Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Hannah Waddingham

Episode Date: April 21, 2024

On this week's episode, Willie sits down with Emmy-winning "Ted Lasso" star, Hannah Waddingham. They talk about her breakout performance on that show, her role alongside Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in the new movie "The Fall Guy", and so much more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. I think I got a great one dialed up for you this week with one of the most charismatic, charming, talented people in all of show business. She is the Emmy winner, Hannah Waddingham. Hannah, you may know best, for her role as Rebecca Welton on Ted Lassow. She, of course, was the team owner of AFC Richmond, a little gruff, a little tough at the beginning but broken down over the course of the show by Jason Siddakis's Ted Lassow. That is the breakout role. That is the role that has made her a star over the last several years.

She's now starring in a new movie called The Fall Guy alongside Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, funny, action-packed movie. And it's been a long road to this moment for her. Ted Lassow finally delivered her to the world. But as she says, it's been tough. She has been a star on London's West End for 20 years at least, maybe a little bit more than that. She came to Broadway with Spam a Lot in 2008. In fact, we have our conversation right in the heart of Broadway on 44th Street at a restaurant across the street from the Schubert Theater where she put on Spam a lot.

She played the Lady of the Lake in 2008, so more than 15, 16 years ago. But she has talked about and does in some detail here in our conversation. about how hard it was to get TV roles, even though she was a star on the West End and a star on Broadway. There was a certain vision of people, okay, you're that, you're a stage actor. So she just got small parts, and it all came to a head on the set of the 2012 movie Le Miserables, where she gets into a little confrontation with director Tom Hooper, because she has been frustrated for so long about sort of just taking what she's been given, which is small parts in movies and small parts and TV shows.

It changes there in that moment. She gets on Game of Thrones as the Shame None, and then, of course, lands with Jason Sedakis and the group on Ted Lasso. So she is just a wonderful person. You'll hear the charisma coming through your headphones. You'll hear the smarts, the experience, the life she's lived, all coming out right now in my conversation with Hannah Waddingham on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Hello.

Hi. It's so nice to see you. Hello. Come on, we're doing this. Great. I've been so looking forward to this. I feel like I'm just a gentle stalker of yours. Oh, really?

Gentle is the operative word. Yes, gentle. Yeah. It's a good way. Set the tone for the conversation. I bet you had like a COVID screen here now. I'm sorry, don't clam that. No, I am thrilled to be sitting here with you.

And sitting here in a place, a neighborhood that is very special to you. Very special to me. Because right across the street, you were in Spam a Lot on Broadway in 2008, I think it was. Yeah, 2008, 9. What are your memories of that time and being a part of this community on Broadway? My memories are quite broad and kind of not in a great sense. I loved being on the Great White Way, and it was a total pinch-me moment.

but I was also the loneliest I've ever been in my life because there was a kind of being removed from me which I wasn't used to the respect that is afforded a leading man or a leading woman is very different to London so in London it's the thing I first noticed when I was here when you want to fit in and you want to be pals I had that thing where

you know in my company in the West End I would be like making tea in the crew room or going into the girls' ensemble room or whatever. But then when I did that here, they were like, can we help you, ma'am? And I was like, oh, no, no, no. I'm a, you know, I'm just, I'm like being in the thick of it. So I was being afforded a respect that I kind of don't want.

I'm a bit of a, I like the grob of theatre, and I've grown up with it with my mum. So I like going sitting in the career room and having a cup of tea. They got used to me and got the measure of me after a while. But that was when I first arrived, I was like, ooh, this is quite full amount. Yes. And totally different from the West End that way.

But I'm sure they loved it eventually. Once they figured out what was going on, they realized that I was a complete. They got it. They did, but they got it. Because I would come in in my, like, just my stocking cap and my mic, and just like a little towning wrap around and crocs and hunker down

and so, you know. What a visual. So glamorous. But there had to be something about, I mean, you'd done so well on the West End, coming to Broadway and succeeding again, it must have been very rewarding to know that it plays everywhere.

Yeah, and actually I ended up winning an award here before I'd ever won one in the UK. I thought like, Like, come on. You might own people. Yeah, it was crazy. It was so lovely. And fell very much in love with Clay Aiken, who I didn't know from Adam.

And he loved that. Because when we started the show together, and I was like, who is this guy? And in fact, I've always called him cake bacon. Because I was just like, who is it? And we had a bit of a running gag. I was like, you are. Not an American Idol fan. I mean, no, I wasn't.

Because I'd been doing my own stuff. And he was like, you. You don't know who I am or care. And I was like, no, but I like you. So we're still great mates now. And I'm sure that was refreshing to him, actually. Yeah, he loved it. We would just disappear off between shows and hunker down together.

It was lovely. Well, we can talk more about your illustrious stage career in just a moment, but we've got to talk about the Fall Guy. Oh, yes. What fun is this movie? I watched it last night. Oh, did you? Oh, it's just a blast.

Didn't you love it? It's great. Full of action, hilarious. hilarious. Yes. You're great. Thanks. Ryan is great.

Emily's great. Yeah. It's just fun. I mean, that's the word. It's sort of a lame work. Aaron's bonkers. It's brilliant. Yeah, it is fun.

It's fun. And I think it's a very loving nod. It's not only the 80s, but the stunt community. It is a massive, respectful bow and hug to the stunt community. And I love that because I'd never worked on a show where there are. I mean, when you're on a David Leach, Kelly McCorm. production, the level of stunt person you're going to have on that is the ridiculous crem d'o crem. So you really get immersed in all of that. And the thing that struck me the

most was that they massively look after each other because they have to. And therefore, they looked after us. And that very much bled through to our side, you know, our little nook, the acting nook. And it was an extremely happy, extremely easy, fun, silly collective out in Oz. It was really, really a pleasure to be on. And it comes across that way, which is, I think, a hard combination to do a huge movie full of stunts and explosions,

but also keep that characters a little small in their relationships and the jokes are funny. But that comes from Ryan first, I would say. I mean, he wrote, I'm saying, and David, when I first got there and I was horrifically jet-lagged. And we basically changed my accent, my hair color, and the script.

And I'd got used to being on TED where, you know, the script is the script. Right. Because the writer's room have gone at it and finagled everything so that it's total perfection. So you change, like, something to anglicise it. But we got there, and I was just like, right, so this is just the framework. Good. I don't know where any of my molecules are. I think most of them are still in London. And I was literally just like, right, I'm just going to have to be led by you.

And David and Ryan, the first scene I shot was in my character, Gail's trailer. And it's the biggest, most important plot setting scene of the movie. I was like, guys, you are... Because this is... Are you doing this on purpose? Is there a camera on me testing whether I'm, you know, getting it? twitch on about all of this. So I thought if I could get through that and get through anything.

And boy, did you. So Gail is a great character because she's, I guess she's a little evil or, um. She's not evil, really? Well, there's, there's shades. She needs to, see, I don't think, I like playing characters that are a bit off. Because I love finding their reason. Like with Septuonella, the Shamedon in Thrones, she was making filthy Circey, a tonne. for her disgusting, incestuous behavior.

You know? She's on the right side of that one. Right. And the same with Gail. I like finding the reason why she gets a little carried away with it all because she needs to get the job done. And like she says at the end, I make movies for all you tiny little people.

But she's got a point, as a producer, you've got to get the job done. Whatever needs to be done. Her roots are. slightly dubious, nefarious goings on. What's got to be done is, we'll leave that out of this conversation,

but it's a big, it's a big thing. It's not like a set change. No. No. No. It's her modus operandi to get it done. Now, you've been on enough sets in your life.

Were you able to pull anything from people you'd been around in Hollywood? Well, actually, Kelly McCormack, our producer, didn't, I don't think she quite realized until she started watching the dailies. She was like, you're basing this on me and you. And I was like, appearance-wise a little bit.

And she was like, no. Really? So there was a bit of that. But then when Gail starts to go more into her kind of neurotic psychosis, that was more, I won't say who it was. It was more from another show. I've done where there was a director that came in, it was actually a guy, came in, and everyone said that he was really chilled and funny and I just thought, is he?

I don't think so. So it was more based on this one guy. That sudden moment of flipping was based on someone else. I cannot wait to scrape through your IMDB page to see who that is. Was he? I were to find it and put it directly into the piece. Call him out. Yeah, you turned into camera.

Exactly. Do I have it right that you were a fan of the Fall Guy television show? Absolutely. In the UK and the 80s? My brother and I, massive fans. Yeah, I think we're about the same age. So it played well for me as an American kid. As I said, you and Ryan and Emily have a great chemistry on screen.

Yeah. Was it that way off camera? Even more. Was it? Yeah. Even recently, the three of us were doing like a skit thing together. And it's so lovely. There's just an ease.

I mean, there's an ease with Emily because we're both sorry girls. So we know each other. Yes. There's just a vibe there. But that first, you know, I don't mind saying it. It was daunting. Going into that trailer, you know, not knowing what time of day it was, first meeting, Ryan.

feeling like the floor was moving, because I was so jet-lagged. He, because he was a performer when he was a child as well, and is a singer, and he knew that I was a singer, there was also an immediate shorthand with him, which was so lovely.

So nothing has felt forced. It didn't feel like sometimes you get onto things and you think, have chemistry. Right. But there was just, it was immediate. and effortless, and I have absolute total respect for them both, that they are both still, regardless of their huge status, they are actors first and stars somewhere very much down the line.

And the set was always happy and always moving forward and always for the greater good and tweaking things and changing things up because of them, and because David comes from the stunt world, So there was just such a lack of ego on the set, which I love. Having come from Ted where there was no ego either, I've been very spoiled in recent years, the people I've worked with. And that's, it comes through the screen, doesn't it?

Absolutely. And I do think Ryan and Emily, too, are underrated comedic actors. 100%. They're both so funny. So funny. In this movie and in many others, but you really see it in the fall guy. You really see it. Yeah.

And it was lovely watching them break down a scene. and constantly trying to find the thing, you know, do we kiss here? No. And David as well. Do we kiss here? And there'd be times when there would be like me, Ryan, Emily, David and Kelly like down the trailer, all kind of brainstorming a bit together. And it's lovely.

They're constantly thinking about what the audience want, what the audience want. And I love that as well. You know, I can't speak highly enough of all of those guys. And do you like the big Hollywood production like that, which is a massive film? I absolutely loved it. I was like, now we are talking. So great. And I love the fact that there are oftentimes when, you know, because I didn't know either

them at all, when I would say something as Gale and both of them are like 12-year-olds, like giggling away. And I'm like, stop ruining my take. That's a dream, though, isn't it? That's brilliant. To be that comfortable. Brilliant. Yeah, and to really genuinely be fans of each other is lovely.

Well, it's a great movie. It really is. If it weren't, I would just say something more polite and innocuous. Move on. It really is. It's so much fun. But it's not the only big project you've got. Garfield.

I mean, Garfield. Come on, Jinks. I know. Jinks is such a... I feel like we need to unpack why I like playing a B. Well, I was going to follow up on that. It's so fun. It's so much fun.

She's such an . She really is. And really, again, I feel like I'm going through my neurotic, psychotic, assholes. Jinks. I mean, when I saw her, I thought, oh, no, this is going to wear me out vocally because I knew she had to be all the time. So that you never quite know where you are with her,

even though she looks all like pretty white, fluffy cat with a mood necklace and eyeliner, you know, I just thought she needs to be really unsettling. I thought you're talking the fluffy animated cat as an ass-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h. But I did it very much for my daughter, you know, she's nine.

Yeah, was that part of the decision? Yeah, oh, absolutely. I wanted to have something that she can go and see with her friends and, you know, then she can show her children eventually. Yeah, it changes, doesn't it? When you have children. For sure.

You're not only thinking, oh, you know, how much am I going to be away? And can I take them with me? And is that still furthering their education and blah, blah, blah, blah. But also things that I can do that she can watch, you know, because she's barely seen any of Ted. That's tough. Because of Goldstein swearing her client and sent her. Then I decided, oh, I'll let her see the Christmas episode because it's Christmas.

And her mother swears quite a lot in that one. That's right. Yeah. My dad was just like, that wasn't a good idea, was it? Shoot, someday she'll appreciate Ted Lassau. Just not this day. No, no. Was the animation experience?

Is that fun? I've heard different versions of how, Oh, I love it. Just walking in in your sweatpants and playing in that room? Yes, I love it because it kind of goes into an almost singing world for me. It's the same with playing Deliria in Crapopolis. I love seeing, I have to see at least the artist's starter sketch. But it's the same on this other thing.

I needed to see. They went, oh, we've really only just started. Oh, that's why. We've only really just started sketching out of rough. And I was like, I just need to see whether they're this big, this narrow, that big, where their voice box would sit is the thing for me. And then someday. Which sounds like a silly thing, but it's important to me to see their kind of facial dimensions.

so then I can adjust according me. Right. Yeah, but I mean, the one thing I really need to learn to do is not wreck my voice senseless so that I then can't speak for several days. You go hard in that recording booth. I've just got no control. I did the same when I was doing ADR for Fall Guy.

You know all that last third act section when we're... Oh, yeah. Yeah, they wanted me to do like a wild track of Stap. I literally couldn't talk for two days. Oh, is that right? Yeah, David was laughing because he was like, you go in, don't you? And I was like...

But you've learned to care for your voice over the years, given all the kinds of vocal work you've done. Yes, but because I have that tool, I am sometimes disrespectful to her. But I love it. I love stretching myself. Like I was saying to you about being here, I just had no life because I had to...

make sure that it was spot on. And I shot myself in the foot by going no, I'm going to use my four-octive range all the time, eight shows a week, which was a massive mistake. And I don't say it in a, you know, Charlie Bigsbuds's way. I say it in a, I was a I should have just used my voice in a normal way instead of wanting to make the audience laugh.

And not being able to speak in between. Yeah, having no, I would walk off stage. and be like, hello. The things you do for your craft, right? Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Hannah Waddingham right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Hannah Waddingham. I love hearing about the origins of your story and how you got here

because you come from a family of performers, your mother sang in the very prestigious opera, the English National Opera, for many years, 30s. Yes, from, she went back to work when I was eight and my brother was 11, so she went back into the English National Opera Chorus at the London Coliseum. But before I was born, she was a principal at Covent Garden at the Royal Opera House. Wow. And both her parents were opera singers in the Isle of Man. You know the tiny sliver of course. Yeah.

So growing up at eight years old and ten years old and on up and seeing your mother like that, do you say, I want to do that? I want to be on a stage somewhere, maybe not as an opera singer, if I want to be on stage. I don't recall ever thinking I would do anything else, which meant the force was very strong with this one. And I would sit there watching the amazing directors of the day, you know, David Pountney and Jonathan Miller and all those amazing people. And I would, without realizing it, kind of by osmosis, vocal placement, more than anything, I think, went in. into me and also the, because I would just sit in the orchestra, as you guys call it, in the stalls in England, I would sit there for hours on end like it was my like child care pen. And I would just be left sitting there.

And it was at a time when they'd let a kid just wander around. And it was the most, I realized, I realized at the time, but I realized more since what a privileged position I was in to just have free reign of this magnificent. Frank Matcham Theater. It's one thing to want to do it. It's another thing to have the talent and the voice and the presence to pull it off. So when did you start perfecting that

and feeling like, okay, maybe I'm good at this. A few people seem to be clapping after my performances. I genuinely don't know because I never considered anything else. I've always been, and this is what helped so much in Spamelot, I've always been a bit of a vocal mimic. I would always be able to sing. in different styles. You know, even when I was kind of nine, ten,

I would do an impression of Tom Jones or Shirley Bassy or, you know, I fell in love with Whitney Houston or, you know, all of those people, Macy Gray, all these people of that time. But I would also listen to their, that's what I was saying about the placement of people's voices and then that goes into animation or, you know, and I suddenly realized doing shows when it came to doing my own one woman shows,

I used to think, I don't know which voice is my voice because I'm always turning her into Desire or the Lady of the Lake or Rizzo in Greece or, you know, all the wicked witch of the way. So I'd have all these plates spinning and I definitely lost a sense of self vocally within all of that. But I really don't remember going,

oh, I don't remember having such a, kind of planned out stream of consciousness like that at all. It just kind of was a foregone conclusion to me that I would just do it. It's what you do. Yeah. This is what mom does and this is what I'm going to do. Yeah. It came naturally.

Yeah. One of your first stage performances, maybe your first, you can correct me, is something I love because I saw Tony and Tina's wedding in New York when I was in high school. I grew up in New Jersey across the river. And I remember coming in, what is this? What the hell is this? And I remember being in the bathroom, genuinely going to the bathroom. And a guy had a bad talks next to me.

Doing a scene. And I thought, is this real? Should I drive drugs? Sorry about that. But it was an actor, of course. But that was one of your first parts, a different version of it. Yeah, Joey and Gina's wedding. Right, right.

For legal reasons. Who knows why it was that. But I remember having conversations with people and getting a real buzz from them going, no, this is a show, and me going, sweetie, did you not bring a gift? Do you want me to go run and get you something?

And then I would hear my, you know, it was musical, a series of very clever musical cues or you would hear two waiters, waiters, having an argument, one smack in the other one round the head with the tray, and you'd know that that was your cue to go over there and start whatever bit that was moving the story along.

And that was the greatest. It's why I've always wanted to do SNL. Subtle hint. This is NBC. I mean, I feel like I feel like I have been waiting to do that. I even said it to Jason Sidakas.

I was like, that's where I started with the power of yes. Because you have to be so on it for something like that. Me trying to convince people at the time that I had a hairdressing salon under the loop in Chicago. Never ever been there.

I didn't know what I was called. You know, I'd called it The Curl Up and Die. Like, just thought of it spot and just kept it for the year. But when you've done improvisation that early, that was from when I was like 19 to 21. Those formative years are so important. And I've never done improv ever since. And I was with big boys on TED.

You know, Jason and Brendan Hunt, second city and all of that. I was just like, we need to do S&L together so that I can flex that again. You'd be amazing. And have all the different hats looking ridiculous, all the fake teeth, all the, you know, eyebrow. Or just, I love all of that. I love not looking like me. You would be amazing on S&L.

Yeah, did you hear that? Yes. What did Geist just said it? God's sake. God's sake. They'll tap you on the shoulder. Oh, yes. So we'll just be cool about it.

No, I've heard that, yeah. I mean, I don't really want to do it. They'll let you know. Anyway, yeah. What's it called? Casual indifference. By the way, Sunday night late.

For people who have no idea what we're talking about, Tony and Tina's wedding or Joey and Jean as wedding, which I think is rubbish. Was an improvisational wedding. We're the audience and the guests. Yeah, same with us. And you attend, but you don't know if who you're sitting with is in the show or another guest and bride. There's things happening in the bathroom. I mean, why would you all want to do that?

It's so unnerving for the audience. Oh, my gosh. I'd hate it if I was in the audience. It was so much fun, though, because you didn't know what was real. So I can imagine how fun that was. I mean, because I was playing this, like, pneumatic Barbie doll character, and I would go out to people and just be like, could you stop looking at me, please?

My husband is over there, and you're making a fool of yourself. I mean, it was really, it was at a time when you could kind of get away with things like that. Then I would, like, take a guy's handkerchief. and go up to my husband and go, he just gave me this, that one over there. And the guy would be like, no, no, no, I didn't. I mean, just causing absolute mayhem. It was so much fun.

It was very chaotic. So naughty. Yes, great. Oh, so cool. And you go from there and you have very successful, we've talked a little bit about West End and coming here to Broadway. Yeah. When you were doing all that and having the success that you had, were you also thinking about TV and film?

No, or were you just... No, I wasn't because... Because, and I've been quite vocal about it, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally, like at the Emmys, in my Emmy speech, I had no intention of getting on my soapbox quite as much as I did. But it just fell out because it is very important to me

that at the time, it was impenetrable. TV in Britain. If you were in theatre, TV at the time, you'd go into a meeting and they'd go, oh you do this um i had this ones you do this um like singing theater singing thing and at the time i'd had like 10 years of being a leading lady in the west end and it really got the bit between my teeth that there was tv and film people could come into theater albeit you know like a musical or plays or whatever but going back that way didn't happen so when i did a little bits and pieces

in the UK, but it took me coming to Broadway and seeing that people would ebb and flow in and out of the two different mediums and be respected for it and be called this thing of a multi-hyphenate, whereas in the UK it was, well, hold on, are you this or are you that? And I actually parted company with an agent back then because they said, well, what do you want us to market you as. And I was like, if we're even having this conversation, then I'm jogging on. Because I didn't want that. And there was a kind of feeling at the time of being greedy. And I thought, well, no, if they can do it, why can't I do it? It's not a question of being arrogant about your ability. It was a need to, like you were saying earlier about, when did you

know, how did you craft that journey. I knew that it was time for me. me to have a little stretch and a little flutter somewhere else. But I had realized I had been very much indoctrinated to stay in my lane. And once I'd realized that I'd been indoctrinated, then I was mad. It's also very lazy. You're a great actor. You can act here or there. Absolutely.

Just tell us to break. In fact, I had, I don't know whether many people know this, but when I did my one scene, cough and a spit on the Les Miz movie, And we've seen each other since. Tom Hooper and I had just a gentle falling out because he was asking somebody else to get all us musical theatre people to bring it down. And I heard it and I'd had enough.

And because I was only doing one scene, I thought, I'm just going to have to say something. And I said, can I just stop you there? And I could feel like... I would say like, you know in Jurassic Park when the nice dinosaur goes... I just felt a bit like that because I'd had enough at that point

of feeling like I should be grateful for a scene in this or a scene in that. You know, oh, it'll all add up and eventually something will happen. And I'd just had enough of it. And I said, you do realize that this girl here is playing Fontaine. She's playing Fontaine, the whole role

in the West End at the moment, every night. This girl here is currently playing Elphabre or whatever. And we're all here doing one scene for the greater good of this movie. But can I remind you that all these people, you wouldn't have a film to direct unless people were in the West End or on Broadway, underdressing clothes upon clothes upon clothes in the heat of, you know, like May to September on stage. And it is a total vocation. You wouldn't have a film to direct if we didn't do the hard work on stage if you wanted to take it down. ask us to take it down. Wow.

And he had this, and we did laugh about it afterwards. The next few days he was like, Waddingham, can we go again? Does anybody need a pee break? And I was like, no, I think fine very much.

And we were fine after that. But I just thought, no, don't presume that people in theatre can only do that. Ask us to do that. Ask us to do nothing. But give people a chance, to prove themselves. Don't write us all off.

Good for you for doing that. I had to. Yeah. Because it was really, I was sick and tired of it. And whether you meant it or not, the Emmy speech did a version of that as well. Like, come on guys. Yes. Now I have this platform.

Listen up. Yes. Yeah. Look in stage doors. Right. So what was then in your mind the breakthrough when you did come out of the stage door? Was it Game of Thrones? Was it something before that where you thought, okay.

Yeah. It was one step before that. Before that, actually, it was Benadorn. And I nearly didn't get that either, but the writer, Darren Lytton, said to ITV, I don't want somebody that's already established in TV. I've seen her in theatre all these years, and I know she's right to play Tony Dyke.

And I'm very grateful to him, and very grateful to David Benioff and Dan Weiss for taking a punt on me for Game of Thrones as well. Because I didn't think I was going to get that, at all. All the other women that were there for the audition were, I mean, seriously older than me and much smaller than me. And I thought that they'd made a mistake. And I was eight months pregnant. Like, you know when your nose and mouth join in during pregnancy? I was literally a ship in full sale. So I'd gone to say hello, because I desperately wanted to meet them.

I loved Game of Thrones so much. The cinematography of it is so extraordinary, and their attention to detail. And so I just wanted to meet them, really, for next time, because I knew it was going to go on, you know, the eighth series. And when they then offered it to me, and they said, you do realize that this is filming imminently, I was like, okay.

So took my little girl out with me. And then it was almost like them, allowing me in made everyone else prick up a bit. But I even kind of had it with Ted. I knew that Jason wanted me for it and various people. But there were just a couple of people that were unsure because I was less known. And I got David Benioff and Dan Weiss to write an email to the powers that be.

and it was so lovely because Dan Bice's email, the subject was, what are we even discussing here? And that meant the world to me. That is to have an endorsement from people like that. And he's a very quiet, lovely man, Dan. And I've always been so grateful to them both because it was such a beautiful, quiet, genuine endorsement of Let the Girl Play.

And that's also an endorsement of you, of your talent and your willingness to push for things. you deserve to have, but you had to fight a little bit for it. Yes, I did, I did, and I've been brought up in quite a kind of Victorian, autocratic family life, of perhaps not speaking out, so I didn't for a long time. But then it got to the point where I just thought, I have to at least try, because otherwise I'll be bitter to myself. And I even said to my then agents, I'm not willing to keep feeding constantly into other people's narratives on camera.

So we start turning down this scene here, scene there, an ep here, and ep here, and ep there. I'm perfectly happy to stay in the beautiful career that I'm in and do concerts and do voiceovers and all of that. But I have to start saying no, because I know that I'm capable of the, of the standard that those people are, that I'm feeding into. What a great example, though. I mean, for your daughter, on the one hand, and for actors like you. I'm sure. It was really nerve-wracking at the time.

About a little gamble, probably. Yes, big gamble. Because I'd got to where I'd got to in theatre, and I felt like that was up here, and I was kind of scrabbling around down there. So those people in particular, but also Sir Trevor Nunn in musical theatre, he was the one that kind of said,

I see you as the, you know, vulnerable, we're all sometimes vulnerable, sometimes flawed, sometimes this, sometimes that. I see that. I don't just see a six-foot blonde who has a belt. And that did something to me as well to be seen there. So there are a few people that I will never forget

have gone, no, no, no, you can. Go on, go on. Really nice. Ultimately, it had to be you, though. Yes. You had to push in the door in the end. Yeah, and like you say, it's really nerve-wracking. Because you don't know how it's going to turn out.

It might be career suicide in one place because you've stepped away from theater and you don't want people to think, oh, she's gone off and, you know. But now I love it because it means I can, I'm established enough to go, like I said, go and look in that doorway. Go and get her. Go and get him. 70 and brilliant and that's the one you're looking for. Not the same old face that everyone knows. Right. Yeah, it's funny to hear you talk about the Ted Lasso of it all because I heard Jason recently in an

interview, somebody asked him about your role on the show and how it came to pass and all that. And he said, I had a vision of my mind of who she was. And we did all these chemistry tests with people. And I was like, okay, she's good, and then he'd come back, and then no one could agree on anything. And then you've told the story just now, but the emails come through, and they say, okay. And he said to this interviewer, you walked in the door, shook him, and he's her. And then when you, I think it seems, I'd be interested to hear from your side of it, he felt something immediately, like, oh, we found her. Yeah, I mean, I felt that.

And the thing I love more than anything, and it made me very emotional when I heard him say it, because he doesn't give compliments lightly. when he said I saw Rebecca first and then I had to get to know Hannah. That was just gorgeous. And I always say to him, I've never worked so hard to hear someone behind their mustache go,

Mm-hmm. Just that, mm-hmm. It doesn't matter who else is there. Kind of didn't matter who was directing if I heard Jason go, mm-hmm, because it's his baby. And I've never forgotten that. It's his baby.

there is we have the most we've been spoiled senseless you know with the the Brendan hunts and the Brett Goldstein's and the Phoebe walsh's all those people in the writer's room but the buck stops with him and so it should do because it's his baby so to get that from him I used to even in season three I used to go is Jason is he filming is he filming can we just wait a little minute as he wrapped on that yet because I wanted to get that ending right with him. So yeah, he's very special to me in terms of someone seeing something in me. You know, and you want to, when somebody sees something in you, like I've had very few points in my career elsewhere, you don't want to let that person down, you know?

Did it feel special on the page, Ted Lassau, when you read it? Did you love Rebecca, first of all? Yes. Did you think, oh, this is something like I've never seen before? Yes, it was. You know that speech in episode one when I'm looking at the picture of Rupert? And I go, he's such an asshole. I want him to rot and the whole cricket bat of it all.

I learned that. It's like I could have glanced at it and gone, yeah. It was the weirdest thing of feeling her. rippling through my bloodstream, and even now, I can be looking at you and at the moment feel like Rebecca and then switch her off and be Hannah. It's the strangest, because it's a small adjustment, but I can literally feed it like blue blood, red blood.

And I've never had that with anything. But it makes it difficult now, because the lovely position I find myself in of being sent lots of things, I end up going, no because if you don't feel that once you've felt it it's very hard to feel it on anything else and thankfully yes i've been spoiled senseless and the fact that you know you'd be able to put in your two penneth and and anglicise it and and bring what i wanted to bring to it because of

previous experiences i've had with you know people wouldn't expect that someone of my height and build and front-footedness, people wouldn't expect me to have had that kind of a verbally abusive relationship with someone. So it was hugely cathartic as well for me. And Jason knew that. And there were several times, particularly in season one, when I'd go, dude, have you got cameras in my life? Because it was freaky. Just a version of. Yeah. And you could get some of that out on set? So much out. Interesting. Yes. Yeah. But I love that. I love being able to kind of donate that to her.

Stick around for more of my conversation with Hannah Waddingham right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Hannah Waddingham. So that Ted Lassau comes out in August of 2020. We all know what that means for the rest of us, sitting in our homes desperate for something to lift us up. Yes. And along comes this beautiful. show. Yeah. What do you think made the Ted Lassau moment

so special? What was it that went into that that just made it blow up and become this thing? It just felt good. Yeah, it was well acted and well written and all of those things, but it also just felt good.

It did. I mean, hilariously, myself and Brett Goldstein stood behind the craft truck while we were drawing towards the end of shooting season one. Bear in mind he's in the writer's room, but it doesn't matter now,

because it's gone. He and I both went, and I was like, it's been so lovely to get to know you though. And he was like, you too, Han, really lovely. We're not going to be doing a season two, though. We were like, oh well, and kind of signed off with each other because we hadn't seen it all edited together. And because neither of us had seen what I think is mainly responsible for it,

the most beautiful kismet casting on anything ever. for me. So you've got the alchemy of the greatest casting with a lot of people that were pretty much unknown. All of us, like at it for years, but mainly unknown. And then a writer's room that was a wash with female and male feminists, which is, again, not common. So all of that coming together just produce something that when I watched it I went

it has to be because it just every single character you immediately felt like you knew them and it's that age old thing of you've got to give a shit by the end of the first step

otherwise I don't about you but I'm not one when people go oh no stick with it for two three three of it no that is same with succession for me

the end of that first episode I was like oh couldn't wait. Like, on it. Like a truffle hound. And that's the same thing with Ted, I think. Absolutely.

Even if you, I mean, because I remember Jason's character, it was for an NBC promo. And I said, okay, that was a funny little bit. Yeah. And now they're doing an entire series on it. In theory, you should have fallen on its ass. Right. Yep.

And then after the first half, you go, oh, wow, this is special. I can't wait for more. Because you see that glimpse of him, Even, you know, the fact that people say that my character was this and that, Darth Vader of the first few Epps and all the rest of it. No, you see, I purposely put in flickers. Like when Ted says to her, you know, I heard about your divorce, how are you holding up? It's a beautiful moment of, oh, somebody's, this guy that I'm hoping will fail and burn this place to the ground because I'm so, it's not, she wasn't bitter.

she was absolutely had her heart ripped out and smashed on the floor and didn't know how to conduct herself anymore and had just thought of it in broad strokes, this buffoon comes in and goes, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi. You know? Beautiful. I see you.

You're going through something in his own TED last that way. It is. It's beautiful. Yeah. How did you, Hannah, handle the side of it outside the show, which is if you walk down the street today, everyone's going to know you and yell and say hello. And if I'd done this five years ago with you,

you'd get some theater folks who would say hello. But your life has really changed in the last couple of years. Especially when I go into a theater, which is a hybrid, a whole load of weird. You get them both, right? Yeah, it turned into a photo booth. How have you handled that side of it? It's odd.

definitely odd. I do think just about to turn 50 thank God it's happened now because I think it would have been too much back in the day. Because bear in mind you don't spend 22 years in theatre with any real desire

certainly in the UK to be famous or chasing money or whatever. It is definitely about your craft and treading the boards and I know people use that expression but it's true you know, the smell of the grease paint, the roar of the crowd. I just fed off it. I really did.

So I am glad that it's happened later on. And, you know, after I've had a child and stuff. So all of that, all my groundwork, all of my training, all of my grafting, all of the blood, sweat and tears. Becoming a mother, becoming a single mother, all of that feels like I have it in a rock sack. And I can cope more with that. And, you know, my close friends would say that they know that I've made my world smaller to protect it. But by the same token, people are always lovely, really lovely. And like I say, when I go into a theatre, like when Jason and I took our kids and parents and stuff to see Spam a lot at Christmas,

we walked onto the stage. And Jason jokes, he's like, he might as well not be there. which was so odd to me. I just thought I can't believe this company of Spam a lot were so lovely and so effusive. And they hadn't told lovely Leslie, who plays the lady the lady that they hadn't told her that I was in. I was like, what are you talking about?

It's ridiculous. So then I was just like into it with her. And we had the most gorgeous, you know, two gals knowing the demands, you know? Yes. So I try and treat it. on a day-to-day basis, but it's odd. It is odd. Definitely odd. I get quite bored of wearing a cap because I know here, especially when I go like that, I get like you were saying, your wife was like,

she was very excited that I was speaking with you today. I get the gasps, which is so odd when you've been knocking about for a long time. You were also difficult to disguise because you were tall and striking. You can't sort of like move to some way. Yes. I'm, yes. Yes. I blame the bleach. And they're massive now. We were talking before we started about this interesting phenomenon, interesting to me anyway, where people who discovered you in Ted Lassau are working backwards now.

And going, oh my gosh, did you know that Anna Watton can sing? She's amazing. Or they saw the video of you and Jason at Thundergong doing shallow, and that went viral and all this. That must be a funny thing for you to say, yeah, I've been at this a little while. I call them the back catalogers. Is that it? Yeah. It's really lovely.

And I get so many messages from people saying, I was just deep diving and I found you in into the woods or I found. Really, really lovely. When I think back and when people say things like that, I go, yeah, and they wouldn't bring me to do it in the park here because I wasn't known enough. And you think, but you're looking at my clips now in your face. Not that you hold you, hold it.

Not at all. No. No. No, not at all. You have a small list of names who carry with you. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to lie. There are a few, like, producers that are now suddenly like, is there a book you want to develop?

And I'm just like, no, you're all right. It just looks somewhere else because, you know, we're human or we remember. It's human nature. So, no, bog off. Also, the idea that you're an overnight sensation must be comical to you. Yeah. How hard you've worked to get to this point. I mean, as you and I was saying, fabulous, Shirley Ralph and I were discussing that about being, you know, overnight 30 years successes, 30 years in the making.

Or like you'll win an award of comedy and you just think that it's comedy in itself. Because you've just been, but that's what I mean about. I like the fact that I've been knocking around for a while. You know, I like the fact. I say to my daughter, do not be fooled. When she says, oh, no, I want to do this. Even in the car yesterday, we were driving down Broadway, and she was like, Mommy, this is the part of your career I want to do.

Not the telly thing. I want to be on Broadway. And I said, but remember, she goes, I know, didn't start in a black Mercedes. Because it's important for her to see that I had no life. You have to become so disciplined with your voice and your body. And it's grafting, grafting, grafting for no other reason than loving the craft. you know start at Joni and Gina's wedding

right it's just a it's a it's a whole kind of it's like being an intern I feel like all of that was being an intern for what I can put on screen now although like I said to you I'm desperate to have another little go

at Spamelot I've got to get you out there you have a good idea too maybe we won't announce this year but I think that's but don't you think that's a definite it's the way to go for a good cost

and not as exorbitant You're also another thing I don't think you would talk about yet, but Mission Impossible? Yes. Tom Cruise? I mean, when it blows up for you, it really blows up. I know. It's ridiculous. And the thing that's lovely at the moment, I feel like, you know when they say that your phone's always listening?

I feel like when I was just saying with one of my buds today, that it's almost like I say things, and I'm a firm believer in manifestation, I feel like I've, put a couple of things like chucked out things here and there. And they're the people that have been kind of pricking up their ears a bit. It was so odd to be asked by him to go and, you know, I literally finished on Fall Guy, got back to London, unpacked those cases, repacked a smaller case, got on a plane, met him on the tarmac, him and Chris McQuarrie and Tom's sister, lovely Caroline, On the tarmac, oh, hello, you're Tom Cruise, casual. And he was like, oh, let me take your bag for you.

It's underneath his legs, and I'm just like, this is mental. Got on this Osprey, on the Osprey, out over the sea, the George H.W. Bush carrier is traveling along a crazy amount of knots. He's like, video, video, video, this is your ship, Libya, video, we're going to land on the ship. we land on it moving 4,500 service active service men and women

there to receive us and I'm still jet lagged from Australia thinking style it out Wadding Shaw, style it out we're there for five days no finery sitting like this playing, talking

being 12 year old d'clock is brilliant so much fun and I think he and Chris realised very quickly that I'm quite a geek. And he was like, do you want to come and watch this F-18 taking off? We're going to have to duck our heads a bit because of the wing.

And I was like, yes. Sure, Tom, Chris. I do. Give me my ear defenders. I don't need my ribcage that's rattling anyway. It was brilliant. Are those the pinch me moments where you go, oh my gosh. Oh, my God.

Way back to when you started. How did I get here? Yes. Dream come true, ridiculous, ridiculousnesses. You know, a lot of people are really happy for you because when they hear your story and they know how hard you've worked and that your talent and all the things you've talked about have been rewarded in this way people just root for you they love you so much it's so lovely oh don't you maybe get emotional

i feel it here i really feel it and at the both at the emmy's um night before party and at the globes this year i was literally pivoting the whole night my manager said you've had another pivoting night Because everyone was coming up and going, congratulations for everything. And I don't know whether you guys know, but that's not a common thing in most countries. People go, oh, look at you, you're everywhere, which is very different. People going, congratulations for everything is really lovely, and I don't take it lightly.

And it hits. Routing for you. Thanks, many guys. hours. Really guys. I suspect you at other places to be. Thank you so much. You're so wonderful.

You're so welcome. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you. My big thanks again to Hannah for a great conversation. She is fantastic. You're going to want to see her along with Ryan Gossley and Emily Blunt in the new movie The Fall Guy in theaters on May 3rd.

And my thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of our conversations with my guest every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune to tune to you. into Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willa Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.