Hannah Waddingham has revealed she was repeatedly rejected for roles early on in her career because of her towering height.
The Emmy-winning Ted Lasso star naturally stands 5 feet 11 inches tall and reaches 6 feet 2 inches in heels. While that kind of stature is an advantage in some occupations, it apparently wasn’t for many of the projects she auditioned for.
“I would constantly get, ‘We’d love to use her, but we’ve already cast the man,’” Waddingham said in a new profile by The New York Times.
“Why can’t a woman who’s 6 feet 2 inches have all the same vulnerabilities and misgivings about herself, wobble as much, as somebody who’s 5 feet 2 inches?”
At this point in her career, her height is no longer seen as a drawback but rather an asset. In fact, her Ted Lasso co-star and co-creator Brendan Hunt told The Times that while “tall” was not part of her character Rebecca’s original description, “‘Tall’ and, in certain shoes, often ‘taller than the male lead’ is like — that’s awesome.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Waddingham talked about resisting cosmetic surgery to maintain “full control of my face.”
She said that at 52, “I’m actually more confident, more settled,” adding, “So why would I want to make myself look like I’m 30, when I wasn’t as happy at 30?”
Next week, Waddingham will reprise her role as Rebecca, the self-assured and powerful owner of a fictional British soccer club, AFC Richmond, in Ted Lasso’s highly anticipated season four.
The feel-good comedy drama, starring Jason Sudeikis as an American football coach who is hired to coach a British men’s soccer team, debuted in 2022 to widespread critical acclaim.
It won back-to-back Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2021 and 2022. It originally concluded in 2023 with its third season, which proved divisive among fans, with some accusing the show of losing its way.
A surprise fourth-season revival was announced in March 2025, with the storyline picking back up in Britain, where Sudeikis’s Ted has returned to coach a women’s soccer team.
Given the show’s new premise, many of the cast members who portrayed the stars of Ted’s male soccer team will not return.
Recently speaking about the “very difficult” phone calls he had with each individual actor to explain their absence in the new season, Sudeikis said he did so because he “didn’t want them to hear it on the internet.”
“And because I love those guys and we all went through something together,” the We’re the Millers star explained to The Hollywood Reporter.
The forthcoming season will see the return of fan-favorites Sudeikis, Waddingham, Hunt, Juno Temple, Jeremy Swift and Brett Goldstein, alongside a handful of new cast members, including Sex Education’s Tanya Reynolds, Faye Marsay, Abbie Hern, Jude Mack, Aisling Sharkey and Rex Hayes.
Ted Lasso season four premieres August 5 on Apple TV+.
