Hannah Waddingham on the Gift of <i>Ted Lasso</i> (2024)

When Hannah Waddingham signed on to play Ted Lasso’s Rebecca Welton, the glamorous owner of AFC Richmond hellbent on getting revenge on her ex-husband, she had no idea what was in store for her character—or anyone else on the show, for that matter. “No clue past the pilot, and I'm not exaggerating,” she says. But the strength of the episode’s script, and a little faith in co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis, were all she needed to say yes. “Without seeing anything else, I knew there was potential,” she tells T&C. “I read that script and thought, ‘Okay, there's no way that this character is going to be anything like I think she is.’”

She was right. Over the course of the show’s first 10 episodes, Rebecca’s spiteful, sometimes cruel facade falls away to reveal a person who is hurt and heartbroken, but learning to be vulnerable and kind, and to build a life on her own. Her transformation is helped along by the titular Ted (played by Sudeikis), a folksy, optimistic American football coach hired by Rebecca in hopes of tanking her ex’s beloved soccer team’s chances, and Keeley Jones (Juno Temple), a cheeky model and marketing expert who becomes a close, if unexpected, confidante. “Rebecca has had an epiphany at the hands of Ted and Keeley,” Waddingham explains, “and I love that she says, ‘I lost myself for a minute, but I'm trying to find a way back.’”

Rebecca’s evolution over the course of season one is so significant that going into season two, which premieres July 23, Waddingham was “gently concerned” her character arc would be complete—“I was hoping they hadn't written that suddenly she's completely together, she's really changed”—but she needn’t have worried. “The writers have moved her on in terms of work and how you see her relationships with the players, but she's a hot mess with men, and I love that. I love that you can see her from one angle say, ‘Oh, she's a boss bitch.’ But from the other angle, you'd be like, ‘Oh, Rebecca,’” Waddingham sighs.

The pressures of coming back to set were intense, Waddingham admits, given both COVID safety protocols, and season one’s runaway popularity. Ted Lasso is beloved by its fans, and was held up as inspiring joy and emotional catharsis during the most difficult days of the pandemic. Critics favored the show too, and earlier this month, it picked up 20 Emmy nominations, including one for Waddingham in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. But despite the high bar set in the first season, she says, “I genuinely think the new season is funnier, and it’s more heartbreaking.”

Key to both seasons’ success is Rebecca’s relationship with Keeley. It’s easy to imagine a storyline in which the two women fight over a man, a job, something, but their friendship is refreshingly supportive, and not at all competitive. “I think Rebecca and Keeley’s friendship blindsided Rebecca really as much as her relationship with Ted did. She didn't expect for a second that she would suddenly get such solace, such strength, and such love from a woman with whom she would never usually spend any time at all,” Waddingham says. “Rebecca can't help but like Keeley because she is what you see is what you get. And she can't help but let her in, in a different way to Ted. And then by the time we've reached season two, they are absolutely thick as thieves. And it's wonderful to see two female characters of totally different generations being each other's support and not pitted against each other in any way, shape, or form.”

It’s a friendship that extends off the script as well; when asked about Waddingham, Temple’s praise for her costar was effusive. Their chemistry on screen, it seems, comes from a genuine affection for one another.

“Hannah is one of the greatest women I've ever been lucky enough to love and be loved by, to be honest with you and working with her is just a continuous stream of inspiration. I want to be like her when I grow up, and I think that Keeley is not dissimilar. I think she's inspired by Rebecca and in awe of how Rebecca handles being the boss of this very male oriented team,” Temple says. “But at the same time, Keeley is also a girl with a beating heart that sees another girl with a beating heart.”

The daughter and granddaughter of opera singers, Waddingham quite literally grew up in the theater, and eventually, the family business of performing called to her as well. She started in the theater. A veteran of Broadway and the West End, her credits range from The Lady of the Lake in Spamelot to the Witch in Into the Woods. But prior to her playing Rebecca, most people would recognize Waddingham from her turn as Septa Unella a.k.a. the “Shame Nun” in seasons 5 and 6 of Game of Thrones. (Ted Heads, as some Ted Lasso fans have taken to calling themselves, “are brewing to give Game of Thrones fans a run for their money,” she says.) She has made a career of playing "bosses, Septas, witches, bitches, and loving every minute of it," as she puts it on Instagram, powerful women in a variety of forms.

“I loved Rebecca because you get everything with her. You get her silliness; you get the fact that she's overwhelmed in so many ways; you get her thinking that she's strong in some situations, and then it's a house of cards. You also get her actual strength, which she doesn't realize she has—and that's what I try and find in each of my roles,” she says.

For now, the roles she’s seeking out will be on the screen as opposed to the stage. “I was in theater for 20 years, both here [in the UK] and on Broadway. And that was at a time when I didn't have a little person. And now I'm hugely blessed not only to have a child, but to have been able to choose to move to television and to be accepted into that world where I can be Mummy as much as I can and be away from her as little as possible,” she says. “The biggest gift Ted Lasso has given me is that it's shot 40 minutes from my house. And trust me, I am a theater girl through and through in my bloodstream, but I want to be able to put my little girl to bed at night.”

Fortunately, her latest gig isn’t entirely an escape from the theater world. Not only did Rebecca sing in season one, but the show’s script is full of references to iconic musicals like Oklahoma!, West Side Story, Hamilton, Funny Face, and The King and I. “Sudeikis and [Brendan] Hunt and Brett Goldstein are massive musical theater geeks,” Waddingham says. "I've renamed them West End Wendys. That's when you know every twitch of a song there is."

And despite Ted Lasso’s medium, she feels the cast functions similarly to “old-fashioned theatrical company of players.” “None of us thinks we are more important than the next person. We are very proud and precious about AFC Richmond. None of us knew what this was going to be. It could have fallen on its ass, couldn't it? But because none of us knew what it was, I think we hunkered down and bandied together very early on. It was such a beautiful surprise that it was so successful,” she says.

“When we finish a Zoom meeting, we all choose to go and meet up and have dinner because we don't get to spend much real time with each other. I didn't realize this, but apparently, there's a no assholes policy. I don't know whether it's Apple, Warner Brothers, or both, or Jason, or whoever.” The team camaraderie, both onscreen and off, is “100% nauseatingly real.”