When word of her casting first leaked, rumors circulated that she was taking over the franchise for Ford. Waller-Bridge says that was never a conversation. “There’s no replacing Indiana Jones in any way,” she says. “But I feel like the character herself—she did feel fresh on the page, and there is a sense of, is there room in the world for someone like this?” She reminds me that Indy was always a flawed, reluctant hero, a professor who’s scared of snakes and gets sore after his punch-ups. “So I do think there’s room for a slightly clumsier, bruised, limping female action star, maybe, in the future.”
Clothing by Louis Vuitton.PHOTOGRAPH BY ALASDAIR McLELLAN; STYLED BY ALICE GODDARD.
Once she achieved household name status, Waller-Bridge felt like there were expectations being slung over her shoulders as a feminist role model. “You’re supposed to represent something now,” she says. “You’re someone whose voice is important, and you’ve got to be careful now. All that kind of stuff. And it’s a bit like: f*ck, how did I get back here?” She is smiling, but it’s clear that she’s serious. “It’s at that point that it’s most important to be the most rebellious that you’ve ever been. So that’s what I’m working on.”
I ask if she feels pressure to give fans—and executives—what they want. She concedes that she wants to do right by Amazon, who “took a punt” on her, but then recalls times when students ask her what she’d tell her 20-something self, knowing what she knows now.
“Are you f*cking kidding me?” she gasps. “I would be asking her to tell me everything! Remind me, remind me. And she’d say: f*ck ’em all. Get out there and burn sh*t down.”
As we wind through the streets of London, a man hails Waller-Bridge. “Really, really, really sorry to bother you,” he says sheepishly. “I know, you must hate all of this stuff. Just want to say, massive fan of Fleabag.” He’s a software engineer, he tells her. “Just want to say, you’re incredible. And your show is really, really awesome. You wrote it and you’re in it and it’s really funny.” He finally gets around to asking for a selfie, and we move on.
“The funny thing about Fleabag fans is they are so apologetic,” Waller-Bridge tells me as we set off again. “Gentle, gentle people. I think when you write a show about love, people come to you with love.” Earlier, at the pub, a newly married couple also asked Waller-Bridge to pose with them as their wedding party looked on.
When she’s recognized a third time and someone shouts out to her on the street, Waller-Bridge looks mortified. “My friend thinks that maybe I am still stuck in that moment pre–all this madness, because I still have no real awareness of how recognizable I am now. I think maybe it’s a kind of thing that I’ve done subconsciously on purpose, because I’m not going to hide out. But I’m always surprised!”
I saw Waller-Bridge at this year’s Oscars, carousing in the lobby bar with cinema cool kids like Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley, and Sarah Polley, as well as her longtime boyfriend, Martin McDonagh, who’d been nominated for directing The Banshees of Inisherin. But she insists, credibly, that fame still feels odd to her. “All these other kinds of doors open where you’re suddenly allowed to email someone that you admire and be like, ‘I really admire you.’ ”
Who is on her list? “I’ve always wanted to email Charlie Kaufman. I love his movies so much. But then I’m embarrassed to write. It’s like: Hey, I’m a software engineer and I really admire you.”
Talking to Waller-Bridge is like sitting by a nice fire, all warmth and sparkle. I’m hesitant to approach the topic of McDonagh, a relationship she closely guards, but I’m curious how their partnership works and whether they read each other’s work.
“We don’t really share anything beforehand,” she says. Because criticism would be demoralizing? “Probably a bit of that. And also, I just really, really fancy him. So if you show someone something, and you fancy them, it can become this blur.” Having admired his work long before she met him, Waller-Bridge of course wants him to admire her work as well. “It’s really useful being with someone who I think is a genius, it just ups your game,” she says with a grin. “I would always have wanted Martin McDonagh to think of my work as good, whether I was with him or not. I find out now, either way!”
