Hayley Atwell discloses ‘mad’ method to quell unwanted male attention in clubs

‘It’s crazy that women have to feel unsafe just dancing,’ said star

Hayley Atwell has opened up about the “mad” method she used to use to ease off unwanted male attention in nightclubs.

The actor, 41, who is starring opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, revealed her tactic on the latest episode of The Independent’s Love Lives interview series.

“When I was clubbing, I’d often like to go to gay clubs because I could dance freely and just feel much safer,” she told host Olivia Petter.

“But I remember, when I was in clubs, men would come up to me and I felt that they were quite adamant or aggressive on the dancefloor with me. It’s crazy that women have to feel unsafe just dancing. I had this real fear that if I offended the guy, that would make him angry.”

She continued: “But if you do something a bit mad, they back down. And so I used to do really ugly, intense dancing at them that was totally out of rhythm, and almost like I was manically into them. And it would last like 10 seconds before they usually backed down.”

Atwell is starring as a criminal called Grace alongside Tom Cruise’s IMF agent Ethan Hunt in the new instalment of the action franchise, as the team track down a weapon that threatens humanity.

In the Love Lives interview, Atwell also discussed how she collaborated with Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie to build her character, as well as stunt and combat training, and the barriers facing women in Hollywood.

The movie was awarded four stars by The Independent’s critic Clarisse Loughrey, who wrote that Atwell’s character is “a master thief who’s also, somehow, the closest the franchise has ever been to a bumbling Hugh Grant-type”.

Read The Independent’s review in full here.

Reviews for Dead Reckoning Part One have been glowing, with its score on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes currently sitting at 98 per cent after 112 reviews.

The film is set to have the biggest opening weekend for a Mission: Impossible film to date, with box office tracking predicting $90m (£70.7m)

Atwell and Cruise in ‘Mission Impossible’ (© 2023 Paramount Pictures.)

The film series is adapted from the classic TV series, which began in 1996 and ran until 1990.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which also stars Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Vanessa Kirby, is out on 10 July.

Watch the full interview with Atwell here.