MovieChat Forums > Hayley Atwell Discussion > Hollywood Reporter Coverage of Hayley At...

Hollywood Reporter Coverage of Hayley Atwell and Conviction


OCTOBER 03, 2016 9:45am PT by Craig Tomashoff
'Agent Carter's' Hayley Atwell Prepares for a Different Kind of Battle on ABC's 'Conviction'

The actress opens up about what brought her to the legal drama and the future of her beloved Marvel character, Peggy Carter.

During her time as Peggy Carter in the Captain America movies and on the ABC series Agent Carter, Hayley Atwell was often the one person in any battle who had to fight using her wits rather than the super-strength, flying and flame-throwing favored by others in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Given that, it’s kind of ironic that nowadays Atwell is surrounded by normal people and yet has finally discovered her own superpower: her accent.

“Having a British accent in America is certainly a good route to better customer service,” admits the 34-year-old London native, with an accent that would make Mary Poppins sound like a Teamster. “I’ve noticed that people are actually friendlier with me when they hear my accent. But I haven’t taken advantage of that — yet.”

Unlike her Peggy Carter character, Atwell won't be able to employ this particular secret weapon for her latest onscreen role. In the new ABC drama Conviction, premiering Monday, Atwell stars as Hayes Morrison, an American attorney famous for being the scandal-prone daughter of a former U.S. president (her father) and a candidate for U.S. Senate (her mother).

The actress admits that transitioning to the less exotic way of speaking has been a bit of a challenge. Atwell says she “wanted to be more specific with Hayes and how she sounds.” That meant a heaping helping of a California accent, in part because she has grown up learning America dialect from shows and films set in California.

However, because of Hayes' privileged background, Atwell also wanted to avoid giving her “that high-pitched register some women like to use because it sounds like a little girl’s voice.” She admits she’s slowly learning how to sound less British, but “it’s one thing to do it well in a rehearsal room and another to know the camera is broadcasting your voice to millions of people who might find it insulting.”

Her new character may not have the voice or the ass-kicking skills of Peggy Carter, but that was a big part of why the role was so appealing to her.

“She’s very different from me and from Peggy,” explains Atwell. “I’m personally more of a people pleaser than Hayes and that’s why I enjoy her. It’s something new. And I love that she is violent in her own way, not in the same way as Peggy. There’s a lot of mental punching going on with her, as opposed to actual punching. She uses her wits and intelligence to fight in the courtroom.”

Atwell signed on for Conviction while still starring on Agent Carter, which was then in the midst of its low-rated second season, also on ABC. Although the show was canceled and Captain America: Civil War references Peggy Carter's death, Atwell says the question she gets asked most is whether or not Peggy will be seen again. Having been apart of the Marvel universe for several years now, the actress is ready with a cryptic answer. “Marvel is very aware of the interest in her, and I’d jump at the chance to play her again," she says.

For now, though, it’s all about Conviction. Every week, Hayes and her tight-knit team of young lawyers and investigators dig into a criminal conviction that resulted in an innocent person being sent to jail. This allows the show some latitude to react to what’s in the actual news — a future episode revolves around the “Black Lives Matter” movement — whether it’s directly or indirectly ripped from the headlines. To make sure she got the part of a hard-charging attorney down right, Atwell spent time in Kansas City observing the courtroom of a friend of hers.

“My best friend is a lawyer in Kansas City and so it was natural to spend some time with her,” the actress explains. “She’s a prosecutor and watching her do her thing in the courtroom was amazing because of the level of performance required for that. I watched her take on the role of ‘Lawyer’ and present a case to the judge and jury, and her process was similar to what an actor does. Only with real stakes.”

Atwell is feeling pretty confident these days that Conviction is finding a similar intensity. “We can’t rest on our laurels. Hayes’ team wants cases that push the envelope for the viewers," she says. "I couldn’t have done a formulaic legal drama where they heroically win a new case each week.”

Likewise, Atwell is constantly trying to push herself when she’s not on camera. After all, this is a woman who spent three months taking an online course in haiku while shooting Captain America: The First Avenger. With all the downtime that exists on a movie set, Atwell wanted to keep from “twiddling my thumbs. And I loved English and philosophy in school, along with poetry.” She studied on her laptop whenever she could, and the experience taught her “how to think and analyze language. I love reading and now rather than just get caught up in the imagery of the story, I am getting caught up wondering why the writer tried alliteration in that sentence.”

As seriously as she takes her work, though, Atwell also had a more superficial desire in mind when she signed on to Conviction. After two years as a 1940s secret agent, she wanted to do something with a more modern (and comfortable) wardrobe. Hayes is much more comfortable in her designer dresses, and that suits Atwell just fine. The goal, she says, is to play someone “who lives in the corporate world, but isn’t a plain black pantsuit type. She’s in the public eye, so she has a good fashion sense.”

After all, Atwell has already proved she doesn't need a cape to kick butt.

Conviction airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/conviction-hayley-atwell-peggy-carter-934622


--------

OCTOBER 03, 2016 5:00am PT by Lesley Goldberg
Read the Letter That Convinced Hayley Atwell to Do ABC's 'Conviction' (Exclusive)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/conviction-hayley-atwell-pitch-letter-925052

Showrunner Liz Friedman's personal note is a great example of the lengths to which networks will go to in order to sign top talent in the 'Peak TV' era.

The competition for top talent in the so-called 'Peak TV' era is fierce.

With more than 400 scripted originals currently in the works (and that number likely to grow to 500 in the coming years), broadcast, cable networks and streaming outlets alike are going to great lengths to lure name talent to their projects in a bid to help cut through the cluttered marketplace.

With 80-some-odd pilots all shooting in the same time frame, many actors receive multiple offers all at once — including for straight-to-series Netflix shows as well as off-cycle cable fare — and many networks and producers are going to great lengths to draw stars to their passion projects. Such was the case with ABC's Conviction and leading lady Hayley Atwell.

Conviction tells the story of Hayes Morrison (Atwell), the brilliant but ne'er-do-well daughter of a former president, who is blackmailed into taking a job as the head of Los Angeles' newly created Conviction Integrity Unit. She, along with her team of lawyers, investigators and forensic experts, work together to examine cases where there's credible suspicion that the wrong person may have been convicted of a crime. (The character was originally named Carter, but changed to avoid confusion with Atwell's former Agent Carter character, Peggy Carter.)

"We knew it was likely that Agent Carter was going away and ABC asked if we could see Hayley Atwell as Hayes," showrunner Liz Friedman tells THR. "After I was done doing backflips, I said yes. And ABC asked us to write her a love letter. I said yes, and I'd mean every word of it. I still have the letter."

Dear Hayley,

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Conviction, the pilot that Liz Friedlander and I created for ABC. This show is passion project for me, the culmination of everything I’ve written up to now, allowing me to draw on my experience working on House, M.D.,as well as launching Orange Is the New Black and Jessica Jones.

Conviction is set in the world of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit, a group established to look into claims of wrongful incarceration. As the popularity of Serial and Making a Murderer demonstrate, stories of wrongful conviction couldn’t be more in the zeitgeist right now. As you’ll see in the pilot, Conviction offers a way to tell twisty mysteries that defy expectations and explore our society’s increasingly conflicted feelings about law enforcement.

But at its heart, Conviction is much more than a procedural. It’s the story of Carter Morrison. This deeply complicated character is the reason that I truly, madly, deeply love this show.

Carter is a former first daughter, having spent a good part of her childhood in the White House. She’s a brilliant lawyer … and a rebel, a button-pusher, a rule-breaker. She’s kicked ass as a high-profile defense attorney and a professor at the elite Stanford Law ... only to sabotage her success at both places with bad behavior. Carter is uncomfortable with all the privilege afforded her because of her pedigree … not that she won’t use it when it benefits her. Her wit is razor-sharp, her *beep* detector fine-tuned, she is sexy as all get out, but underneath all that she’s lost. Looking for a sense of purpose. Not that she’d ever admit it …

And you simply have to play her.

I am a huge fan of your work and have been ever since Captain America. I love what you’ve done with Peggy on Agent Carter. You are the rare actor with the ability and craft to portray our Carter’s smarts, strength and snark, without losing the vulnerability underneath.

Bottom line: you are the secret sauce that this show needs. Please come breathe life into this woman, so that everyone can fall as in love with Carter as I already have. (Despite my therapist’s warnings to steer clear of her.)

Me, Liz Friedlander and the whole team (Mark Gordon, Nick Pepper and everyone at ABC) are passionate about you playing this part. We’d love to sit down with you and discuss the character and where we see her going from here.

Sincerely,

Liz Friedman

Conviction premieres Monday, Oct. 3 at 10 p.m. on ABC.

CONVICTION





reply