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As we chat, it becomes apparent that maybe only one of her previous projects annoys her a little, the recent remake of cult hit The Prisoner. In a previous interview, before the series was aired, her co-star Ruth Wilson had expressed reservations about the filming process. Atwell agrees it was “a mess”. On paper it promised much, but never lived up to that potential. It did, however, give her a chance to party with Ian McKellen, go on safari, swim with sharks and meet Wilson, who she now describes as “one of my best friends in the industry”.
Wilson – who beat her The Prisoner co-star to the Olivier Award last year but dedicated half of it to her friend in her acceptance speech – and Atwell are at the vanguard of a group of British actresses who emerged into the profession around half a decade ago. “It was a very strong thing that happened five years ago,” Atwell says. “Strong women coming out [of drama school] and going ‘We can be these stars. We can do these movies. We’re good enough to be on the stage. We’re smart enough to have something to say and we have talent.’ I think we inspire each other.” (X)
I love this because:
a) She admits The Prisoner was ridiculous.
b) Ruth dedicated her Olivier Award to Hayley in her acceptance speech. Oh god…YOUR PERFECT FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!
This was my face while watching The Prisoner, except her face is 1000000x better than my face. And you should watch The Prisoner for her face. Urgh, her face.
313 and her sad pout. This scene killed me. Her heart breaks in a million pieces. I meant to post this days ago, but it fell through a crack in the universe.
One of the best things about The Prisoner was seeing Hayley Atwell and Ruth Wilson in the same project. It is a shame they didn’t share any scenes together where they actually interacted. I have seen lots of photos of them together at various events. I don’t know if they are friends or if they just attend the same parties. At any rate, it is adorable. I name their friendship, “The Eyebrows and The Dimples.”
The Prisoner
Beautifully shot. Wonderfully acted. Thematically engaging. Yet, still kind of terrible. I would like this miniseries to be shown to aspiring screenwriters as a cautionary tale, just because you make things purposeful confusing and oblique does NOT make your material somehow deeper and more profound. I really LOVE aspects of this series and it touches on some interesting ideas, but this was like having a six hour conversation about a topic you like, but your conversation partner wants to talk about it in the most overly elaborate way possible and ends up saying nothing interesting about the topic anyway. I did finally figure out what was happening, narrative-wise, but by then, I was five hours in and I just wanted the Village to implode.
But who cares about all that. RUTH WILSON IN A WHITE SUIT. Her emotive, pouty mouth and her sad eyes. LOOK AT THEM. Her self-sacrifice at the end of this is one of my favorite “throwing yourself on a grenade” moments. Never mind that Ian McKellan’s character actually kills himself with a grenade… yeah, it was that kind of series.
The Prisoner - Checkmate
Of course the creepiest, most effective scene of the entire miniseries was Ruth Wilson staring into a mirror. I love that 313 looks so innocent and gentle while Sarah looks aggressive and completely frightening.
