Hayley Atwell has been a part of many films and projects. Her upcoming project is Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and will probably star in future installments of the franchise as well. Other than this, she has been a part of the MCU in projects like Avengers: Endgame and Captain America: The First Avenger among others.
As such, she is well aware of how the film industry operates. However, she isn’t happy with the kind of titillation most films demand of their actresses and female characters. The actress feels that even when there’s no need of having a n*de scene, many writers and directors forcibly add it just to please their male audience.
Hayley Atwell Isn’t Comfortable With Unnecessary Stripping In Films
In a Comic-Con panel, Hayley Atwell was asked what dialogues she felt her character wouldn’t say. However, instead of addressing the question, she decided to talk about a much more pressing issue. The actress revealed how ridiculous it was that female characters had to be unnecessarily n*ked on screen.
Atwell said:
“It’s not so much things [my character] wouldn’t say. It often involves me just going, ‘I don’t think she would be naked in this scene. There’s no need for that. I’m not doing it just to fulfill your weird little fantasy.’”
Plenty of women in Hollywood have complained of the same issue. It’s understandable if s*x scenes or n*de scenes are written to advance characters, relationships, or plots. However, often scenes involving n*dity, especially female ones, are just written to titillate audiences. Apart from this issue, Atwell has also talked about the subtle ways modern misogyny is perpetuated.
Hayley Atwell Called Out The Subtle Forms Of Misogyny In Today’s Society
Before becoming Captain Carter, Hayley Atwell was Agent Carter. The character was seen first in Captain America: The First Avenger and then she went on to have her own show- Agent Carter. While the show didn’t run for long, it did highlight the kind of surface-level and in-your-face misogyny that was prevalent back in the 1940s. The actress said about this:
“It was more on the surface. So now looking back on it we can identify moments of misogyny or sexism. We can see them happening.”
However, that kind of sexism has mostly been eradicated from society. Instead, it has been replaced with something more sinister and covert. Hayley Atwell said:
“Like, if a woman is in a high position, she finds herself being called a b*tch or accused of being difficult. I think it’s much harder these days to identify moments of sexism because they just have very sophisticated ways of hiding themselves.”
While there are still inroads to be made in dismantling the kind of subtle sexism that’s perpetuated against women in media, we have come a long way in establishing equality. As for Hayley Atwell, it doesn’t look like her character will be subjected to the things she objects to in Tom Cruise‘s Mission: Impossible 7.
Mission: Impossible 7 will be released on 12 July 2023.
Source: E Online
