Hannah Waddingham isn't sure if Ted Lasso is over: 'I don't even know if Jason knows'
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season 3 finale of Ted Lasso.
Hannah Waddingham might be saying goodbye to playing Rebecca Welton on the third, and possibly the last, season of Ted Lasso but speaking with the British actress not long after the premiere of the season 3 finale, it was immediately clear where her heart still beats.
"I feel a bit odd if I'm honest," Welton tells EW. "Brett Goldstein and I, all the way through the shooting of the third season, it was like we were both already in mourning, so I've been feeling this feeling for quite a while.
"I know that I will have these people in my life always, these Greyhounds, we will always be circling each other, supporting each other," she continues. "But, unless I play Rebecca, there's no more Rebecca, which is the very person that I want to keep close. It's very weird to have that emotional attachment, and a feeling of a sense of mourning, for a character that's fictional, that only exists in your own body. Very weird. I've just never had that before, so it's odd."
Gareth Cattermole/Getty Hannah Waddingham
Below, Waddingham, talks about the season finale, whether the episode was also a series finale, and hanging out on an aircraft carrier with Tom Cruise.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, is this the end of Ted Lasso?
HANNAH WADDINGHAM: You tell me, my friend! I don't know. None of us know. I don't even know if Jason (Sudeikis) knows. If he does, he is a sly dog.
Are you contracted to appear in more Ted Lasso? Or are you a free woman at this point?
I mean, I've been doing plenty of other stuff. Would I be open to a conversation about it? Always. You know, once a Greyhound, always a Greyhound.
I've felt like an old-school Kremlinologist this week, poring over the social media postings of Ted Lasso cast members for hints about the future of the show.
Well, Jason has been quite clear, as has Brendan (Hunt), that this is the end of the story that they had planned. So, I think it's better to just take it as that, otherwise those scenes that we have done, particularly in the season finale, wouldn't have been honored. You have to honor it as though it was the end, otherwise you're not getting yourself into the right place emotionally.
Apple TV+ 'Ted Lasso'
But you would be happy to play Rebecca in a spin-off show?
No, no, not necessarily a spin-off show. It's not really something I've thought of. But if there were more to come I'd certainly entertain the idea. I'd be crazy not to. It's a beautifully crafted role that I've thankfully had a large hand in. I'm fully invested in her, so I would always entertain that.
It looks like there's going to be some romance in the air for the owner of AFC Richmond?
Yeah, possibly. I like the fact that it was intimated but not bashed over the head. I like that it's letting some sunshine into her life, and a change of pace perhaps, but I like that it wasn't bashed over the head any more than that. I feel there would be a period of adjustment for her anyway. It is a massive thing that Ted has gone, so yeah, I like that it was just touched upon rather than rammed down our throats.
What was the last scene you shot on the show?
Actually, it was a fairly incongruous scene, but I liked the location I was shooting, Rebecca's POV going to the door to answer it to Bex and Ms. Cakes. But I liked the fact that it was in my Rebecca house, and all the crew were there, and it was just Jason who came over from a different location and gave me a squeeze. I was like, no, don't squeeze me too hard because I will just blub for Britain. It was nice that it was just me and him in Rebecca's house on the last day.
Apple TV+ Hannah Waddingham in 'Ted Lasso'
What is your favorite memory of shooting the show?
I think probably for me, the office scenes, those quick patter office scenes. We had such fun, myself and Juno Temple and Jeremy Swift and Jason, and when Brett would pop in. I loved those quick-fire conversations. And then, I was very grateful to have the brilliant Anthony Head back with me this year. I felt very strange in season 2 without him. I'm very much a team player, and there's no Rebecca unless Rupert is around her, or Keeley is around her, or Ted's around her. It's those combinations of people. It almost felt like we could glance down at a script that Jason had just scribbled two seconds before, and before you knew it the scene was up on its feet, and we had cameras on it, because we were all so used to how everyone worked. There was a complete symbiosis.
Did you take any wardrobe from the show?
No, nothing like that. I mean, she's quite a lot more kind of zhuzhy and grown-up than I am. I'm a little more Bohemian than her, other than events when you have to spruce yourself up. The only thing I did take was my original army man, the little army man that Ted gives me in season one. I've kept him always, and he's always been in my main Rebecca handbag, and I have the original army man, and I have my green matchbook.
Director Chris McQuarrie recently announced that you've joined the Mission: Impossible franchise. How is that going?
I have. What a gorgeous pair they are, Chris and Tom Cruise. Chris, Tom, and I were literally like three 12-year-olds on that aircraft carrier together, just completely excitable. Yeah, it's been quite the year already, working with Tom and Chris, meeting Biden, and then meeting King Charles again, it's all been quite a lot. [Laughs] I mean, crazy. It's hard to imagine how I top this year, but there you go.
You're also in The Fall Guy movie, directed by David Leitch (Deadpool 2, Bullet Train). Are you in your action phase now?
Not particularly [an] action phase, I just couldn't turn it down having a chance to work with all those guys on that. I mean, David Leitch is the very best at what he does of that genre, and Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are just fabulously good eggs, and I have a lot of time for them. I wanted to play something that was completely different from Rebecca fairly immediately, so I'm glad I got the chance to do that.
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