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As Agent Peggy Carter, Hayley Atwell may be a espionage ace who’s setting the stage for S.H.E.I.L.D. in the Postwar Marvel Universe, but the actress admits that she never saw the character’s own TV series coming – just one of the revelations of the behind-the-scenes secrets of her experiences on ABC’s Agent Carter.

Legion of Leia: What are the new sides of Peggy Carter did you find that you hadn’t got to play yet that excited you about the series?

Hayley Atwell: Her vulnerability, the fact that she’s having to juggle so many things and so many feels and so many ideas and so many identities, but at the root of it is someone who’s still grieving. And there’s a psychological and emotional cost for someone who is having to be strong all the time, and that’s what I felt was accessible. That’s what I feel the audiences will relate to, and that’s what I wanted to explore.

Legion of Leia: You’ve mentioned that you like that this show has a female bonding element, particularly between Peggy and Angie. We’re experiencing kind of a great moment in genre fandom where women – both characters and fans – are really coming into their own. What does it mean to be a part of this wave?

Hayley Atwell: Well, it’s very empowering. It’s a real privilege to play someone who people are seemingly looking up to as a role model for young people. And it’s great that we can have someone who is interesting, who’s in the public eye, but is also doing commercial films in this genre that is rooted in some sort of moral compass. It’s absolutely delightful. Yeah, it’s a privilege.

Legion of Leia: What’s been challenging about the role?

Hayley Atwell: Probably the stamina that it takes to shoot a television show of this many months, waking up at 4:30 every morning and going on to the set, and having to be effectively leading a set. My behavior and my professionalism has a knock-on effect, so there’s a responsibility that I have as a leader, and then the stamina that it takes to actually do the scene. So it’s about marrying both of those things that have been the most challenging.

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Legion of Leia: What do you love about the 1940s wardrobe – and what do you not love so much?

Hayley Atwell: I think the effort that women put into getting ready. I’m not someone who wears much makeup or really dresses like this in my every day. I’m kind of a jeans and t-shirt girl. So because of that, I feel like it is a little exhausting to have to be so prim and proper every day. But then also, it looks so beautiful. It lends such a visual power to the scenes, that it’s worthwhile…It’s a costume in itself, yeah. It makes me feel like I’m set up for the day. She’s immaculately dressed, and her hair and makeup is pristine, which is very much of the time period but also feels like she’s putting on her uniform.

Legion of Leia: How much of Peggy’s life do you know about in between the series and where we catch up with her in Captain America: The Winter Soldier? Have they filled you in on the road map of her life?

Hayley Atwell: They haven’t. They’re making it up as they go along, based just on making good stories and also responding to what the audiences want. And I think that’s a really smart move, because they haven’t set up what she’s going to be doing in ten years from now, and I think that’s right. I think it will be a direct response to what the fans want.

Legion of Leia: What about her backstory, before the War? Has much in her past been revealed to you?

Hayley Atwell: Backstory is also something that has yet to be discovered, and also, we can maybe discover it in other seasons.

Legion of Leia: Does flying a little blind like that make it harder for you than playing a more conventional film or TV character?

Hayley Atwell: No, I mean, I have an emotional history in my head of things that make sense to me as why she is the way she is and why she has certain qualities. I think she’s very stubborn and determined, and I think that means probably coming from a place where those qualities had to be drawn out of her in order to survive. So I’ve kind of made up my own thing in my own head that makes the scenes more relevant for me.

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Legion of Leia: So many of the other Marvel characters are so well-known, with volumes and volumes of mythology. Does Peggy’s fairly limited lore take a little pressure off of you?

Hayley Atwell: Yeah, I suppose so. There’s a freedom to kind of create from scratch, and as I’ve developed my performance, the writers have accommodated the way that I act. So it’s a big collaboration for us to really organically create this character as she is now.

Legion of Leia: The writers and producers have said they got very excited about you from your performance in Captain America: The First Avenger. But did you see this kind of opportunity coming out of that experience at all?

Hayley Atwell: No. I went back and did a play, and I went back and did all this stuff that I believed in and all the small, independent films that were very much part of my artistic journey. And then when they said, “Do you want to make a series?” I jumped at the chance. Mainly because I knew that there was so much more to explore in her character, but also because I wanted to work with the Marvel team again because they were so great.

Legion of Leia: Not even an inkling of it when you shot the short film?

Hayley Atwell: No, nothing!

Legion of Leia: It has to be great to know she won’t be killed off for a long time.

Hayley Atwell: I know. It gives me hope that I might be having a career for a while, yeah. Security. We’ll also be seeing you in Kenneth Branagh’s live action Cinderella film.

Legion of Leia: Who will you be playing?

Hayley Atwell: I play Cinderella’s mother, who dies very early when Cinderella’s a child. So I’m a young mother but I teach her the message of the film, which is to have courage and to be kind, which is a thing she takes with her for the rest of her life.

Agent Carter airs Tuesday nights on ABC.

Entertainment journalist Scott Huver has written and reported on Hollywood for several prominent media outlets, including People, InStyle, DuJour, TV Guide, NBC, TVLine and Comic Book Resources. He’s that back of the head you see while watching celebrities being interviewed on the red carpet. Follow him on Twitter @TheHuve

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Scott Huver