and slip dress, both by Taller Marmo; coat, by Victoria Beckham; rings, by Foundrae; stone ring, Waddingham’s own; earrings, by Anabela Chan; shoes, by Christian Louboutin. Photograph: Felicity McCabe/The Guardian
I’m very at peace with who I am. I’m more than happy to share that I’m 51 and proud of it.
What was her mother’s name? “Melodie Kelly. I think her parents called her Melo.”People have died for their love of music, and now I hear my daughter singing in the shower, naturally operatic, and I think the gene pool is alive and well.
Waddingham gave birth to her daughter just weeks before filming that infamous “Shame!” scene in Game of Thrones. She had a successful career in musical theatre, making her West End debut in 1998, and for a long time she also worked as a TV actor, taking small roles in shows like Brookside, Doctors, Hollyoaks, and Benidorm. She auditioned for the role of Septa Unella in Game of Thrones because she wanted to be noticed by the show’s creators, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, even though she didn’t expect to get the part. “I was eight months pregnant,” she explains. “Pregnant from the nose out!” Like her mother, she planned to take time off work to be with her daughter. But the show was “a juggernaut,” she says, and when they offered her the role, she couldn’t turn it down. She brought her daughter, then nine weeks old, to the set. She could hear the baby crying during the walk of shame scene. “And I just thought, oh my God, what am I doing?” Part of her brain told her she was working and providing for her family. “The other part was going, I’ve got terrible separation anxiety. So when I watch it back, I just see a woman who doesn’t know whether she’s coming or going.”
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Waddingham split up with her daughter’s father, Italian luxury hotel manager Gianluca Cugnetto, when Kitty was small – she is now 11 – and has been a single parent ever since. At the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2024, sharp-eyed viewers might have noticed that Waddingham’s handbag was made of cardboard, painted in rainbow colors, with the word “Epic” scrawled on top. Her daughter had made it at home. “I picked it up and went, ‘It’s actually got more space in it than a normal, designer, ridiculous handbag, so I’m going to take it up the red carpet.’ I did it on purpose, to show her that she’s never far away from me.” She still feels guilty about being away when she has to work. “God, all the time. I’m about to go away to do press for the next season of Ted [Lasso], and the mom guilt kicks in. But I have to try and fight it.” She hasn’t performed in her beloved theatre since the early 2010s, partly because the hours are so demanding. “I don’t think my daughter is ready.” She wants to be able to do eight shows a week for at least six months, because she firmly believes that theatre audiences, paying high prices for tickets, deserve that level of commitment from performers. “I need to find the time to be able to go, ‘I’m taking this coat off for now and I’m putting my theatre coat back on.'”
[Image description: At the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2024, carrying a cardboard clutch made by her daughter. Photograph: Michael Buckner/Variety/Getty Images]
Waddingham took Kitty with her to Prague for five months and enrolled her in an international school so she could shoot Ride or Die. Her character is a forensic accountant named Judith, whose entire life is a cover for her real career as a trained assassin. Judith skis, she shoots, and she loves a glass of wine. “She’s an assassin of some 30 years,” Waddingham says. She was asked to be in the series by her co-star Octavia Spencer, whom she calls “my magnificent counterpart,” and says she still can’t believe Spencer wanted her to do it. The series is heavy on action sequences. “I did 75-80% of my own stunts. But, Rebecca, it was partly not a good idea, because I did mangle myself senseless.” At its heart, though, it’s a show about female friendship. Spencer plays Judith’s best friend, Debbie, who inadvertently gets pulled into the assassin lifestyle. “It’s about calling each other out, holding each other accountable.”Hannah Waddingham is proof that women in their 50s can be anything they want, especially when they decide to make big changes. Fame came later for Waddingham, who has made her own shifts from stage to screen. “I’ve talked to a few people who’ve had that ‘overnight success’ later in their careers,” she explains. “There are a few of us who’ve been right in the thick of things, working in places that aren’t as glamorous as TV. An overnight success after 25 years is wonderful. And I’m fine with it, because I’m very comfortable with who I am. I’m more than happy to say I’m 51 and proud of it.”
Waddingham looks at her phone and panics. “Oh my goodness, how long have we been talking?” She had told me she needed to leave after 45 minutes, but we’ve been chatting for almost 90. “I hope I’ve improved your initial impression…” she says with a laugh. Look, I say, I’m a big fan of camp. “I’m a big fan of camp too,” she says. “But I like these profiles, because it’s important for people to see that, like anyone else, there’s light and there’s shadow.” She’s rushing off to her daughter’s school for an event that her “little one” forgot to tell her about until this morning. “I’m always aware,” she says, putting her baseball cap back on, “that with her school, if I’m late, they’ll think, oh, those actors…”
Ride or Die is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about Hannah Waddinghams journey to stardom at 51 based on her interviews about sexism stunts and her overnight success
BeginnerLevel Questions
1 What does an overnight success after 25 years mean
It means Hannah Waddingham became globally famous for Ted Lasso in her 50s but she had actually been working as a professional actress for over 25 years before that Her big break was a long time coming
2 How did Hannah Waddingham get her big break
She was cast as Rebecca Welton in the Apple TV series Ted Lasso The show became a massive hit and her performance earned her an Emmy Award
3 What kind of sexism did she face in her career
She has spoken about being told she was too tall or too old for roles and about being asked to wear revealing costumes or act in ways that felt degrading especially in the early years of her career
4 Did she do her own stunts on Ted Lasso
Yes She performed many of her own stunts including the famous scene where her character throws darts She was proud to show she could do physical comedy and action
5 How old was Hannah Waddingham when she became famous
She was 51 years old when Ted Lasso premiered and she became a household name
AdvancedLevel Questions
6 How did her theater background prepare her for Ted Lasso
Her stage experience gave her incredible vocal control comedic timing and the stamina to handle long days on set She also brought a show must go on attitude that helped her navigate the shows intense schedule
7 What specific stunt did she find most challenging
She has mentioned the physical comedy of falling over the bar in the pub scene It required precise timing and trust in the stunt team and she had to do it multiple times
8 How did she handle being told she was too old for roles earlier in her career
She said she refused to let it define her Instead of quitting she focused on theater and smaller TV roles building a reputation for being reliable and
