Hannah Waddingham, who broke out as the tough-as-nails but complicated football club owner on Ted Lasso, has joined the high-flying cast of Ryan Gosling’s adventure feature, The Fall Guy.
The actress joins Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Stephanie Hsu and Winston Duke on the call sheet for the Universal movie, which is inspired by the 1980s television series. Bullet Train director David Leitch is helming the action extravaganza, which is now shooting in Australia.
In a switch from the original 1980s show that starred Lee Majors, the story doesn’t focus on a stuntman with a side hustle as a bounty hunter. Instead, the script by Drew Pearce focuses on a battered and past-his-prime stuntman (Gosling) who finds himself back on a movie with the star (Taylor-Johnson) for whom he doubled long ago and who replaced him. The wrinkle, however, is that the star has gone missing.
Waddingham will play the producer of the stunt-packed movie which is now in trouble.
Duke is playing the stuntman’s best friend, Hsu is the movie star’s assistant while Blunt is cast as a prosthetic makeup artist that has a romantic past with the stuntman.
Producing are Kelly McCormick and Leitch via their 87North shingle. Gosling is also producing, as is Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady.
Pearce will executive produce alongside Geoff Shaevitz. Executive vp production Matt Reilly and director of development Tony Ducret are overseeing the project on behalf of Universal.
Waddingham won an Emmy playing Rebecca Welton, the owner of the football club where Jason Sudeikis’ Lasso coaches. The role has won her two Critics’ Choice Awards and Screen Actors Guild Award for best ensemble.
The actress, who also appears on London’s West End and was on Netflix’s Sex Education, recently joined the all-star voice cast of Garfield, and was seen in Hocus Pocus 2, which has become the biggest movie on Disney+.
She is repped by CAA, Atlas Artists, and Creative Artists Management in the U.K.