Hannah Waddingham recently appeared on an episode of the Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist podcast. Hannah was there to promote The Fall Guy, and they talk a bit about her time filming the movie. They also chatted about how different it was being a leading lady on Broadway vs. the West End, friendship with Clay Aiken, Ted Lasso, growing up in an opera house, and more. At one point, the conversation moves into Hannah’s transition from stage to screen. Just before booking Game of Thrones, she had made a decision to not accept any roles that weren’t principal roles, a risk she could take because she already had a very well-established career on stage. She was actually convinced after auditioning for GOT that she was not going to get cast and is grateful to the showrunners for taking a chance on her. She also keeps a little mental list of the producers who weren’t kind to her in those early days and takes pleasure in refusing to work with them now.
Hannah Waddingham wants nothing to do with the people who rejected her as she tried to break into movies and TV. The Ted Lasso star, 49, revealed on a recent episode of the podcast “Sunday Sitdown With Willie Geist” that she keeps a mental roster of names.
“Yes, there is a little list of people who wouldn’t give me the time of day but now want to work together,” Waddingham said. “And I am happy to say to them: ‘Please look somewhere else. I’m human. I remember. Bog off.’”
While her Hollywood career has taken off, the road to screen stardom was not easy. Earlier this year, she recalled to the “Michelle Visage’s Rule Breakers” podcast, “I had one drama teacher that said to the whole class: ‘Oh, Hannah will never work on screen because she looks like one side of her face has had a stroke.’” Motivated to prove this teacher wrong, she thought, “Come hell or high water, I will work on screen.”
Waddingham, a theater veteran, graced the stages of Broadway and London’s West End, earning acclaim for her work in Spamalot and A Little Night Music, among other shows. At the same time, she made minor appearances on TV.
“It got to the point where I realized I was only getting one scene in this, or one ep[isode] in that,” she said. “And I went, do you know what? I think I’ve done enough. … This isn’t cool any more. Why should I be constantly feeding into someone else’s storyline?”
She told her agents, “If it’s one scene, I’m not doing it any more, and you shouldn’t be putting me up for it because it’s insulting. I’ve been a leading lady for 22 years. I’m not doing it any more. I’d rather be in a world where I’m appreciated.”
When she stepped back, she was cast as Septa Unella in seasons 5 and 6 of the HBO fantasy drama Game of Thrones.
I mean, as we established after Hannah told off a photographer at the Olivier Awards for making a sexist comment to her, she is Mother. Getting the chance to say, “Nah, I’m good” to someone who blew you off when you had no power must feel so good. It’s giving major boss ass bitch energy. I just love how confident and funny she is. Hannah also spoke her mind about something else during the pod, and that’s that she really wants to do SNL. She even puts out a “subtle hint” to the powers that be at 30 Rock. It’s so awesome how she just puts it right out there. Someone needs to make that happen. The entire interview is a good listen because she gets into a good bit of detail on her career in general. You can listen to it here.
Photos credit: Julie Edwards/Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon and Getty