All I ever wanted was to be taken seriously

TED LASSO STAR HANNAH ON FINDING FAME

- LAURA ARMSTRONG

HER stellar performance in Ted Lasso propelled Hannah Waddingham to stardom, leading to glittering awards and offers to appear alongside the biggest names in Hollywood.

She's soon to star with Ryan Gosling in The Fall Guy and with Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part Two and last week hosted the Olivier Awards -going viral after calling out a photographer for asking her to "show a bit of leg".

Yet actress Hannah insists she doesn't care about the fame or the money status brings.

After years of having "buckets of imposter syndrome" dumped on her the greatest satisfaction comes from finally earning the acceptance she was "desperate" for, she admits.

Hannah, 49, says: "I'm a big believer in manifestation and I did say, 'Look, I think I've been knocking about for a while now can I please have something that will show everything that I feel like I'm capable of?' 

"And then being able to have the chance to not have to show everything very quickly, like within a scene or within an episode or whatever... that's the bit that I found most satisfying.

"Not fame, not money. But the actual thing of being taken seriously on screen has been the thing that I was just desperate for."

Hannah made her stage debut in 1998 and performed in the West End for more than a decade as the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot and as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.

After TV roles in Doctors, My Family and Benidorm, she landed Septa Unella in the smash hit series Game of Thrones.