Hannah Waddingham reveals drama teacher's insult that spurred her on to be TV star

Science and culture 17 January, 2024 17:03

Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham has spoken about how a drama teacher once told her she would never succeed in TV because of her appearance.

"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,'" the actress said.

The insulting comment only spurred her on, Waddingham said.

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

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.

The star, from south London, has also been in Game of Thrones and Sex Education, and was a fan favourite when she co-hosted last year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Before making her breakthrough on screen, she was a leading lady on stage in the West End and on Broadway.

The drama teacher's comment "gave me a complex for years", she told BBC Radio 2 podcast Michelle Visage's Rule Breakers.

"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 them 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."