Breaking Baz: ‘Ted Lasso’ Star Hannah Waddingham Hosts Mostess for the Olivier Awards; Why her bruises from filming The Fall Guy are a badge of honor

Teddy Lasso Star Hannah Waddingham raised her arms and proudly showed off the bruises she picked up not on the AFC Richmond football pitch but while performing “kick-ass” stunts in David Leitch’s action film. The Autumn Man.

The bruises “are a badge of honour,” she boasts.

“You should see this other guy,” she jokes.

With Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Everything, everywhere, all at once Oscar nominee Stephanie HsuThe Autumn Man is one of the British actress’ many appearances as the upcoming third season of the popular Apple TV+ show will be her last.

“This is definitely the end of this special story,” says Waddingham Teddy Lasso. “And when you see it, you’ll see it couldn’t have gotten any further than this play. Who knows what’s next? I honestly have no idea. And I think you’re right not to tell me.”

She shakes her head as I press on for more pressure. “I really don’t know,” she laughed, knowing I wanted every detail.

Does her club owner, Rebecca Welton, get a streak? If someone else gets spun, I ask so politely that it hurts.

“None. To be honest, I really don’t know. And you never know how they’re going to break up the season either. It gives opportunity and fodder for different characters to go in their own direction. And I think the characters are so beloved that it would be reasonable for them to do so, but I’m sure there are no plans for such a thing at the moment.”

“Honestly, I’m not even sure Jason even knows what he wants to do at this point,” she explains, referring to Jason Sudeikis, who developed the show with Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly.

However, she is fully aware of this Teddy Lasso “changed my life completely.”

In so far as the award winner has been given opportunities that “fill me with joy”.

One of these is hosting the Olivier Awards on April 2nd at London’s Royal Albert Hall. It is one of the most important awards for West End theatre.

Another event will feature her as one of the few presenters for the Eurovision Song Contest, the annual international singing competition that takes place from May 9 in Liverpool, England.

I leave her baffled as I ask her if there is any truth to a rumor I’ve heard that she is developing a solo concert show to be performed at the London Coliseum, home of the English National Opera.

The actress gives me a look that would have attacked her troublesome ex-husband, Rupert Teddy Lasso.

“Oh, I don’t know. There are several meetings going on, Mr. Bamigboye,” she replied.

So I refute…

“That’s all I can say about it,” she replied.

Okay, so I don’t hear it’s bullshit. I hear facts but no details, I say.

“You don’t hear facts, you certainly do,” replied Waddingham.

I find that the Colosseum would be the perfect address, knowing her opera training.

“Who knows,” she shrugged.

This year or next year?

“Baz, stop! You’re so horrible,” she snapped, though I saw a smile appear.

The exchange reminds me of scenes she performed in a co-production between the Chichester Festival Theater and the Old Vic kiss me kate Trevor Nunn directed. The role earned her an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.

I covered Waddingham from the start of her career when she appeared on shows like Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens, Grease and many others. Then Mike told Nichols that he wanted her for the transfer to London spam a lot Monty python, which led to a host of other starring roles.

But as she noted at last year’s Olivier ceremony when she presented the award for best musical, casting directors in the UK rarely allowed musical theater artists to watch.

She wonders if she got Olivier’s job as a presenter, which has to do with the fact that I was excited about musical theater in general and that I was invited to do film work because everyone should have a chance.

“And it’s our responsibility if we come in the door and don’t do well in an audition. But let’s go through the damn door. Because theater people are in this business for the right reasons, not for the money. They are in it because they want to play good characters. If you let us in, you’ll see that we know what we’re doing. Just tell us to come down and we will,’ she argued.

She has left the agency in the past because of such a problem. “I don’t mind saying I left an agent because I went to a meeting with them and they said, ‘Well, wait a minute. Who should we represent you as: theater or television? ‘ And I said, ‘If you’re going to do that, then it’s not possible.’ And I walked away because if you didn’t stop this nonsense…you would never be asked to do this in America.”

Waddingham hates being cornered. “You become this or you become that,” she says. “No, I am an artist and I will have multiple tools in my toolbox and I will choose the right one. Take me through the damn door. So I’m hoping to get on my soapbox about this, and I’ll continue to do so, because somebody has to shed light all the time.

Anthony Van Laast (Beauty and the Beast, Mamma Mia!) will choreograph and direct the Olivier Awards, Waddingham says. And she will perform.

“I will sing. I will sing yes It’s nice on one side and a little scary on the other. I have to remind myself, ‘This is a friends room. This is a friends room. You don’t audition for a job.’ “

However, she did not want to confirm whether she is singing a song in any of the latest episodes of or not Teddy Lasso. She brushes it off quickly and changes the subject.

“I just filmed something extremely exciting in Los Angeles that I never thought would happen to me,” she teases.

Oh, what was that?

“I can’t tell you that,” she said with a smile.

i bring her back The Autumn Man and ask about those bruises.

“Yes, it was incredible. And David Leitch and Kelly McCormick, the producers. If you want to do an action movie, I mean, they’re the people you can do it with,” she tells me. “They have their own stunt company, 87North (Cool train, violent night). All the stunt people we had on this track are just the best in the business, just amazing. And Ryan and Aaron, they had to have some badass stunt guys. And those stunt people were so nice and encouraging and just always trying to keep us safe. It was really a lot. They don’t do things halfway.”

Waddingham had a stuntwoman “who is just beautiful, a girl called Chanique Greyling (Thor: Love and Thunder) which I’m going to take with me because she’s generally brilliant as a stunt double and body double.

There’s a certain kicking sequence, she says, “near the end of the movie, and I left some marks. But I was bruised, I still have marks on my shins. All my arms were absolutely black and blue . And I went to our producer and I was like, ‘I feel like this is a badge of honor.’ I was really devastated. Four days, intense, thrown all over the place,” she says.

What about the other guy?

“Yes, exactly,” she shouted.

“What’s wrong with him? He’s lying in a heap on the ground.”

I know how he feels. But I like it.

Waddingham spent three months filming in and around Sydney, Australia and loved every minute of it, even the bruises.

But she is sad that she could not film scenes with Hsu. “I mean, it was a happy day in the makeup truck when the Oscar news broke. I said, ‘Dude, you’re fancy.’

“You and I can’t do anything together, which is a shame. I would love to, but it was a very lucky ship. Fortunately, for years I have been very spoiled with very good eggs, very excited crazy sausages around me, everyone just wants to make a good product.