With two high-profile British period films in quick succession, Hayley Atwell might be stuck in the past. But her future's looking bright, writes HELEN BARLOW
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There is more to Hayley Atwell than meets the eye. Although the raven-haired, 26-year-old up-and-coming actress might seem like a blushing English rose - given her roles in the period movies Brideshead Revisited and The Duchess - she begs to differ.
"I was a big rugby player at school and I did lots of horse-riding. Anything rough, anything quite rugged or very fast."
Atwell's career has evolved quickly as well. After graduating from London's Guildhall School of Drama, she performed in A Greek Tragedy at the Royal Shakespeare Company, in television dramas including The Line of Beauty and The Ruby in the Smoke, before snagging a role in a Woody Allen picture, Cassandra's Dream.
The downside was that the film, starring Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor, was the worst - and thankfully the last - of Allen's London-set movies, which went straight to DVD. The Irish film, How About You? set in a retirement home and where she played alongside acting legend Vanessa Redgrave, was a blip on the cinematic radar too, though she was wonderfully acerbic in the recent telefeature of Mansfield Park.
"I've been particularly busy but that doesn't necessarily mean I'll be busy in the coming years," Atwell says of her sudden ascendance. "I have no intention of moving to Los Angeles and I have a team of people who know what I want to do in terms of scripts. I'd love to do more theatre, I love England and that's where I'd want to centre myself."
The curvaceous actress, rapidly developing a reputation as the queen of cleavage, certainly fits in well with the sumptuous Georgian regal splendour of The Duchess and with the early 20th century blue-blood shenanigans in Brideshead. In the former, Keira Knightley takes the title role as Georgiana Cavendish, who became the Duchess of Devonshire, the Princess Di of her day. While there's no escaping the modern-day parallel of her relationship with her older husband, the duke (Ralph Fiennes), who prefers the company of Atwell's worldy, less elegant Bess, the difference here is that Bess was just as cosy with Georgiana.
"Bess is the best friend and confidante of the duchess, and also the mistress of her husband," explains Atwell, who was offered the part by director Saul Dibb, who had directed her before in the The Line of Beauty. "Bess is very calculating and gradually worms her way in to becoming the next duchess, which isn't actually shown in the film. But she has reasons for her actions. She's lost her children and she's made a decision that she would do anything to get them back. She realises that through her friendship with the duchess she can get to the duke, who has the power to help her."
Atwell is far more glamorous in Brideshead Revisited as Julia Flyte, the role made famous by Diana Quick in the landmark television series of Evelyn Waugh's 1946 novel.
While the 15-hour series had more time to delve into the Waugh's weighty concerns regarding class, religion and ambition, this movie-length version has for the most part been distilled into a love triangle saga like The Duchess.
Atwell's aristocratic Julia is the object of desire for the upwardly mobile Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode). He, in turn, is beloved by her aristocratic sexually ambiguous brother Sebastian (the scene-stealing Ben Whishaw, who is also coming as Keats in Jane Campion's Bright Star).
Atwell, who avoided watching the 1981 series, felt that there was a considerable passion behind her character. "I was really intrigued by who this enigmatic Julia was and by what was bubbling and going on beneath the surface. Her mother exerts a huge influence, so does the building at Brideshead, then there's the Catholic Church. I like playing flawed characters and she's certainly flawed but in an interesting way."
Atwell appears in two time periods: in the 20s when Julia is young and naive; and in the 30s and 40s when she looks more womanly. "For a woman with curves like I have, that time just celebrates them so well. It felt incredibly sophisticated and decadent compared to the straight lines and the dropped waists of the 20s."
Initially the producers had thought Atwell was a little too well-padded and asked her to drop a few pounds. The ever-outspoken Emma Thompson, her religious mother in the movie, came running to her assistance. "When Emma found out she was furious with the studio and told them I was just fine as I was. Then they left me alone."
Atwell is currently in Namibia filming a remake of the cult 60s series, The Prisoner, opposite Sir Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel.
LOWDOWN
Who: Hayley Atwell, rising English star
What & when: The Duchess (opens October 9) and Brideshead Revisited (October 23)
