Hannah Waddingham Gushes Over Working With ‘Daredevil’ Tom Cruise on ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ (Exclusive)
The ‘Ted Lasso’ alum opens up about her tasty partnership, joining the ‘Mission: Impossible’ universe, and if she wants to do another Christmas special.
Hannah Waddingham’s schedule would have Rebecca Welton impressed. In the wake of Ted Lasso coming to an end, the Emmy winner has joined the cast of the upcoming eighth Mission: Impossible film with Tom Cruise. Hollywood Life spoke exclusively with Hannah about working alongside the ultimate daredevil.
“I don’t think there’s anyone that’s as much of a daredevil as he is,” Hannah said. “I mean, the fact that he did his leap off in Dead Reckoning 8 times. When we were shooting the first stuff that I do with him on the George H.W. Bush fighter carrier, I had to dig deep and get involved and be going up and down ladders and sleep on a bed and not having any refineries. But he said, ‘We love the fact that you’re so gung-ho and pushing it.’ I think that is my theater upbringing. I love the muscularity of working with Tom Cruise.”
The Golden Globe winner is thrilled about tackling a totally different role than Rebecca in Ted Lasso. “Bear in mind that I’ve done that all my life really. It’s what makes me tick,” she said. “I come from theater where there isn’t that vanity. You roll with what serves the character, which is why I took Septa Unella in Game of Thrones. It’s why I wanted to play Sofía Marchetti in Sex Education, and again with Mission: Impossible. No, it’s not humorous. But I like leaving me, whether it’s leaving me at the door in order to play Rebecca Welton with the peaks and troughs that she goes through, or it’s joining Tom Cruise and Chris McQuarrie in creating the next stage of Mission: Impossible. I love leaving myself at the door. I don’t thrive off anything as much as I thrive off removing myself.”
In 2023, Hannah dazzled with her first-ever Christmas special, Hannah Waddingham: Home For Christmas. If she had it her way, Hannah would be doing a holiday special every single year. “I think it should be an annual thing as well. We have talked about that,” she told Hollywood Life. “I’m quite busy at the moment, so it’s finding the time to get it right. I do have a long list of people that I had wanted to collaborate with as well, but we had to kind of cull and get it into what we wanted to for this first outing.”
The actress has also teamed up with Pepperidge Farm for their new ad campaign “Have a Little Taste.” For Hannah, this partnership was a no-brainer. “There are a lot of people that approach you to form collaborations with, and one thing I always make sure is the importance of it being authentic,” she said about her partnership. “I look into things, and I was very aware of Pepperidge Farm. I love the fact that whenever I’ve been to America, and I look across the shelf, my eye does go to that pack. There’s just something homey about it.”
Hannah is a big fan of the double dark Milanos. “I love the fact that they are not too sweet. It’s very clever how they’ve balanced it,” she noted. Pepperidge Farm continues to up their game with the London Fog Milanos, which combines the taste of earl grey tea flavor, creamy milk chocolate, and a hint of vanilla flavor between two delicate biscuits. “They’ve been clever about it not being too sweet,” Hannah pointed out. “I love that these aren’t an overwhelming punch in the face with Earl Grey, and that’s a very clever thing to do.”
When asked about choosing between Ted Lasso’s biscuits and Pepperidge Farm cookies, she was quick to reply, “Oh, it’s absolutely not a tough decision at all. I mean, I love my FC Richmond. I mean, if I feel like if Rebecca Welton had been addicted to a double dark Milano, I don’t think she would have cared whether men were in her life or not.”