At age 81, Leslie Uggams has found an unexpected second career as a genre star. The Broadway actress became a runaway fan-favorite of the Deadpool movies as Blind Al, Wade Wilson’s foul-mouthed roommate with an affinity for cocaine and IKEA furniture. But she also recently dipped her toes in the video game world with Prime Video’s Fallout, an adaptation of the beloved post-apocalyptic video game franchise.
“I didn't realize how popular that game is,” Uggams tells Inverse in a crowded press room at the 2024 New York Comic-Con.
Uggams only found out about how huge Fallout was when she mentioned offhand to her doorman that her next project was going to be something called Fallout. “He went, ‘Fallout?!’ I was like, Oh, I think I picked another good one,” Uggams says.
As Betty Pearson, one of the Vault dwellers in Fallout, Uggams didn’t get to see the show come together until its first season was released in full earlier this April. But she says she was “just blown away,” and hopes that the second season, which she confirms will begin filming in November, will be just as exciting to fans. But she can’t divulge much about Fallout Season 2 — namely because she hasn’t seen the scripts yet.
“They hadn't even written the second script, because I guess nobody knew what was really going to be happening, whether the audience would love it or not,” Uggams says. “So they're writing it as we speak.”
As for what’s up with the mysterious Betty Pearson, who was revealed to be a Vault-Tec employee who had been alive at the same time as Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) pre-nuclear fallout, Uggams was even more coy. She teases that we may learn more about Betty, who was working as Overseer of Vault 33 as of the end of Season 1.
“She's running the show in the vault, so we'll see,” Uggams says.
In her other big genre role, however, Uggams is happy to settle with being the scene-stealing supporting player, instead of running the show. Uggams’ Blind Al has been a staple of the Deadpool movies since the first flick, and she knows that she’s the secret sauce to Wade Wilson’s success as a superhero.
“He can't do it without her. She's the person he can always talk to, and so I love it,” Uggams says.
For the past three films, Uggams has proven herself to be a must-have presence by Deadpool’s side, with her withering insults and constant need for cocaine (an obsession that Uggans “was stunned” they were able to get into the Disney-backed Deadpool & Wolverine). So could we see Blind Al eventually make the leap to the MCU proper after this?
“Why not?” Uggams says. “Maybe something's going on with the glasses. Or the cane!”
