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Captain America Starlet: I Got Shot, "Turned Green and Threw Up!"

British beauty Hayley Atwell reveals the not so pleasant times making the superhero movie with Chris Evans

By Marc Malkin Oct 26, 2011 1:45 PMTags
Captain AmericaJay Maidment / Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures

It wasn't only Chris Evans who had to work out like a fiend for his starring role in Captain America.

His leading lady, Hayley Atwell, was also put through the ringer.

I'm talking about an ex-Marine who pushed her so far that...well, I'll let Atwell tell ya.

"I turned green and threw up and I had to go straight to bed after my first session," says Atwell, 29, who costarred as Peggy Carter in comic book superhero flick (now out on DVD and Blu-ray). "I'm serious! I pushed myself and I just wanted to impress the trainer and not have him think that I was so kind of weak actress who was too scared to do any of this stuff...[But] I couldn't move for three days."

Her newly gained strength and toughness came in handy during filming. "A blank shell hit my on the side of the head," Atwell remembered. "I got a little bit too close to Richard Armitage, who plays Kruger, and his gun so when he fired it, I got hit in the head. It was quite painful."

Not so painful? Getting to feel up Mr. Evans in the scene where we first see his ridiculously muscled-up Captain America bod. "I had to grab his chest," Atwell said. "I think it was only fair. It's what most women and gay men on the planet would've wanted to do had they been in my position so I felt it was only right."

And here's a fun fact for you: Evans likes to play—ready for this?—charades. "He's so good at it which really annoyed me," Atwell said. "I'm competitive, so we played quite a bit."