Hannah Waddingham confronts photographer after reportedly being told to show her legs
Hannah Waddingham called out a photographer who allegedly made inappropriate remarks to her at a gala theater awards event.
The former “Ted Lasso” star, 49, was making her way inside the Olivier Awards at London's Royal Albert Hall on April 14 when she was confronted by a photographer who allegedly asked her to show him her legs.
“Oh, my God. You’d never say that to a man, my friend,” Waddingham can be heard saying during the interaction, which was caught on camera by a fan who shared a video of it on X.
“Don’t be a d---, otherwise I’ll move off. Don’t say ‘Show me leg.’ No," added the Emmy winner, who returned to host the awards event for the second year in a row.
The crowd around Waddingham clapped and cheered for her for speaking up against the photographer’s sexist request.
As she made her way inside the hall, Waddingham, who began her acting career on Broadway and on the London West End stage, continued reprimanding the photographer, at one point raising her finger up in protest.
“Learn some manners,” she told the man while walking away.
The former "Sex Education" star opened up earlier this year about how a drama teacher's cruel remarks about her appearance inadvertently helped fuel her drive to succeed.
“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,’” Waddingham recalled during a January 2024 appearance on Michelle Visage’s BBC Radio 2 podcast, “Rule Breakers.”
The London-born actor said said the cutting remark made her vow to herself that she would land screen roles to prove the teacher wrong.
“I thought, ‘I will do. Come hell or high water, I will work on screen,’” she recalled.
Still, the humiliating incident, she added, gave her “a complex for years.”
The teacher’s nasty remark was fresh in Waddingham's mind when she accepted the 2021 Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for her role as Rebecca Welton in “Ted Lasso.”
“In my Emmys speech, I made a point — the one thing I said to myself (was), if this weird moment comes and I get this award, and I get my foot in this door, I’m going to rip it off its hinges for musical theater people, or theater people, to follow,” she revealed on the podcast.
Waddingham used her time at the podium to thank "Ted Lasso" creator and star Jason Sudeikis as well as other loved ones while also issuing a plea to movie and TV producers to hire actors from the stage.
“West End musical performers need to be on screen more,” she said during her speech. “Please give them a chance ‘cause we won’t let you down.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
