Before meeting Hayley Atwell, I am shown to an empty dressing room down the corridor from where she is rehearsing in London for her upcoming role as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare’s comic tale of love and deception. The room is empty save for a jug of water, some makeup and hairdressing equipment and, on the floor, a wonderfully garish pair of red patent leather platform shoes.
Atwell will be wearing them as Beatrice, who she plays opposite Tom Hiddleston’s Benedick. “They’re my dancing shoes,” she says when she arrives. “Every morning at 11 the shoes go on and we dance [as part of rehearsal for the show]. It’s expressive, it’s modern but not at all gimmicky.” It turns out dancing in front of an audience is a first for her. Is she out of her comfort zone? “Actually no. The giddy freeness of it is more in keeping with who I am. It’s certainly not like the period dramas I’ve done, or all the serious stuff. People tell me all the time: ‘You’re so much funnier than I realised.’ I suppose it’s nice when people underestimate you in that way because it doesn’t take much to impress them.”
