Hayley Atwell - Film - Brideshead Revisited

• Interviews 1 (alternate link here)|2
  
  
• Quotes from reviews:
  
  afrotoronto.com
  "...very well performed from the likes of Goode, Atwell and Thompson..."
  
  Leonard Link
  "...I was much taken with Matthew Goode as Charles Ryder, Ben Whishaw as Sebastian Flyte, and Hayley Atwell as Sebastian's sister, Julia..."
  
  
• This is what Hayley has said about the rumours that Miramax had asked her to lose weight for the film (from philly.com):
  
  

  All's well that's Atwell
  
  British actress Hayley Atwell stopped in Philadelphia to talk with Daily News movie critic Gary Thompson about "Brideshead Revisited" (opening today) and to talk down rumors that Miramax asked her to lose weight for the role.
  
  "That was a misquote," said the actress, of reports that co-star Emma Thompson threatened to quit if producers stuck to a demand that Hayley trim a few pounds.
  
  Thompson's close inspection of Atwell's curves indicated no need to lose weight, a fact confirmed by the dozens of heads that turned to watch the shapely star traverse the Swann Lounge at the Four Seasons Hotel.
  
  Atwell, who debuted in Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream," said the weight-loss stories probably grew out of on-set efforts to help her fit into the period garb necessary to play Julia Flyte in "Brideshead," set in the 1930s and '40s.
  
  "They had to tape my boobs down," she said. "That was the look back then. Very long lines, slim profiles. The reason women used cigarette holders was to elongate their arms. That was the look we were going for."
  
  Allen, needless to say, placed no such restrictions on Atwell, cast in "Dream" as the object of desire who moves Ewan McGregor to murder. The role was a big break for the stage-trained Atwell (to be seen in the upcoming "The Duchess"), although the audition process was brutal.
  
  "Coming from a theater background, I like to do as much preparation for a role as possible, so you can be as relaxed and as confident as you can be, knowing you have stuff to draw from. I show up at the audition, along with every bloody actress in London, and they gave us nothing. No name, no synopsis, just five lines of dialogue. It was horrendous. I came away thinking, if this is what Hollywood is like, I'm going back to theater. I don't even smoke, but I went out and bought a pack of cigarettes straight away," Atwell said.
  
  She was stunned when her agent called a few weeks later, saying Allen wanted to meet her in New York.
  
  "I flew over, spoke with him for half an hour, and got the part."
  
  A decision seconded by the Swann lounge.

Tags: Hayley Atwell, Brideshead Revisited, film, movie, adaptation, Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Emma Thompson, Charles Ryder, Sebastian Flyte, Julia Flyte