Hayley Elizabeth Atwell (born 5 April 1982) is a British-American actress. She is known for her work in stage productions such as A View from the Bridge, and onscreen, she is often cast in period pieces, such as the 2008 drama The Duchess, and the 2010 historical drama miniseries The Pillars of the Earth. She is best known for her portrayal of Peggy Carter in various films and television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the lead role in the ABC action-adventure series Agent Carter. Atwell has dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and the United States. In February 2016, Atwell was cast to star in the pilot for the ABC, Conviction. In a 2015 interview, Atwell discussed how her role as Peggy Carter influenced a then-recent tweet she made to her 319,000 Twitter followers about having her image digitally altered on the cover of a German magazine. When one visitor to her page asked her, "Why are you so beautiful?", she retorted, "Why I am so Photoshopped?" In the interview, Atwell stated, "It's important that young girls understand what Photoshop is. I do feel a certain amount of responsibility now that I'm playing Peggy."
In 2008, she appeared in the film The Duchess as Bess Foster and the Miramax film Brideshead Revisited as Lady Julia Flyte. After being cast, Miramax suggested she lose weight for the part. Atwell, who has been described as "tall, with the kind of natural bum and boobs that women undergo surgery to obtain", considered the advice, commenting later in a 2015 interview, "I thought, 'OK, I suppose I should.'" Atwell subsequently reconsidered after her co-star Emma Thompson, advised her, "You're not a model. You're an actor." Atwell later reflected, "In the end, they accepted me for who I was. If I've ever had an insecurity about myself in this industry, Emma always has an amazing ability to say something to put it all into perspective, so that you don’t hate yourself." Seven years after meeting television writer Gabriel Bisset-Smith at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he and Atwell began a long-term relationship. In a December 2012 interview, by which time the relationship had ended, Atwell expressed regret about being as open as she was in interviews about the relationship, saying, "We were friends for seven years before we started a relationship and now we're friends again. I didn't plan that at all – I'm not some amazing ex-girlfriend at all."
Hayley Atwell
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