Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of Maximum Fun.org and is distributed by NPR.

It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorne. It's a unique challenge for an actor to play a villain

in a movie or a TV show that isn't just compelling to watch, but also someone you sympathize

with, maybe even relate to. On Ted Lassau, there is a character named Rebecca.

Ted Lassau is, of course, a sitcom about an American football coach who finds himself in London

coaching a soccer team.

If you haven't seen the first season of the show, we are going to have some spoilers right now.

Anyway, Rebecca.

Rebecca is the owner of Richmond FC, the soccer team. When the show begins,

she has just inherited the team in a divorce settlement, and she's the one who came up with the

idea of hiring Ted, played by Jason Siddakis. If it seems like a bad idea, well, Rebecca would,

at least at first, agree. Her goal in hiring Ted, is to ruin the team.

Make it a joke in the British press. The team, she says, is the only thing her ex really loved.

But as the show goes on, you learn more about Rebecca. You find out about the humiliation and

heartbreak she endured during her marriage,

and you see her change. She gives up on revenge. She stops working to sabotage the team,

and she finds inspiration and joy through Ted and the rest of the squad. In the hands of most

actors, the part could easily become a cliche. Her transformation unearned

and hard to believe, but Hannah Waddingham, who plays Rebecca, isn't most actors. She commands

authority, but almost always with vulnerability, poking through. She balances pain, anger,

and compassion so deftly that it's impossible to imagine anyone else playing the role.

It earned her an Emmy Award last year and another nomination this year.

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