Agent Carter lives on as Hayley Atwell moves on with Conviction

Hayley is bad girl attorney & former first daughter Hayes Morrison in Conviction.

Hayley Atwell may never play Agent Peggy Carter again, but the headstrong Marvel comic crime-fighter will stay with the actor forever.

“It’s hard to play a character like Peggy and not have her qualities rub off,” Hayley says.

“She is very determined and very resourceful. I love that she doesn’t have any superpowers and so she relies on her intelligence, wit and instinct. She fights the good fight as best she can. Peggy inspires me to do that. To live in the moment, to carry on, to not care what people think and to know my self-worth.”

She is a priceless character that Peggy Carter and also Hayley’s breakout role.

“She really paved the way for me in America,” says the 34-year-old London-born actor.

Hayley got her start in the biz back in 2005 and made her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as Peggy, Captain America’s love interest, in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger.

Hayley resumed the role in Marvel’s short film Agent Carter and then again in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and in TV’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Hayley’s portrayal was so applauded that she earned her own TV spin-off series Agent Carter and made history as the first woman to ever headline a Marvel production.

“Stepping onto my own show was the most magical time of my career,” she says.

Hayley’s inclusion in the 2015 blockbusters Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man soon followed.

She was having a great run, but things began to look grim in early 2016.

Agent Carter ratings were tumbling fast and we learned of Peggy’s death in Captain America: Civil War. Agent Carter was then cancelled after its second season within a week of Civil War’s theatrical release back in May.

Despite the hard fall, within months Hayley was back on her feet and ready for a comeback. Once again, the movie star picked the small screen over the big screen.

“A lot of people are going from film to TV. I feel like it’s the golden age of television at the moment. The writing and directing is fantastic,” she says.

Hayley just made her return to prime time with the lead role in ABC’s legal drama Conviction co-starring Eddie Cahill of CSI: NY and Under the Dome, X-Men’s Shawn Ashmore, and The Walking Dead’s Emily Kinney.

Hayley explains headlining is a big gig and it comes with a lot of responsibility.

“When you’re leading the show, there’s so much on you,” she says. “You have such an impact. You set the tone, you set the atmosphere. There’s a responsibility to make everyone feel that they’re in a good environment that they actually want to work in.”

Hayley admits it is a hefty weight to bear, but fronting Agent Carter for two seasons has given her the muscle and know-how to carry Conviction now.

She also credits the series for training her for television, a very different daily grind from that of the film industry.

“With television, you have very little time to do the shots. You have no time to rehearse and no time to stop. It means I live in the present moment and it means I’m constantly taking risks, challenging and scaring myself. That’s when life gets exciting, when you throw yourself into the deep end despite your fear.”

Today, Hayley isn’t afraid to move on because the world seems less scary when you face it with little bit of Peggy Carter living inside you.

Conviction airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC and CTV.

Posted by Marc Andrew on Oct 17 2016. Filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.