HAYLEY’S COMET

Spotlight

Hayley Atwell, the only child of an English mother and an American father, grew up near London's West End and never considered being anything but an actress. "I couldn't fathom why anyone in the world wouldn't want to explore storytelling," she says. "It's at the root of every community, every family, every culture." Atwell graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama five years ago and hasn't stopped working since. In 2007, when she was 25, she made her screen debut in Cassandra's Dream, directed by Woody Allen. The following year audiences saw her as Julia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited, and as Bess Foster, Keira Knightley's arch-frenemy, in The Duchess. This month she gets into period costume again for Starz/Encore's mini-series The Pillars of the Earth, based on the 1989 novel by Ken Follett, which has sold 7.5 million copies worldwide. It is set in the 12th century, during the so-called Anarchy period, when England had no heir to the throne. Atwell plays Aliena, a beauteous noblewoman whose world unravels in the turmoil. "Aliena is such a better person than me in so many ways," says Atwell. "I thought I'd like to spend four and a half months with someone like that and learn a little bit about selflessness from her." She will appear next in Marvel Studios' Captain America, in the role of Peggy Carter, the title character's Mata Hari girlfriend, for which she is currently immersed in a rigorous training-and-diet regime. "No chocolate, no wine—that's true suffering in my heart."

KRISTA SMITH

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