Hannah Waddingham has a list of bullies and casting directors who dismissed her due to her looks

Hannah Waddingham keeps a ‘mental list’ of people who have made her feel less, insulted her, and blocked her career, saying that she can’t forget those insulting remarks so easily.

For starters, the Les Miserables star had a teacher bully her for her physical appearance. Waddingham had previously opened up during an appearance on Michelle Visage's BBC podcast called Rule Breakers to discuss some of the most defining moments of her life and Hollywood career.

Talking about the teacher who made a ‘brutal’ comment about her face, the Ted Lasso star said:

“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.’”

While Waddingham admitted that those words gave her a “complex for years,” she was also determined to make it in show business after that, the actress noted.

However, her drama teacher was not the only one who had bullied and dismissed her over the years.

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Hannah Waddingham gets candid about her ‘mental blacklist’ of bullies

Aside from the bully drama teacher Hannah Waddingham mentioned previously, the actress has recently added names to her ‘mental blacklist’ of bullies. These include ex-boyfriends who had told her she wasn’t good enough and directors telling her she’s either too curvy or too tall.

The star made an appearance in the recent episode of the Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist podcast and got even more candid about the people who had belittled her in the past. She mentioned school bullies who had called her a “lady freak.”

Waddingham also noted that there were casting directors who had problems with her ‘shape’ and wouldn’t cast her for their projects, which she mentioned has changed nowadays. According to Waddingham:

“[Yes], there is a little list of people who wouldn’t give me time of the day but now want to work together.”

However, Hannah Waddingham had something to say to all her naysayers who criticized her appearance but are now changing their tune—she doesn’t forget. The actress said:

“And I am happy to say to them, ‘Please look somewhere else. I’m human. I remember. Bog off.’”

Hannah Waddingham, who started her career in musical theater, had been candid about her struggles to rise in show business. She references the same during her acceptance speech for an Emmy Award she received for her role in the gentle comedy Ted Lasso, urging producers to give some breaks to theater performers.

Since her Ted Lasso days, Hannah Waddingham has snagged significant roles in films and television. She was in the 2012 musical film Le Miserables as well as The Gatehouse, Winter Ridge, The Hustle, and Hocus Pocus 2.

Waddingham also made appearances in numerous TV shows like Game of Thrones, 12 Monkeys, Sex Education, and the animated series Krapopolis.

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More recently, Hannah Waddingham starred alongside Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in The Fall Guy and has voiced the character of Jinx in the animated film The Garfield Movie.

She also has a list of upcoming projects, most notably, the upcoming Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two, the 8th movie of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible franchise.