Hannah Waddingham: I Was Told I Would Never Work in TV

Actor Hannah Waddingham was told that she would never work in television because a drama teacher told her that her face looked "like one side of her face has had a stroke."

Waddingham appeared on Michelle Visage's podcast Rule Breakers and said that the incident spurred her on to work towards her goal of appearing on screen.

"I thought, I will do. Come hell or high water, I will work on screen."

The drama teacher's comment "gave me a complex for years..This is why, in my Emmys speech, I made a point - the one thing I said to myself [was], if this weird moment comes and I get this award, and I get my foot in this door, I'm going to rip it off its hinges for music theatre people, or theatre people, to follow."

The teacher cannot have thought the comment "was helpful or positive or aspirational", she said.

"I would say that was my biggest rule break ever - to go, 'You know what? I'm just going to see.'"

She worked so hard to prove the teacher wrong that "I used to knacker myself senseless", she said.

"I used to be doing a [theatre] show at night and I used to literally take anything to get myself on screen."

However, when she eventually appeared on screen she felt she was not getting the roles she deserved. "It got to the point where I realised I was only getting one scene in this, or one ep[isode] in that. 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 said.

"So I said to my agents at the time, 'I'm not doing it any more... 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.'

"So I fully stepped back. And then Game of Thrones happened."

Waddingham has won an Emmy, a Critics' Choice Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for playing Richmond FC owner Rebecca Welton in Apple TV+ comedy Ted Lasso. She has also been in Game of Thrones, Sex Education and countless other programmes.

The actor is thrilled to be working in television currently, as it works well for her family life, but "I'm a theatre girl through and through...I would happily go back to what I was doing because it's in my core.." she said.

Waddingham is an Olivier-nominated actor and enjoyed a stellar career on the stage, including playing The Witch in The Wizard of Oz (opposite Michael Crawford and Danielle Hope), Desiree in A Little Night Music (Garrick Theatre and Menier Chocolate Factory) and The Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, a role she originated in the West End, and played on Broadway.

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