From Hollywood blockbusters to West end hits, there’s nothing the actor can’t conquer
Hayley Atwell is in her backstage quarters at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where she’s starring in Much Ado About Nothing with Tom Hiddleston. With a bed, mini-kitchen and anteroom, it feels more like a Claridge’s suite. It’s a world away from the ‘tiny cabin’ aboard a boat in the Arctic that she stayed in while filming Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (out in May). ‘We filmed in Svalbard,’ she explains. ‘It looked like a massive industrial fishing boat.’
For her second outing as thief-turnedagent Grace in Tom Cruise’s blockbuster franchise, as well as training to spot frostbite, there was a constant security patrol against polar bears. ‘They’re the only species that will kill not just for food, or out of self-defence, but for fun,’ Atwell tells me. ‘Svalbard is a place where it was impossible to shoot. That’s why we went there, because it’s Mission: Impossible, not mission a bit difficult.’…