If there’s one actress you should be keeping your eye on, that’s the talented and gorgeous Hayley Atwell. This is the kind of gal who would rather pick up some sort of weapon and go out into the proverbial battlefield other than sit back at home baking cookies. It’s no wonder that she ended up grabbing the role of Peggy Carter in Joe Johnston’s “Captain America: The First Avenger.” Sure, it’s easy to fix somebody’s hair, throw on an appropriate style of clothing on them, but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect for the part. With Miss Atwell, her personality already has a glint of the spirit and courage that resides in the comic book character she brings to life in the film.
Along with Sebastian Stan, we got the awesome opportunity to sit down and chat with Hayley Atwell. Below she talks about how great it is to be playing a strong female character, the 40s and how she couldn’t resist touching Chris Evan’s chest.
ShockYa: Do you approach a comic book movie the same way as a period piece?
Hayley Atwell: Yeah. It was something that Joe wanted, and talked about early on. He wanted to root these characters in a kind of reality, because it is a reality to them, and if you portray them as human beings then the audience can hopefully relate a bit more than sending them up or caricature or cartoony. It was important to Joe and it was important to me as an actor that it’s rooted in something real, something you can relate to.
ShockYa: Did you like that she was a strong capable woman instead of “please help Captain America!”
Hayley Atwell: Yeah, fuck that (laughs). And why not, she was in a position where if she was like that, she wouldn’t be of that position. And when she says “I know what it’s like to have a few doors slammed in my face,” I think because she’s this attractive woman who’s beautifully made up, she had to fight a little bit harder to get where she is to prove that she’s capable. And I think that’s great because there’s a kindred spirit between here and Steve, there’s an equality about them and I love that. I think of women in the forties like Bette Davis or Katherine Hepburn, or my grandmother and I think “wow, they knew their power as women, so beautifully.” And Peggy in the script had that too, and I love that about her.
How did they cast you? Was it written as an English woman?
Hayley Atwell: Yeah, I was looking to do something different, I had done a number of period dramas, and though “yes, I’ve got an action film… Oh, fuck it’s a period again.” (laughs) Will I ever break away?
ShockYa: Better than Keira Knightley, it sometimes feels like she’s forever stuck in the 1800s.
Hayley Atwell: You think so? I don’t, she’s doing lots of new ones like Never Let Me Go. How I got the part is that I had a general meeting with Joe (Johnston) for about an hour, just talking about everything but the script. So I went away from it thinking “Well, I’ve made a friend, but I don’t know if I’ve got a job.” I think he just wanted to see if we could get on as well as cast it right in terms of acting ability and look. I think it’s very important that you know you’re going to be working with people for five, six, seven months and it’s a tiring shoot, so you want to know you’ll get along. So that was really nice, and after that I did various auditions and a screen test. They had me all day, they hired a crew, there was hair and make-up and costume, and I had to learn eight pages of dialog, and then I had a half an hour to learn an unarmed fight scene. And then I had to show loading and unloading various guns. I loved them but had never played with them before. It was like “Action” and I’m going “??? (makes gun firing noise)”
ShockYa: I was curious about the logistic of Chris Evans in Scrawny form, where you acting him or was it a body double?
Hayley Atwell: It was both. I would do the scene with Chris, and then I would do it with Leander (Deeny) who played Chris’s double, and he would watch at the monitor every single facial expression and movement – even in terms of where Chris breathed, so every time he spoke, so you could Steve’s chest move in and out, and he was incredibly meticulous about making sure he got it right. Chris would do it first, and then go to his trailer and do whatever he did, and skinny Steve would come in and I’d do it again. Sometimes I’d have to do it a third time in which I had to look at Chris but his eyeline would be his neck, which was bizarre. One time when I turned and looked away, Chris was told to squat down, so he was just a bit shorter, so I turned back and I saw Chris do this (she shrinks her head like a turtle).
ShockYa: There was a moment right after Chris’s character transforms, and your character reaches out and almost touches him. Was that something you came up with on the spot?
Hayley Atwell: I did. It was instinctive, I couldn’t help myself. I hadn’t seen him with his top off until that moment.
ShockYa: Lucky girl.
Hayley Atwell: (laughs) It was “go for the manboob.” And Joe loved it, his note was “do it again.” So we did lots of takes just to see how far we could go. Then it got a little bit over the top. There was a little touch of the nipple, but then it became like a Saturday Night Live sketch. It felt like Austin Powers, really corny. But I like that they kept it in because Peggy’s a repressed character, a little uptight, and she’s trying to do the right thing. But if she was a man, she’d be Captain America, but never will, so there’s that longing. So sometimes her behavior would be quite erratic, correcting herself all the time.
ShockYa: How would compare working with Joe Johnston, with – say – Woody Allen?
Hayley Atwell: Both are quiet actually, both very calm behind the camera. Woody doesn’t direct. He just films you and do one take and move on. That was my experience with him, and that’s what I’ve heard from others. Joe is collaborative, he wants to know what you think, he loves it when you give different takes. He’ll say “find another way, maybe do it like this.” And he’s just having fun, which is great. It was really to work with him, because I felt like he trusted me. It was free, and we felt free to make mistakes, too.
Be sure to watch “Captain America: The First Avenger” when it arrives in theaters everywhere on July 22nd. Also, if you happen to be down in San Diego for this year’s Comic-Con, make sure you head over to the UA Horton Plaza to watch “Captain America” before the rest of the country on Thursday, July 21st.