Is ‘Ted Lasso’ over? Hannah Waddingham isn’t sure, but says the show kept to its arc
This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “Ted Lasso.”
Hannah Waddingham plays the beloved AFC Richmond boss Rebecca Welton on “Ted Lasso,” and as it turns out, she is very similar to her devoted fans.
She too has guesses about potential spinoffs. She sees romantic chemistry between Ted and Rebecca. And she is not ready for the series to end. The British actor also has a strong opinion about whether Keeley Jones (Juno Temple), her friend and mentee on the show, should have ended up with Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) or Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster).
Waddingham won an Emmy in 2021 for her supporting role as the commanding yet vulnerable Welton. In the series, her character, fresh off a devastating divorce from billionaire Rupert Mannion (Anthony Head), initially hires Ted Lasso — who had only ever coached American football — to tank the team as an act of revenge against her ex, who loved the soccer club. But instead, she ends up on a journey to find happiness and success free of revenge.
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While the soccer comedy has catapulted Waddingham to fame in the U.S., the actor has been a musical theater star for decades, and she has also appeared in “Game of Thrones,” “Sex Education” and most recently starred in “Tom Jones” as Lady Bellaston.
Waddingham chatted with the Los Angeles Times following the Season 3 finale of the Apple TV+ series. While Jason Sudeikis has maintained that the story he created was a three-season arc, there appeared to be a few doors left open on the episode released on Wednesday. Waddingham talked about the possibilities for Rebecca’s future and her fellow characters in the “Ted Lasso” universe. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Congratulations on a bittersweet finale. I’m ready for an AFC Richmond women’s team, are you?
I didn’t actually know that — that was an added scene and both myself and Juno [Temple] were given that folder — because it’s obviously part of the musical montage — so she and I were given that folder, and both of us went, “Wait, hold on, what now?! How the, who the, what what?”
We recorded two different endings. And they’ve obviously gone for the one where we do that squeal that we’ve always done. But there was another ending where I open it and look up at her with slight trepidation and then slightly start smiling. And I liked that one because it was a new beginning for Rebecca and perhaps for Keeley. So there’s a little scoop — that is a different kind of vibe that she and I had on it.
Rebecca and Keeley’s friendship was such an important tenet of the show. They’ve looked to each other professionally and personally. How important was it for you that they have that moment?
I thought it was rather beautiful and rather fitting that, like you say, to see their professional and personal lives mixing and using the very best of both of them. I think it’s an absolute match made in heaven. But who knows?
I mean, the good thing is people keep asking all of us cast members aside from [Jason] Sudeikis, “You know what’s happening?” Thankfully all of us can honestly say no f— clue. Not a clue at all, which is just as well.
In terms of love, career, life, was this the arc you always knew would happen for Rebecca? What were your feelings when you read the script for the finale?
I knew that the fabulous Matteo van der Grijn who plays Matthijs, the Dutchman, would be coming back in, and I thought that was rather lovely because thankfully he and I did have great chemistry. The thing that I love about Rebecca and him together is that you see her for the first time literally ever with her shoulders down. There’s just something lovely and free and young about her when he’s around, and girlish and silly and kind of giggly. Which we’ve not seen her [like that] with anyone. Even though she was taken with Sam, she was measured and in control. She was a woman with Sam, whereas she became a young woman again with Matthijs.
True. I’d spoken with a fan who’d predicted the Dutchman would be back at an airport because he’d had so many planes on his houseboat.
Little Easter egg there!
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There was some intense negative reaction on social media with how some of the plotlines ended. The Tedbecca fans [who wanted them to become a couple] felt it was especially cruel to have the big fake-out scene in the beginning of the finale with Rebecca in her robe in the kitchen with Ted.
The thing is Jason always stands by the fact that he has not adjusted anything. He has always kept true to the script ideas and arc that they had in the writers room for this three-season arc. I think that maybe people are reading into something that he had already written. I don’t know; either way, I found it funny.
Yeah, some people were telling him he wasn’t allowed to say “Nora Ephron” ever again or that Jason has ruined their lives.
This is the very reason why I don’t read good or bad press, because I feel like I would go down a rabbit hole and never be able to get myself out again. I never read theater reviews. I never read anything about myself, because I just think for all the lovely things people write, there’ll be one thing that says, “Oh, I didn’t like her earrings.” And I’ll be like, “Why? What’s wrong with my earrings?”
For three seasons, we came to ‘Ted Lasso’ for the emotions — the soccer was just a bonus. And on that count, the possible series finale delivered.
Now for my fangirl, rom-com question. I know there’s value in Keeley choosing herself and succeeding in her career like Rebecca, but if you got to choose who Keeley ended up with, are you Team Jamie or Team Roy?
Roy! Definitely, Roy! All day, every day. I don’t see it with Jamie. I see them as friends, whereas there is a certain magic when those two people are on screen together. You know how some people that end up together look like each other? Juno and Brett [Goldstein] kind of look like each other and I’m like, “Oh that just works.”
Yes, I was devastated it wasn’t Roy-Keeley endgame.
I love the fact that around Keeley, Roy becomes soft and questioning. I find it very funny always that — you know, the whole thing about Ted and Rebecca? I feel like people have just forgotten that he’s been schtupping her best mate for three seasons. [Laughs hard.] Oh, my God, if you lead with that as the opening of this, I’m going to hunt you down and headbutt you.
Before I talked to Tedbecca fans a few weeks ago, I really only saw them as friends.
I don’t know, I think it could have gone either way really. There is an ambiguity to it. You can know someone for 10 years and then suddenly go, “Oh, my God, you were right here all the time.” I genuinely don’t know. All I do know is, thankfully, Jason and I have had so much chemistry that it’s made everyone question it from the get-go.
The Tedbecca fans were even studying what you wore, talking about Hannah wearing “biscuit box pink.”
No, they do not!
Fans who call themselves “rom-communists” say the characters are destined to be together, pointing to clues in the Apple TV+ show and interviews by the cast.
Yes. They’re convinced they are meant for each other.
That’s a good bit of writing and chemistry right there. That is so cute, though! Do you know what I love about these “Tedbecca shippers”? It’s all about wanting the fairy princess and the prince to find love because it makes us all feel better. Because you want it for yourself. There’s an element for us as humans, there’s an animal thing, to want Prince Charming and Cinderella to end up together. We all have it. I love that people try and project that onto [Ted and Rebecca] because it’s about positivity and hopefulness, isn’t it?
Would you have wished that for Rebecca?
Sometimes, yes, sometimes no. I can’t give a definitive answer because, yes, I think undoubtedly they’re soulmates. Does it have to be sexual? Absolutely not necessarily. Is there chemistry beyond friendship? Yes, I think they do have that as well, just from the way they kind of play with each other. But I liked the way it was left, that in that moment, that man needed to go home to his boy. I understand that, being a single mum; nothing trumps my baby. Of course, so I quite like that. You do see a sadness in his eyes in the whole episode. He’s made an absolutely definitive decision. But is it fully joyful? I don’t believe it is. And I think that’s much more compelling.
I know there’s no certainty that everything is completely over, but I will say I don’t see Rebecca in Kansas.
I don’t see Rebecca in Kansas. [Laughs.] I’m glad I’ve conveyed that over three seasons.
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Did you have a lot of say in how her character ended up?
No. No say at all because they’d already written it. I remember saying to Jason when we started shooting season three, “Do you not feel this pressure?” and he said, “No, because we’ve already written it all.” I was like, “OK! That’s just me feeling pressure, then.”
Rebecca is a fan favorite, people love her. What is it like to have such a devoted fan base?
It’s gorgeous because it makes me think that people are really lovely at heart. They are championing a woman who is middle-aged and a bit lost and doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing and is trying really bloody hard. And I love the fact that the people that love Rebecca must find a part of themselves in it as well.
In the finale it seems like she’s accepted her role as mother for the team and fans. In the airport she tells Ted, “I’ll stay with my family.” Then minutes later, it’s left open for her to maybe have a stepmom role. What are your hopes for her with the motherhood arc?
Well, interesting that you say open for her. I think that’s the key point for her then. It is suggested as a possible outcome. It is suggested that maybe she has finally been delivered a bit of sunshine in the moment that Ted goes back and reminds himself how to be a dad again, she reminds herself how to let love in. But I didn’t feel like it was any more than that. Rather than the whole, “Oh, she’s going to become a mum of the child,” I just feel like it’s giving possibilities, you know? I quite liked that it was quite neutral.
Yeah and you see them later outside at a party, but it’s not like they’re putting her in a wedding gown and throwing her down the aisle.
I like that nothing went too far down that road because I think it would have been contrived perhaps to suddenly have her — I liked the fact that we acknowledged that she has let something in that is different from that which we’ve seen her around before now.
This season was all about finding sunshine for Rebecca. Past the bit, which I loved actually, the bit with Tish the clairvoyant.
Oh, right, did all of that stuff with the lightning and matchbook get closed out?
Well, of course, the lightning is the Dutchman crashing back into her life. I think the green matchbook was taking her back to Sam for her to realize that he wasn’t for her, either. I would imagine there will be some discourse over why wasn’t it all bashed over the head so much, but the beauty of our writers is they don’t bash you over the head. It’s kind of up for interpretation and gently done. It doesn’t need to be like a tornado going through her life or someone started a fire with a green matchbook. It doesn’t need to be that vociferously shown during the season.
I was hoping that she wouldn’t give up the team even though in the beginning of the series she didn’t really want the team.
I love that picture of her on the front of the newspaper. Jason and I spoke long and hard about what kind of energy Rebecca should be giving off there. And it’s not hard like, “I’m a boss bitch of this team.” It was, “This is my team. Thank you to the fans. Come and join us.”
If you had been the writer for the finale is there anything you would have changed?
I wouldn’t have had the bloody “Sound of Music” thing so early because I cried my eyes out for the rest of the bloody show from then onwards. [The team performs “So Long, Farewell” for Ted.] Oh, God, it killed me that, it really did.
I actually don’t think so because I have great respect for Jason and the writers, and I’m very accepting of the way they choose to go. I spoke to Jason about things privately, about Rebecca. But like you said, who knows if it’s the end?
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