Hannah Waddingham recently revealed a harsh yet defining moment in her acting career, and it’s incredibly relatable.
The 49-year-old actor has had a brilliant rise to stardom over the years, with roots beginning on the stages of the West End and Broadway for productions like Spamalot, Into the Woods, and The Wizard of Oz.
She’s appeared in popular shows like Netflix’s Sex Education as Sophia Marchetti, one of Jackson’s mothers.
And who could forget her scene-stealing arrival to Seasons 5 and 6 of Game of Thrones as the “Shame Nun” Septa Unella?
Finally, from 2020 to 2023, Hannah portrayed her most notable role to date on the feel-good Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso as the owner of AFC Richmond, Rebecca Welton.
But, despite her killer career on the rise, Hannah revealed that she had one hater who unintentionally became the driving force for her to succeed, and it’s all too familiar.
During a conversation on the BBC Radio 2 podcast Michelle Visage’s Rule Breakers, Hannah shared how one drama teacher said she would never be successful for a really messed-up reason.
“I had one drama teacher that said to the whole class: ‘Oh, Hannah will never work on screen because she looks like one side of her face has had a stroke,'” Hannah recalled.
Hannah, who became an award-winning actor, intended to make this hater eat their words and used this moment as motivation to prove them wrong. “I thought, ‘I will do, come hell or high water, I will work on screen,'” she added.
Although she said it gave her a “complex” for years, she made it a mission to strive for the big moment she could open the door and “rip it off its hinges” to make room for others coming up who shared similar experiences.
BuzzFeed Community, I want to hear about a defining moment when a hater (family member, boss, teacher, ex-partner, etc.) doubted you and how you rose to the occasion and succeeded.
Share your story in the comments (or use this anonymous Google form), and your response may be featured in an upcoming post — your experience could help someone else.
