Hayley Atwell Quotations

My real self, the self I have always been from a child, is a loner and nerd, slightly overweight, with a very heavy fringe. That is who I was as a kid. I don't think I will ever be anything other than that.

I like characters who have faults. I'm drawn to darker people.

I don't think I'm curvaceous. It's simply that most other actresses are really, stupidly tiny.

I love firing guns. It's an amazing feeling - so sexy and powerful.

I think Brits probably feel that Americans are more like us than vice-versa, if that makes sense. Because we get everything American over here in Britain, but yet there are things which are staunchly English that you guys don't have.

Documenting trips makes them that much richer. I stick in train tickets and business cards from restaurants. It makes the whole experience poetic, describing the sights, smells and sounds around me. It means I can relive the holiday years later.

I can't imagine it if beauty was the only currency I used as an actress. It just doesn't interest me.

Mum wasn't at all religious, but she thought that going to the theatre was as important a ceremonial, communal experience that a person could have.

It's people's worst fantasy to see their partner kissing someone else, even though it's a job and it's not real.

From a very young age, stories fuelled my imagination in the most wonderful way.

I am often lost in my own world, with a frown on my face.

I think it's always easier to play parts that you have something concrete that you can relate to.

I'm not really into makeup, not really into fuffing with hair and stuff.

I'd love to do an action movie. Something with lots of stunts. Anything fast and dangerous and involving guns.

The things that prey on my mind in London seem to disappear as soon as I find myself in a different environment. Survival mode kicks in.

Although I grew up in London, I spent summers in Missouri, where my dad lived. It's quite a liberal town, Kansas City. You'd be surprised.

I read a lot of heavy literature when I'm on set, so on holiday I want to indulge in something light-hearted.

I'm deeply ambitious and I always have been.

My first job was a Greek tragedy, and ever since, one job just seemed to roll onto the next. I've been terribly lucky.

The main reason I did 'Captain America' was because I wanted to get out of my own head and stop taking my work so seriously.

Because I trained in theater, I always leave a film shoot feeling like I haven't done anything, like I just sat in front of the camera and whispered, essentially.

I have family dotted everywhere - Dad's in California; I've got aunts in Scotland and Virginia; family in Kansas City; family in Manchester and London.

I think American guys tend to be a bit more forward, a bit more chatty and open than the Brits. The Brits seem to have a darker sense of humor, though I have met some Americans who have adopted bits of the British dry sense of humor as well.

I went to drama school for three years, and the whole thing there is that hopefully you are introduced to a man called William Shakespeare who is the greatest of all time of all storytelling.

Skiing in Whistler was great fun. It's an extreme environment that's very different to my own and I had never skied before, so I had to learn to take on the elements quite bravely. It was nice to try something new.

When actors get a bad name for diva behavior - I've never seen it. Because my experience with people who are really famous actors is that they work really hard.

I've had that experience of not liking people very much, but having tremendous respect for them.

The art of conversation consist as much in listening politely, as in talking agreeably.