Hayley Atwell: 'I've always felt quite genderless. Which is odd, because I have big boobs' | London Evening Standard

Her parents split when she was two: her father returned to the US and Atwell grew up with her mother, like ‘two best friends’, in Ladbroke Grove. ‘I don’t remember them being together. If I’d been going through puberty, it would have shaken my whole foundation.’ Her father is a sensitive, empathetic man with Tom Selleck looks, whom she idolised. She has fond memories of Kansas City, where she’d stay with him in school holidays: ‘The smell of the air, the hummingbirds, lightning bugs, eating hot dogs, fancying Todd, the local totty.’ When Grant came to visit his daughter in London, he sometimes left his best suit hanging in her wardrobe as a promise of his return. ‘So I would see the outline of a man watching over me.’ Her home life was loving, if unconventional. Her mother has ticked her off in the past for presenting her as too ‘patchouli and hemp’. ‘Because I’ve said she used to be a bit, “F*** off, I’m meditating.” She’s like, “I didn’t say that!” And I’m like, “Well...” ’