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MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

MARVEL'S AGENT CARTER: HAYLEY ATWELL

The Continuum continues its preview of Marvel's Agent Carter -- premiering Tuesday, Jan. 6 on ABC -- with comments from Hayley Atwell, who stars as Peggy Carter.

On how viewers are introduced to her character:

Atwell: We find her in 1946, a year after the end of the first Captain America movie is set. So we know that she's lost Steve, and she finds herself working at the SSR. It's a position that is one that she wants, but she's not used to the full extent of her abilities. So we've got the backdrop of gender roles and the politics involved in an environment like that, in a male dominated world for her. So she's very frustrated. She's not doing what she set out to do. She's nowhere near fulfilling her destiny. And we see the frustrations of what that means to her and her fight to be taken seriously.

On the struggles Agent Carter faces:

Atwell:What happens in the office that makes Peggy not really be able to fill her potential is that she's been doing things like very basic administration and lunch orders. And every time a mission comes into the office, it goes to the men first of all. And she's constantly reminded that as a woman, and as Captain America's old flame, her talents are no longer needed here. And, in fact, that she doesn't have a place here. And so she has to fight undercover within the undercover of the role that she finds herself in, kind of as a double agent. She's pretending that she works in a telephone company to the outside world when in fact she's working for the SSR. But, within the SSR, she's having to go on secret missions herself because they're not giving her what she is capable of doing.

On why her character has to clear Howard Stark's name:

Atwell:Howard is kind of under surveillance because certain number of his secret weapons have been on the black market and have been sold to enemies of the U.S. government. And, in that respect, the SSR believe that Howard therefore is on the wrong side and they believe that he is purposely selling these weapons to the wrong people. So they want him to answer some questions. Howard, being Howard, doesn't cooperate and goes on the run. So he's on the run from the government. That's something that on the surface of it, Peggy Carter's going to have to go and find Howard. But on the underground, she's actually being asked by Howard to find out the real people who have stolen his weapons and to be selling them to the wrong people. So she's having to protect him as well as protect herself from the SSR knowing that she's actually on Howard's side.

On Edwin Jarvis:

Atwell: Edwin Jarvis is Howard Stark's butler and he is kind of enlisted as Peggy's right-hand man and assistant, or sidekick, I suppose. He's the only one that knows that she's working undercover for Howard. And he's a very witty character. There's a great banter between them. They both are English, so they have a shared sense of humor and a shared kind of similar military background. And so they have a rapport that I think Peggy has lacked from other people she's been working with in the office. So it's the first person, apart from Howard, that she finds that she can really move forward in her work.

On why this show will appeal to audiences:

Atwell: I think what makes this appealing to kind of the wider audience, those people who not are not familiar with the Marvel Universe, is that's she's a very relatable character. She lives in the real world. She doesn't have any super powers. She does come across lots of very difficult boundaries and challenges, one of them being the woman in a male-dominated environment of this time. But also someone who is trying to prove herself again and again to the people around her who don't think she is capable.

She has an intelligence about her and a capability and a skillset that's very impressive, yet this season and why I love it so much, is we get to see the emotional and psychological cost of her character, someone is having to live a double life.













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