Hayley Atwell Inspired By Marilyn

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British actress Hayley Atwell – star of Agent Carter, a TV spin-off from Marvel Comics’ Captain America – has told the New York Post how Marilyn, and other iconic actresses from Hollywood’s glamorous past have influenced her role.

Agent Carter goes undercover - as a blonde
Agent Carter goes undercover – as a blonde

“‘She knows when she should use her sexuality, and she knows when she should be passive and she should remain dumb,’ Hayley Atwell, who plays Agent Carter, tells the Post. ‘It kind of reminds me of Marilyn Monroe, the facade that she would put on. It makes her far richer and really funny…We see her wind up the men, but we know it’s all an act.’

While a female spy carrying out secret missions to take down the bad guys may seem out of place for the decidedly pre-feminist 1940s, Atwell insists Peggy is a woman of her time, pointing to the strong-willed stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age — like Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Rita Hayworth — as precursors for her character.

‘These women were not only beautiful, but they had wit and vitality and spunk and all this gorgeousness about them,’ she says. ‘There were women who were trailblazers, and I think Peggy is one of them.'”

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