2 new photos of Hayley Atwell have been added to the gallery.
Stage and screen star Hayley Atwell is currently playing two lead roles a night in Measure for Measure at the Donmar Warehouse. She tells Nick Clark about how the production responded to contemporary gender politics, reveals the Shakespeare villain she’s longing to play and explains why pranking her co-stars keeps her performances fresh
Sitting in the offices of the Donmar Warehouse, where she is starring in Measure for Measure, Hayley Atwell starts talking, tentatively at first, about her plans. She pauses and rocks back in her chair. “Okay”, she smiles. “I guess we can put this out in the world…”
A look at Atwell’s career shows a restlessness and desire not to make the obvious choices. And, after working on a TV drama last year where everything changed for her, she has been thinking long and hard about doing something a bit different. “It occurs to me that I’ve been thinking about creating my own work, or directing something or producing something,” she says. “I would like to start my own production company.”
The idea is not yet fully formed – she jokes about the name: “Pig About Town. No, Kid About Town. Something lighthearted” – but she is serious about looking for projects, whether on film, television or in theatre, and not just to act in. She also reveals she has been writing. What has emerged over the course of our conversation is someone who thinks about the roles she chooses and the issues surrounding them. This is no different.
“I want original material, or to adapt books, with strong nuanced narratives of all different types of genre, collaborating with like-minded people. I think I have the experience and the skillset to know my own mind and trust what I can do, but I also want to collaborate with people.” She stops and laughs: “It feels as though I’m auditioning for you.”
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A few stills of Hayley Atwell from ‘Measure for Measure’ have been added to the gallery.
‘Measure for Measure’ (2018) >
Stills
