Juno Temple can navigate a Hollywood career, an Emmy-winning television series and packed filming schedules, but there is one everyday skill she still has not mastered, and that is driving.
The 37-year-old actress revealed in a new Vanity Fair interview that she still does not drive despite living in Los Angeles. Appropriately, the conversation took place while Temple was in the backseat of a car traveling between Encino and the Hollywood Hills after a long day on set.
Driving is only one part of what Temple jokingly described as her difficulty handling certain aspects of “reality.” She also acknowledged an irregular sleep schedule, problems with punctuality and moments when anxiety leaves her panicked, telling the magazine, “I feel like I’m making myself sound like an absolute chaotic human.”
The subject has an unexpected connection to another major part of her life. Temple met her now-husband, Michal Szymanski, while making Ted Lasso Season 2, when he was working as a driver for her co-star Hannah Waddingham.
Temple Says She Can Get ‘In My Own Way’
When Vanity Fair asked whether she was trying to improve at things such as driving and being on time, Temple made clear that she takes the impact on other people seriously. “Yeah, of course I am,” she said. “Time matters, and people’s time is really important.”
The difficulty, she explained, comes when her own thought patterns begin working against her. “I’m very good at getting in my own way,” Temple said. “I think a lot of people can, and it definitely can spin me into a tizzy when I need to get out of the house or get some sleep.”
She described herself as becoming “wayward” and disappearing down mental “wormholes,” adding, “I definitely have a lot of anxiety and get panicked.” Just Jared highlighted those comments on August 25 after the Vanity Fair profile, which was originally published August 19.
She Has Been Talking About Not Having a License for at Least 15 Years
Temple’s inability to drive is hardly a new Hollywood eccentricity. While promoting the road-trip comedy Dirty Girl in 2011, she disclosed that she did not have a driver’s license, an especially inconvenient detail for the star of a movie built around a cross-country car journey.
“I have to tell you guys immediately that I don’t drive,” Temple recalled telling the filmmakers during her audition. Asked whether she could operate a car at all, she clarified, “I mean, I can drive, but legally I can’t.”
The issue was still following her years later. In a 2022 interview with The Guardian, Temple joked about being mistaken for someone who had slept in her car and immediately thinking, “I don’t have a driver’s licence! I don’t own a fucking car!”
She offered another variation in a 2024 Interview conversation with Miles Teller, saying she could not “for the life of me figure out how to drive” in normal circumstances despite having driven for real while filming Venom: The Last Dance.
Her Driving Story Has an Unexpected Link to Her Marriage
Temple’s long dependence on other people for transportation also makes the story of meeting Szymanski particularly fitting. During an August 4 appearance on TFI Unplugged, Temple and Waddingham explained that Szymanski was working as Waddingham’s driver while Ted Lasso Season 2 was being made in 2021.
Temple was interested enough to ask her co-star for permission to pursue him. “She said, ‘Can I ask him on a date?’” Waddingham recalled. “I was like, ‘Yes, you can. He’s gorgeous.’”
Temple said Waddingham and Szymanski even developed a “secret code” that helped create opportunities for the pair to see each other, with Waddingham’s appointments occasionally running conveniently late.
The relationship ultimately became a marriage. PEOPLE reported that Temple confirmed during the same August 4 interview that she had quietly married Szymanski sometime during the nearly three-year gap between Ted Lasso Seasons 3 and 4. “I got married,” Temple revealed as her castmates applauded.
‘Ted Lasso’ Changed Much More Than Temple’s Career
Meeting Szymanski is only one reason Temple describes Ted Lasso as transformational. Asked by Vanity Fair whether the show had changed her life, Temple answered, “Yes, no brainer.” She credited the series not only with expanding her career but with changing the way she works and introducing important relationships into her life, including her close friendship with Waddingham.
“I know that Ted has been the gateway to a lot of what’s happening in my life right now,” Temple said. “I think it’s a show that kind of changed everyone’s life that was on it, actually.”
Temple initially thought that story was over after Season 3. She said she got the impression that the “book had been closed” and did not want the series revived merely because it had become successful. The new premise changed her view.
Season 4 turns its attention toward women’s soccer, with Ted returning to Richmond to coach a second-division women’s football team. Temple said that shift gave the show a new trajectory while preserving the people and emotional core that made the earlier seasons work.
She called the focus on women’s football timely but, more importantly, something that felt “really good for the show”. According to Apple TV, Season 4 premiered August 5 with Temple returning alongside Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt and Jeremy Swift. The 10-episode season continues with new episodes every Wednesday through October 7.