Hannah Waddingham is used to collaborating and bonding with her costars in the flesh on set — which is why her first-ever foray into voiceover work, where actors typically record solo in a booth, felt so odd.
"We have [seen each other] a couple of times, but in general you don't. It's such a weird thing," the actress, 50, exclusively told Us Weekly about her voiceover gig in Krapopolis at the Fox Fall Press Day event earlier this month. "I was aching to meet Matt Berry 'cause I'm a massive fan of his work, both on camera and his voice."
Waddingham noted that she did eventually get to meet Berry, 50, and the moment was worth the wait. "We finally met up in the studio and I was very starstruck," she gushed. "Cause I just think he's absolutely brilliant. You know, his work in What We Do in the Shadows is just incredible." She added that she was also ecstatic to work with "beloved actor and voice artist" Richard Ayoade. At the event, Waddingham was missing her fellow costars and she wanted to "give them a squeeze" since she was so proud of the "special" work they've done together on Krapopolis.
Krapopolis is an animated sitcom that stars Waddingham, Berry, Ayoade, 47, Pam Murphy, Michael Urie, Stephanie Beatriz and more. The comedy focuses on a family of humans, gods and monsters trying to run one of the world's first cities in Ancient Greece.
When she was initially offered the role of Deliria the fictional goddess of self-destruction and questionable choices, the Ted Lasso star knew the project was going to be "effing funny" just based on the name of the show. "I love that they're just not mucking around. It's so clever," she told Us. "But even all the names, Tyrannis is a very clever name. Stupendous. Hippocampus. They're just brilliant names and everything. Like the Colossians, it's just brilliant."
Waddingham shared that she was even more impressed with the writing team after witnessing their diligence for the first season. "Now seeing all the work that they go into for it, all the detail, all the rewrites up the wazoo, constantly tweaking. ‘Can we just improve that? Can we make that cleverer? Can we make that more historically correct?'" she reflected. "I find that fascinating because I loved Greek mythology and ancient historians at school, so I also loved the idea of getting involved in it."
Waddingham was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for Krapolis. While the award ultimately went to Maya Rudolph for Big Mouth, Waddingham was grateful just to be nominated in the first place. "It's my first voiceover ever. So, to get this nomination I just didn't entertain the idea at all," she told Us. "So I'm still a bit speechless which isn't something that I'm used to."