‘Ted Lasso’ Star Hannah Waddingham on the (Series?) Finale and “Life-Changing” Run of the Show
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[This story contains spoilers for “So Long, Farewell,” the season three finale of Ted Lasso.]
For the record, Hannah Waddingham doesn’t know if Ted Lasso is definitively over either.
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“I genuinely don’t know,” Waddingham told The Hollywood Reporter after the Apple TV+ hit’s third season finale debuted, playing very much like a series ender. “That’s what’s kind of unnerving about it, because I’m not ready to say goodbye to Rebecca, or any of them.”
Co-creators and executive producers Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly and Bill Lawrence have repeatedly said that they envisioned a three-season arc for Sudeikis’ title character, an American football coach hired to lead English football club AFC Richmond at the behest of team owner Rebecca Welton (Waddingham). The finale ends with Ted returning to the United States to be closer to his son and ex-wife, but also leaves openings for continuing the story in London.
Waddingham talked with THR about watching the finale with her castmates, Rebecca’s journey over three seasons and her romantic endgame on the show.
How are you processing things now that the last episode is out?
I suppose because we shot it a fair while ago now, and Brett Goldstein and I were saying during it that both of us were already in mourning while we were shooting. So it feels like it’s been kind of a long time coming. But then the season feels like it’s gone very quickly. We all got together last night to watch it together. And there was lots of like, snotty, heavy breathing.
Jason and Brendan and the producers have said this is the end of the story they set out to tell. But watching it really felt like the end of the line, and then seeing you tweet about your last day as a Greyhound Tuesday and pictures of the sets being taken down — this feels like the actual end.
I genuinely don’t know. That’s what’s kind of unnerving about it, because I’m not ready to say goodbye to Rebecca, or any of them. But also, I’m quite glad that I don’t know, because I think it would have made all of us have play this season, and certainly the season finale, differently. I think we had to take it in earnest and honor it.
It does seem that if the powers that be all come together and decide to do more that there would be a couple natural ways forward — either with manager Roy [Goldstein] and Richmond taking a step up into the Champions League; or with Keeley’s [Juno Temple] pitch to the start a women’s club under the Richmond banner. If they came to you and said, “We have these ideas,” would you be back in?
All of us would be fools to not entertain it. I don’t think any of us are ready to say goodbye to that world, because it’s been such a happy world for all of us, on and off screen. But I think there’s a danger in even thinking about that now, just in case it doesn’t happen.
The flash-forward montage near the end of the finale finishes with Ted waking up from a nap on his flight. Could that be interpreted as him dreaming some or all of those moments?
No, no, I hadn’t thought of any of that. But I like that that’s where you went.
As you filmed the Amsterdam episode, did you have any inkling that you would meet up again with Matteo van der Grijn’s character in the end?
Yes, I did know that — which is quite unusual, because pretty much through this whole three season job, I haven’t even known how Jason wants me to do the Rebecca Power Pose. I remember going to him and going, “Right. It says ‘Rebecca Power Pose.’ What [does that entail]?” And he was like, “I don’t know.” And I went, “No, no, you can’t just do that. Do you want it to be funny? Do you want it to be aggressive? Do you want it to be voiced?” And he’d stroke his mustache and say, “I don’t know.” Everything was like that always, which is hugely flattering as well, but very frustrating in the moment that it happens because you just have given me no answers at all. So for me to know that the Dutchman would be her endgame for this was quite nice. It meant that when I and Matteo van der Grijn met, I was [winks], “Hello, you.” And thankfully, we had immediate chemistry and a great time together. Because we first met when I was doing the scene walking along the canal with the phone, but he was already set on the barge. So I [waved], And he was like, “Yes, me.” And I was like, “Hi.” We literally met just before we did the scene, because they’d already set him on the other side of the canal. Thank God that worked out. Because otherwise, it would’ve been a bit awkward if we hadn’t had chemistry.
Could you reflect some on Rebecca’s character arc throughout the run of the show? She starts out as what could have been a villain, somebody who’s trying to tank the team to spite her ex-husband.
I feel like I and the writers — and particularly myself and Jason — have very much nurtured and held her hand through a process that I take very seriously as a middle-aged person. Wanting to represent that confusion and abandonment of anyone that’s going through that, anyone that’s had the rug pulled out from underneath them and doesn’t know where they slot in anymore. That was my main thing. I always said to Jason, I don’t want this to just be for women. I want it to be for anybody who finds themselves uncoupled. The fact that she’s bitter is because she feels such sadness. The thing I was most vehement about very early on, even though I barely knew Jason, was I wanted people to understand very quickly why she has this bite in her. I don’t want her to just be the snippy ice queen. I want people very quickly to go, “Poor love. I know that feeling or I know someone that’s in that in that moment.” The fact that she has gone through such a learning curve of how to let her sunshine in has been a thing for me to open it up and let the light in again.
Even within this season, she starts out really gunning for Rupert’s throat, but by the end he’s almost an afterthought to her.
There is a difference in that. She does want to screw him over, but it’s not in a broken-hearted way anymore. It’s just in a “You’re a bit of an asshole” way. “I actually run your club better than you do.” So it’s a bit of a [middle finger to him] rather than [what it was before].
Did you talk with the writers about what Rebecca might have talked about with Bex (Keeley Hazell) and Ms. Kakes (Rosie Lou) at the end of the episode 11? Obviously, they were kind of seeking advice on whether to go public with allegations against Rupert (Anthony Head).
It was very obvious to me, and I don’t think it needed any more . I was talking to somebody about that, and they were saying that they thought it was going to be a whole #MeToo kind of segment in the show. I said I don’t think it needs to be, because Rebecca is at peace with who she is. And when she opens that door, I made a very concerted effort not to look conspiratorial with them, but to just have a passive, elegant smile of acceptance that, you know, now he’s got you as well; come in. For Rebecca, It was nothing more than solidarity and a glass of wine. Should they choose to then go and speak to the papers. It’s not her style anymore. She doesn’t need to, but she would be there as an ear and an affirmation for them.
It also seemed that Rebecca had come to like Bex a little bit over the course of time.
I think she’s realized that [Bex] is quite spirited, and I think she’d already realized that she was a victim just as much as Rebecca was. And that she’d never actually let it in that Bex was a person and a good egg.
I’m curious what your reaction was when you first read the opening scene of the finale, when Ted walks downstairs in the morning in your house.
I thought, Jason, you are such a bugger [laughs]. They are all adamant that the three-season arc was very much in existence and fixed before we even shot anything, so I don’t think that was added as a thing to wind up these “TedBecca” shippers. I think it purely was to titillate, and I thought it was brilliant. And then adding Coach Beard [Hunt]. There should be acting exercise called “owning the G string.” I turned to him last night, and I was like, very good underwear work, my friend.
How would you describe the relationship between Rebecca and Ted? It’s not just owner and coach, it’s not like a brother-sister thing. Is it just a really good friendship in the end?
I think they are true companions, they can finish each other’s sentences, they can talk without speaking. It just is what it is — strong and unbreakable. And it doesn’t need to be defined. We all naturally — I do it as well — we all naturally want to put relationships in boxes. And I like the fact that Ted and Rebecca have kind of confused and I suppose irritated and befuddled people as much as they have, because it is just so strong. And I’m just thrilled that Jason and I managed to convey that together.
What was the mood on set like as you were coming to the end of filming?
I didn’t let any of that in, because I find it quite difficult to be on camera if I’m feeling stuff myself, as me. I was just like, “The work, the work, plow on, plow on, serve her, serve her.” And then on that last day, I was like, “I still don’t think this is the end.” That’s the way I think I have to deal with it. It’s been life-changing for all of us.
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